I just received word that my new play After an Earlier Incident has been named a semifinalist in the B Street Theatre's 2026 New Comedies Festival in Sacramento.
The theatre is scheduled to select four finalists by June 2nd. Chosen plays will receive readings July 12th through 19th, and at least one of those plays will be fully produced for the theatre's upcoming season.
In March, I previously announced that After an Earlier Incident had advanced to Round 2 of B Street Theatre's process. Last year, my play The Love Songs of Brooklynites made it to the semifinals, but unfortunately was not invited out for the New Comedies Festival.
The first scene of After an Earlier Incident had a workshop at Theatre of Western Springs outside of Chicago. I continued to develop the piece with Caryn Osofsky and Nick Walthers, two actors I met through the American Renaissance Theater Company (ARTC), and they performed a public reading of the full play in December at Theater for the New City.
In the play, a recently widowed woman meets a perpetually awkward man for their first date, only to discover that they both have more baggage than they are willing to admit. The play asks how two people can relate to one another when the technology we use to communicate keeps getting in the way, and how we can move forward with life even when a recent death remains ever present. It's a comedy about trying to live and love when tragedy lies just below the surface.
Perhaps this July the people of Sacramento will get a chance to hear this piece, which is very near and dear to my heart.
