LAVA’s 4th annual festival of new plays by local playwrights
This year’s festival included new and developmental works by thirteen Massachusetts-based playwrights. Explore the world of theater by experiencing new works coming to life every night in this festival of readings of new works in several stages of development. This year, a different play was performed every evening, ensuring a variety of captivating experiences for audiences, actors, and creatives.
PAST EVENTS
online access still available!
THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 6pm (5:30 doors)
Table Read Festival Kickoff
Playwrights presenting 15-minute slices of their work as table reads for targeted feedback
directed by Ash Goverman
starring Nathan Michael Turowsky, Gavin Mariani, Asa Rowan, Becca Mandel, Joanna Nix, Garrett Adamtsev, Joseph Wright, Christine Mirabal, Phoebe Hazzard, Mak Khan, Kate Hebert
“Dawn and Dorothy in the Afterlife” by Eva Schegulla
Dawn Powell and Dorothy Parker are stuck in the afterlife, meeting every day for lunch. They are frustrated as people they know pass through, headed elsewhere. But maybe, just maybe, there’s a way out.
“Lone Wolf” by Dan Takacs
When a lonely incel meets a charismatic pickup artist, he begins to learn the art of seduction, and the toxic ideology which underlies it. As he tries to pick up women, he becomes more and more confident, and more and more misogynistic. Finally, his only female friend rejects his advances, and he commits an act of horrifying violence.
“Death by Chocolate” by Jane Denitz Smith
A La-Z-Boy chair and a lethal chocolate cream pie. A prepubescent daughter with pyro tendencies. A wife and two brothers caught up in A game of cosmic pinball. And the deceased, who are very much around. This party’s just beginning.
about the playwrights
Eva Schegulla is a full-time writer, publishing in multiple names in fiction and nonfiction, and an internationally produced playwright and radio writer. She was a member of Toronto’s Nightwood Theatre Creatryx Unit and the Northern Berkshire Artist Capacity Building Program, is on WAM Theatre’s literary committee, is an association member of FutureLabs Gallery, and is a member of the Boiler House Poets Collective, in annual residence at The Studios at MASSMoCA.
Dan Takacs is a non-binary, neurodivergent, Jewish playwright, director, screenwriter, and public school drama teacher from Oberlin, Ohio. His original plays have been staged all over the USA, and he has taught and directed in Cleveland, Chicago, Denver, and Boston, where he earned his MFA in Theatre Education from Boston University. He lives with his wife and three kids in Cambridge, Massachussetts.
Jane Denitz Smith: I’m a Berkshires-based playwright and novelist whose work has been produced regionally, as well as in NYC, LA. and even Bogotá, Colombia! Last summer, I had the privilege of conducting a writing workshop in Rwanda, with Afghani girls whose school was evacuated in 2021, during the Taliban incursion; this extraordinary experience will find its way into a new play.
“more like you” by Foster Finch Schrader
Park and Callan are in love; everything else is secondary. But it’s getting harder and harder to ignore. Against the backdrop of a university production of The Winter’s Tale, Park struggles to process his past and Callan grapples with the guilt of keeping a secret. And they wonder… who deserves redemption? Who has the power to redeem? And what comes afterwards?
“The Walk” by Lionel Audette
When a young, fellow worker quits his factory job to follow a dream, two older workers discuss their personal philosophies about the risks of pursuing one’s dreams to find happiness.
“Over My Dead Body” by Richard Carmelo Ballon
Angelo, who cleans the church, begins to hear the statue of Mary talking to him, asking him to please take Jesus off the cross, and when he does all hell breaks loose.
about the playwrights
Foster Finch Schrader is a multimedia multi-hyphenate presently living primarily in the playwriting and poetry world. This one, and every other, is for Hạnh.
Lionel Audette: Born and raised in MA. Had many life experiences. Loves to share my insights.
Richard Ballon has an MFA in Playwriting/screenwriting from Lesley University and his plays have been in festivals in over twenty cities in the USA, Canada and the UK. His play Ava’s Escort was published in Smith and Krauss’ Best Ten Minute plays of 2025.
about the actors
Nathan Turowsky is a historian and writer living in Greenfield.
