2022-2023 Theatre Lab
BLACK PARENTS UNION
by Gary Enrique Bradley-Lopez
Saturday, Oct. 1
Fountain City Winery
High School parents of black students at the Johnson Hill School District have gathered around their children who took part in an in-school protest against discrimination from their white peers, teachers, and administration. Utilizing the tools of community organizing, agitation, and tension, difficult decisions are made for the students.
PROMISES TO KEEP
by Judith Zivanovic
Saturday, Dec. 3
Fountain City Winery
Shortly before World War I, Katie and George, a young couple who have known each other since childhood, decide to marry against their parents’ wishes. At first everything seems to be going their way, but George dies in the flu epidemic of 19l8, leaving Katie to support and raise their three small children. Ten years later, Kate has taken in roomers to support her family. When Rudy, a new roomer, takes an interest in Katie, her teen son George, initially likes the gentle man but increasingly regards him as a rival to his father and to himself for the affections of his mother.
BURR OAK
by Mike Rice
Saturday, Feb. 4
PH Coffee
In the Spring of 2019, Susan introduces her workmate Joe to the outdoors. She’s a seasoned hiker who loves nature and quotes John Muir. He’s an introvert who hates mud and is terrified of snakes. But Joe catches on and Susan is impressed. Soon, they are hiking every weekend and growing closer. But then Covid-19 comes and threatens to turn their lives upside down. “Burr Oak” is a story of renewed leases on life and how nature can both bring people together and separate them.
BURIED IN BLOOD
by Mylan Gray
Saturday, March 4
PH Coffee
The Johnson family is packed under one roof when Ella, their estranged grandmother, moves in. Despite the repression, all the family baggage can’t fit in the house with her. In this Afro-surrealist drama, the Johnson family must confront the secrets in their basement to make room for each other and heal.
THE DISAPPOINTMENTS
by Aaron Scully
Saturday, April 1
PH Coffee
The Disappointments follows a young man, Second, who’s fiancée gives him an ultimatum: Stop drinking or lose her forever. Second decides that he will give rehab a try and checks himself into The Good House, a treatment facility. In The Good House, Second befriends a group of people, all struggling to defeat their addictions. These other so-called “disappointments” and Second’s counselor, Patrick, have a profound effect on him. The Disappointments was written by the playwright as part of his dissertation and is meant to be a play that can be presented simply, without spectacle, for the patients at treatment centers for the purposes of aiding in their recovery.
Kansas City Public Theatre 