BPF Announces Free Fall Baltimore Offering

Welcome to October.  The time of the year when the leaves start turning, the weather becomes more reasonable and the Free Fall Baltimore program allows local theater companies to bring works from local playwrights to you, our community, for the best price – free!

 Come join Baltimore Playwrights Festival (www.baltplayfest.org) for an exciting night of theater as we present CURTAIN UP – SCENES FROM NEW PLAYS on Sunday, October 29, 7 p.m. at Spotlighters Theatre, 817 Saint Paul Street, Baltimore, MD 21202.

What do we have for your viewing pleasure?  You will experience the thrill of seeing new works by area playwrights in eight, well-crafted excerpts from their submissions to the BPF, including performances about:

  • A family that undergoes a hilarious family cooking lesson
  • Two former lovers who meet after many years
  • Thomas Edison singing a song
  • A writer who bravely steps on to the stage to show her own work
  • And more!

These engaging scenes will be presented by directors and actors in a book-in- hand staged reading format, with some movement, lighting, props and costuming.  You will have a chance to meet the playwrights and actors during a reception following the performance.

his year our participating playwrights and their submissions are:

  • Broken by the Bay by Kevin Kostic
  • Gen Xers Move into a Retirement Community by Helen Cheng Mao
  • Just Breathe by Danae Henry
  • My Curiosity, An American Genius Reinvented by John Pesaniello
  • The Cooking Lesson by Vasi Johnson
  • The Interrogator by Russell Leigh Sharman
  • Virus by Luiz Paulo Ribeiro de Carvalho
  • Winter by Mark Scharf

Free tickets can be reserved at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/curtain-up-scenes-from-new-plays-tickets-726023264127.

Free Fall Baltimore is a program of The Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts, (https://freefallbaltimore.org). Free Fall is made possible with the generous support of The Maryland State Arts Council (MSAC)  and ATAPCO Properties.  BPF would especially like to thank Spotlighters Theatre for helping to make this event possible.

BPF Celebrates Board Librarian’s World Premier Production

Jack L.B. Gohn, BPF Librarian and local playwright, will have his work What Was Done receive its premier staging at Baltimore’s Spotlighters Theatre.  The play is directed by Barry Feinstein.

 An anomaly in the land records draws historian Deirdre Kelton deep into what was really done in a 1933 Maryland lynching, and why. What she discovers will raise disquieting conflicts in Deirdre’s own extended biracial family. Characters must make momentous decisions that may tear them apart, as they confront a racial history that started in slavery and has never stopped playing itself out.

A reader who evaluated the play for the Baltimore Playwrights Festival started their comments with: “Wow, just wow.”

See for yourself at Spotlighters, 817 St. Paul Street in Baltimore. Performances are July 14 – July 23, 2023.  Friday & Saturday at 8pm; Sunday at 2pm.

Tickets may be purchased at:  https://www.spotlighters.org/