Gavin Mariani, from Montague, MA, is a BFA Acting student at Boston University. He is grateful and excited to participate in his first On the Boards festival at the LAVA Center!
Asa Rowan is a 25-year-old gender nonconforming performance artist, producer, and organizer with an affinity for radical tomfoolery!
Becca Mandel is excited to be back at On the Boards at The LAVA Center! They are a massage therapist, singer, and fiber artist living in Gill.
Joanna Nix is an actor, singer, and union researcher. They most recently appeared as Lady Catherine de Bourgh in Pride & Prejudice at Exit 7 Players, and on the streets of Northampton with their groovy new bicycle.
Garrett Adamtsev works as a TV production assistant and is excited to be returning to the stage after a two-year post-college hiatus! His past credits include leading roles in Boston University theatre group productions of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead, Glengarry Glen Ross, The 39 Steps, Anne of Green Gables, and Hand to God.
Joseph Wright has directed Chekhov’s short stories, HB Studio , New York. A reading of his play Red Helmet at Pulse Ensemble, New York., Acted in Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter, School of Visual Arts, New York.
Christine Mirabal is an improv actor and teacher at Happier Valley Comedy in Hadley. She also writes poetry, paints landscapes, and makes journals and other paper arts.
Phoebe Hazzard is happy to join the LAVA Center’s On the Boards Preview! She has performed locally with Amherst Community Theater, Ghostlight Theater, the GCC Theater Department, and the LAVA Center, and she spends her days as an elementary school reading and math teacher.
Mak Khan: I am a Worcester, MA, based actor trained in acting and improv at the Hanover Theater & Conservatory. My recent credits include two student films The Music The Misery (role Corporate Executive) and The Chappell College Sentinel (role Campus Security Head Officer) for BFA students directors at Boston University and Emerson College respectively. I am making my theater debut with Infinity Performing Arts, upcoming production, a William Shakespeare play, Twelfth Night as Antonio. I love tennis and golf!
Kate Hebert previously performed with LAVA during COVID when everything was remote. Filming in my basement was an experience!
FRIDAY, JUNE 5, 7pm (6:30 doors)
“A Rare Sight”
written by Jem O’Hara & directed by Lauren Stock
starring Kendra Corrie, Jim Merlin, Sandy Wang, Ryn Griffin
Strangers converge around a curiously abandoned landscaping truck while hiking in a state forest. How did it get there? Who would leave such a blemish on the landscape? Does anyone care?! The play explores the discomfort of being unable to do anything about glaring problems, the actions people take when put in these positions, and the abiding presence of the natural world.
about the artists
Jem O’Hara is a playwright and performer from Northampton, MA interested in the relationship between people and nature. When they’re not writing you can catch them goofin’ around onstage at Happier Valley Comedy or wandering through the forest.
Lauren Stock (she/her) is so happy to be making her Western Mass directing debut with the LAVA center after moving here this spring! She loves spending time outside hiking, soaking in the sun, and being as patient as possible with her avid-bird-watcher older brother.
Kendra Corrie is a professional, creative weirdo, in multiple disciplines, like stand-up comedy, acting, writing, fabric arts, and aggressively millennial graphic tee design. She loves you. Yes, you.
Jim Merlin: I am honored to be participating once again in the LAVA center’s play readings. The LAVA center provides such wonderful opportunities for local artists to share their talents to the community and I am so proud to be a part of this program.
Sandra Wang has participated in the LAVA Center’s summer play reading series the last three years and is delighted to return for a fourth!
Ryn Griffin lived in Costa Rica for 15 years before moving back to USA. UMASS Theatre Graduate, Mount Holyoke College Graduate, Actively involved in local theatre productions, and actively seeking dramatic and comedic film roles for Student and Professional Productions.
“Phoenix”
written by Jan Maher & directed by Liam Castellan
and starring Kendra Corrie & Jim Merlin
ALAN and JESS, sorting old photographs after their mother’s funeral, discover they hold some vastly different memories of relatives and family events, particularly in regard to JOE MAC, a friend of their parents whom they have not seen since they were children. The photos stir long-forgotten memories in JESS; ALAN’s response to her story cause each of them to re-evaluate themselves and each other.
about the artists
Jan Maher writes plays, fiction, and occasionally, poetry and essays. Her plays Most Dangerous Women, As We Were: Nine Days in October, and Ismene have all been produced at The LAVA Center. She is a lifetime member of the Dramatists Guild.
