Playwrights Bekah Brunstetter, Bruce Graham, David Henry Hwang, John Guare and Neil LaBute have joined forces, each contributing a one-act play to this year's annual Power Plays short play festival by Theater Breaking Through Barriers (TBTB). TBTB commissions works "dedicated to advancing artists with disabilities and changing the image of people with disabilities from dependence to independence."
As Broadway theaters take steps to improve accessibility for audience members with disabilities, TBTB continues its mission to integrate artists with disabilities into its stage productions. The New York Post wrote of last year's festival: "As thought-provoking as they are amusing, the best pieces in this fast-paced program succeed at what the company hopes to do: make us look at the disabled with fresh eyes."
The ensemble integrates able-bodied actors and actors with disabilities, and includes Melanie Boland, Anita Hollander, Samantha Debicki, Anne Marie Morelli, Pamela Sabaugh, Nicholas Viselli and David Rosar Stearns.
Combined, the five playwrights are four-time Pulitzer Prize finalists, and have received Tony, Olivier, Peabody, OBIE, Drama Desk and Independent Spirit Awards as well as an Oscar nomination. Past editions of Power Plays have included works by A.R. Gurney, Samuel D. Hunter, Jerrod Bogard and Lynn Manning.
Neil LaBute (Fat Pig) and Bekah Brunstetter (Be a Good Little Widow) have contributed to the Power Play festival for all four of its years. This time around, infidelity energizes LaBute's I Dare You, while Brunstetter's Murder revolves around jealousy spoiling a reunion of old friends. Bruce Graham, another past contributor, pitches in The Happy F&*#@!g Blind Guy, about a blind grocery clerk accused of knowing too much about his customers – and of just being too happy.
Tony and Olivier winner John Guare (House of Blue Leaves, Six Degrees of Separation) is writing for Power Plays for the first time. In his Between, two women atone for past aggressions in a restaurant. David Henry Hwang (Tony winner for M. Butterfly) contributes Underground, inspired by a true story about getting stuck in the Times Square subway station in a wheelchair.
TBTB's mission statement includes a bit of history: "We have always been and will always be an integrated company. We started as Theater By The Blind, integrating able-bodied, low vision and blind actors and writers. In 2008 we expanded our mission to include artists with all physical disabilities. We believe that through artistic excellence and the development of role models we can make our claim at last for full inclusion of people with disabilities in our society."
