The Plumbing Museum in Watertown.
The following information was provided by the Plumbing Museum:
The Plumbing Museum is excited to announce a two night comedy PlayFest this July inspired by historical publications and archival materials in the Plumbing Museum collection. The production is written, acted, and directed by Massachusetts residents. The playwrights are largely local to eastern Massachusetts, and most belong to Write On!, a playwriting group sponsored by Centastage that develops and produces new plays. The festival, representing a diversity of voices and comedy styles, will feature premiere performances of all of the pieces.
“We are thrilled to share this exciting lineup of theatre performances and create new museum-community partnerships while supporting professional playwrights” says Sasha Parfenova, Museum Program Manager.
Bringing in arts-integrated projects to the museum creates a perfect platform for community fostering. The Plumbing Museum has already established a track record of organizing arts related activities though exhibitions and special programming of the Manoog Family Artist Residency program piloted in 2016. The PlayFest will be an opportunity for new collaborations with a diverse group of performance artists and writers as well as community partners.
“One of the most exciting trends in theatre is the use of non-traditional venues, from bookstores and art galleries to restaurants and bars, plays are popping up all over. The Plumbing Museum exemplifies this trend” says Patti Cassidy, Co-Producer.
A $2,000 grant awarded by Watertown Community Foundation supports this project. Additional in-kind support was provided by UMass Boston and HATCH.
TICKETS
Admission is free, but space is limited! Please reserve your tickets online to guarantee admission: https://plumbing-museum-tickets.eventbrite.com
Free parking is available on site.
WHERE
The Plumbing Museum is located at 80 Rosedale Road, Watertown, MA 02472
WHEN
7/12: 7-8:15 p.m.
7/13: 7-8:15 p.m.
MORE ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHTS
John Minigan has developed new work with the Orlando Shakespeare Theater, New Repertory Theater, the New American Playwrights Project, and Actors’ Repertory Theatre of Vermont. His work has been included in the Best American Short Plays, Best Ten-Minute Plays, and New England New Plays anthologies. He was a 2014 finalist for the Heideman Award at the Actors’ Theatre of Louisville and a semifinalist for the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference in 2016 and 2018. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild. Please visit johnminigan.com
Brandon Crose’s short plays have appeared at various theatre festivals all over the world. Most notably, his social media comedy Going Viral was awarded “best play” at the 2014 Long Island City One Act Festival and appeared in the finals for both Short+Sweet Queensland and Hobart. In addition to writing short, usually comedic plays, Brandon also writes and produces the audio dramedy podcast The Ordinary Epic. Brandon holds degrees from Emerson College and Trinity College, Dublin, is the author of several nonfiction books, and can be found online at www.brandoncrose.com.
Margie Semilof is a Boston-based playwright. Her short plays have been produced at a variety of festivals, such as the Playwrights Platform in Boston, Hovey Players in Waltham, the Firehouse Center for the Arts, Newburyport, Mass., at the Greenbrier Valley Theatre New Voices Festival, Lewisburg, W.V., Theater East in New York and Image Theater’s Fem Noire in Lowell.
June Bowser-Barrett is a member of the Sandwich Arts Alliance and Playwright’s Platform, Boston. In 2009 and 2012, she appeared in the Image Theater’s (Lowell) City Stories Night with “Irish Spring” and “The Bad Dates Contest.” These plays were later expanded in to one-woman performance pieces. “Irish Spring” won the audience favorite award (2010) at the New England Fringe Festival in Burlington.
Patti Cassidy began writing plays on a dare in a small Mexican border town. Her first play performed to packed houses there for a weekend. From then on she was hooked. Her pieces have been produced from LA to Paris. She now lives and works in greater Boston where she writes regularly.
About the Plumbing Museum: Located in a renovated ice house in Watertown, MA, the American Sanitary Plumbing Museum is dedicated to the heritage of plumbing and the trades and is driven to educate generations, both young and old, while promoting innovative contemporary art and science as it reflects modern day industry and technology. The museum welcomes nearly a thousand visitors each year for tours and private events, and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal. For more information, visit: www.theplumbingmuseum.org.