Liam Castellan is co-moderator of new play development group Berkshire Voices, a program of Great Barrington Public Theater. He’s directed in Illinois, Indiana, and the Philadelphia area, and most recently readings of “Greater Things” and several 10-minute plays for GBPT. Northwestern, MFA Indiana U Bloomington. www.liamcastellan.com
Kendra Corrie is a professional, creative weirdo, in multiple disciplines, like stand-up comedy, acting, writing, fabric arts, and aggressively millennial graphic tee design. She loves you. Yes, you.
Jim Merlin: I am honored to be participating once again in the LAVA center’s play readings. The LAVA center provides such wonderful opportunities for local artists to share their talents to the community and I am so proud to be a part of this program.
SATURDAY, JUNE 6, 7pm (6:30 doors)
“After the Whales Spoke”
written & directed by Molly Brennan
starring Ash Richardson-White, Foster Finch Schrader, Birdy Elliot, Drum Fernandez, Asa Rowan, Soe Noire, Nancy Brennan
MASKS REQUIRED and provided for the reading.
ACCESS TOOLS: captioning, audio description, space and content description here: /after-the-whales.mmm.page/
Street medics have found a solution to the problem of anti-abortion, anti-trans legislators in a post-plague world where some people received instructions from whales.
about the artists
Molly Brennan was in Chicago for 30 years working as an aea actor, theatre maker, Clown, acting teacher, activist, union organizer, disability access coordinator and diy venue co-producer. “After the Whales Spoke” is the 10th play she has written. monsterclowngirl.mmm.page
Foster Finch Schrader is a multimedia multi-hyphenate presently living primarily in the playwriting and poetry world. This one, and every other, is for Hạnh.
Capricorn sun, Aries rising, Cancer survivor: Birdy Elliot is a poet, lover, dyke, and devout amateur in a committed relationship with the bit.
Drum Fernandez is a multi disciplinary artist and musician currently based on Pocumtuc and Wabanki lands. After becoming disabled by covid in 2024, they have been slowly reengaging with their art practice and primarily making art that orbits their experience with disability.
Asa Rowan is a 25-year-old gender nonconforming performance artist, producer, and organizer with an affinity for radical tomfoolery!
SOE NOIRE is a Nigerian multidisciplinary artist, community organizer, and filmmaker based in Western Massachusetts. Through Afrofeminist worldbuilding and performance, Noire is passionate in creating radical third spaces and artwork that celebrate Black Queer identity, whimsy, and joy.
Nancy Brennan is a retired theatre educator and sometimes actor. Her favorite role was as one of the Weird Sisters in the Scottish Play.
FRIDAY, JUNE 12, 7pm (6:30 doors)
“Sidney Truant”
written by Vanessa Query & directed by Tracy Grammer
starring Helen Woods-Blake, Becca Mandel, Joanna Nix, Andrea CK, Ken von Geldern, Lara Terounzo
Sidney is a teenager who knows this typical suburban existence isn’t for her, but doesn’t quite know what IS for her. Jacky is a reclusive homesteader whose social life consists of selling their wares (wild edibles) to local farms. A mysterious young child brings these two misfits together. A buddy story that is also a philosophical look at our education, economic, and food systems.
about the artists
Vanessa Query is a director, writer, performer, and organizer. She has written and directed several short films and has performed and produced all types of theater, such as sketch comedy, circus sideshow, devised theater, and multimedia performance art. Her work has been performed and screened across the United States and in Ireland and India. She is based in Greenfield, Mass. vanessaquery.com
Tracy Grammer (Director, “Sidney Truant”) is an actor, director, storyteller, cat tender, and nationally touring singer-songwriter based in Greenfield. She’s grateful to LAVA for providing innovative, welcoming opportunities for new and experienced theater makers and encourages everyone to give theater a try. tracygrammer.com
Helen Woods-Blake is very excited to working on their first project with the LAVA Center. Previous credits include JaDuke Theater, Arena Civic Theater, Greenfield Players, and Billy Shakes. Thanks for coming! Enjoy!
Becca Mandel is excited to be back at OTB at LAVA! They are a massage therapist, singer, and fiber artist living in Gill.
Joanna Nix is an actor, singer, and union researcher. They most recently appeared as Lady Catherine de Bourgh in Pride & Prejudice at Exit 7 Players, and on the streets of Northampton with their groovy new bicycle.
Andrea CK is pursuing opportunities for story-telling, stand-up comedy, community chorus and acting. She came to Greenfield in 2015 to serve as rabbi of Temple Israel and to work in the local food scene.
Ken von Geldern: I’ve been in four plays, two with the lead. I’ve taken four semesters of acting classes at community college, currently in advanced acting and directing classes at GCC.
Lara Terounzo has participated in all aspects of theater for over 25 years. She currently is the Musical Theater teacher at Chance Dance Studio.
SATURDAY, JUNE 13, 7pm (6:30 doors)
“Come Slowly — Emily!”
written by Allison Reding & directed by Jesse Fair
starring Helen Woods-Blake, Soe Noire, Eileen Ruby, Maya Quiñones, Bart Bales
Audrey, a senior at Mount Holyoke College, is desperate for artistic success as a poet and thinks that an MFA acceptance will be the validation she needs. She’ll try anything to add a creative edge to her application, including conducting a seance to contact her favorite poet, Emily Dickinson. With the help of her roommate Jax and a witch named Olivija, the three young women successfully summon the ghost of America’s beloved poet – but she won’t return to the afterlife. High jinks abound in this supernatural comedy as the women try to lay Emily’s wayward soul to rest, and along the way Audrey learns the true importance of art.
about the artists
Allison Reding is a fiction writer, poet, playwright, and improviser. Originally from the Chicago suburbs, she now calls Turners Falls, MA home. You can see her work on stage at the UMass Fringe Festival and catch her performing at Happier Valley Comedy.
Jesse Fair (He/him) is a disabled & trans theatre artist and filmmaker who’s in his third year at Hampshire College. This is his official debut as a Director and is so grateful for everyone involved in the process.
Helen Woods-Blake is very excited to working on their first project with the LAVA Center. Previous credits include JaDuke Theater, Arena Civic Theater, Greenfield Players, and Billy Shakes. Thanks for coming! Enjoy!
SOE NOIRE is a Nigerian multidisciplinary artist, community organizer, and filmmaker based in Western Massachusetts. Through Afrofeminist worldbuilding and performance, Noire is passionate in creating radical third spaces and artwork that celebrate Black Queer identity, whimsy, and joy.
Semi-retired mezzo soprano and voice teacher Eileen Ruby has performed throughout the Pioneer Valley as a recitalist and oratorio soloist. She’s now loving her new life callings as a Qigong Practice Leader on GCTV; a very part time Radio DJ at WMCB; and as the director of Healing Harmonies Choir at the Greenfield Public Library.
Maya Quiñones is an actress, educator, and dramaturg. She is currently pursuing her MFA in Dramaturgy at UMASS and packing away all her winter clothes.
Bart Bales: An experienced actor, theatrical performer and singer in plays, operas and musicals and two feature length movies. Favorite roles: Villain Lamar Rollins in movie “Hell House Moon”; the Major in “Titanic Musical”; Lord Mounterarat in “Iolanthe”; FDR in “Annie”; Richard Henry Lee in “1776”; Thomas Jefferson in “On Impeachment”.
FRIDAY, JUNE 19, 7pm (6:30 doors)
“The Hungry Ghosts in the WhiteWash(er) Machine … A (W)hole ReStor(e)ative Practice in ReHears(e)al … A Both/And/Or/With Paradox ReFrame”
written by CL Dukes & directed by Lauren Stock
starring Holly Sroka, Joseph Wright, Gavin Mariani
This is a 3 character immersive spectacle-play. It is an emergent experiential work focused on presence within a collective body of individuals engaging with an embodied practice. How do we embody and understand the impact of our (white) assimilation as a cultural phenomenon of removal, erasure, and denial – as a living construct within our peculiar yet exceptional american institutions? with the inclusion of our own human BEing selves? This spectacle (specter) play is an immersive full-body interconnection with all members of the production performance. The ceremony ritual rite is located within the action, movement, and music and is fundamental to the structure of the performance and production.
about the artists
CL Dukes: We underwater walk our way back home and reverse-engineer play(w)righting as we ReMember our (w)hole selves with Love As An Action. Act I on and Quest I on with commUNITY interconnected with our land to and with all our relations — creatures and BEings.
Lauren Stock (she/her) is so happy to be making her Western Mass directing debut with the LAVA center after moving here this spring! Having been called for jury duty an exorbitant amount of times in her young life, she wishes the Potential Juror all the best in his endeavors.
Holly Sroka: I am a mom, grandmom, singer, gardener, actress who is just living life one day at a time. I love LAVA and its’ endless source of creativity.
Joseph Wright has directed Chekhov’s short stories, HB Studio , New York. A reading of his play Red Helmet at Pulse Ensemble, New York., Acted in Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter, School of Visual Arts, New York.
Gavin Mariani, from Montague, MA, is a rising senior Acting major at Boston University. He is very excited to partake in his first On The Boards Festival!
SATURDAY, JUNE 20, 7pm (6:30 doors)
“Calling”
written by Patricia Crosby & directed by Penney Hulten
starring Ryn Griffin, John Reese, Nick de Ruiter, Sibley Herzog, Katie Hertel, Meg Riordan, Joanna Nix
A family struggles with a father’s allegiance to a cause as the world comes apart around them.
about the artists
Patricia Crosby (playwright) writes poetry, fiction and drama which has appeared in such periodicals as Rattle; War, Literature and the Arts; Friends Journal; and (forthcoming) the Worcester Review. Readers Theater adaptations by Crosby of “The Odd Women” and “Bartleby the Scrivener” were produced at the Lava Center in 2021-22; and two original plays, “Modern Times” and “The Plan,” appeared in 2024-25.
Penney Hulten: A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, this will be her third year of directing for the On the Boards festival. She has done theater in The Valley for over 20 years and has a bachelor’s degree in Theater from Smith College.
Ryn Griffin lived in Costa Rica for 15 years before moving back to USA. UMASS Theatre Graduate, Mount Holyoke College Graduate, Actively involved in local theatre productions, and actively seeking dramatic and comedic film roles for Student and Professional Productions.
John Reese: Major Roles with Silverthorne, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Folger Theatre, Utah and Virginia Shakespeare Theaters, All My Children, The Diary of Anne Frank, The Fantasticks
Nick de Ruiter is a 40+ year veteran of broadcast radio and dabbles frequently in community theater.
Sibley Herzog moved to Western Massachusetts from the Midwest last summer. They are eager to learn, grow and perform with friends old and new.
Katie Hertel is excited to be joining LAVA On the Boards again this summer.
Meg Riordan, Ph.D., is an education leader focused on reimagining learning through hands-on experiences that build agency and pathways to meaningful futures. An author and researcher with an M.A. in writing, she brings energy to everything she does, from ultramarathons to aerial fabrics, and now acting!
Joanna Nix is an actor, singer, and union researcher. They most recently appeared as Lady Catherine de Bourgh in Pride & Prejudice at Exit 7 Players, and on the streets of Northampton with their groovy new bicycle.
FRIDAY, JUNE 26, 7pm (6:30 doors)
“The Birth/Death Project”
presented by Real Live Theatre
FREE EVENT WITH OPTIONAL DONATION
MASKS REQUIRED and provided
The only thing all humans share is that we are all born and we all die. Yet we often feel disconnected, lonely, or isolated in our journeys through these experiences.
The Birth/Death Project seeks to change that, one story at a time, weaving our truths together.
Click here for more information.
On the Boards is made possible by grants from the local cultural councils of Amherst, Bernardston, Buckland, Conway, Deerfield, Gill, Greenfield, Leyden, Northfield, Shelburne, and Sunderland.
