SUBSCRIBE TO OUR 2018/19 SEASON!
A season exploring how truth finds us and what we do with it once it does. A season about sexuality, race and privilege. A season about us, here, now.
read morePlaywright Matthew Ivan Bennett on RADIO HOUR EPISODE 12: STAND
RADIO HOUR EPISODE 12: STAND by Matthew Ivan Bennett receives its world premiere in a co-production with KUER’S RadioWest on April 26, 2018 featuring Shane Mozaffari, Jay Perry and Isabella Reeder, with original music by Dave Evanoff, eFoley by Joe Killian and direction and sound design by Cheryl Cluff. Click here on Monday, April 23 at 9am to listen to Matt on RadioWest discuss the history, idea and literature of dystopia; then again on Thursday, April 26 at 9am to listen to STAND live. When I tell people what my new play is about – “Oh, it’s a dystopian spy thriller set in the mid-21st century in which the alt-right has taken over” – they usually shiver. Granted, I haven’t tried out my one-liner on someone who identifies as alt-right. But, really, the play is less about politics and more about moral choices. At the center of RADIO HOUR EPISODE 12: STAND is Agent Alicia Mora, a thoroughly rational person who decides – at least initially – to work for a flawed regime instead of a flawed rebellion. The harrowing unspoken question for her is, “Which side is doing the least harm overall?” Of course, all of our choices in life, and especially in drama, are constrained. Rarely are we afforded the chance to coolly decide what will hurt everyone less and then do that. The decision gets complicated by other questions. The question of personal comfort. The question of belonging. The question of how you’ll feed your children. The question of rightness. The question of an imagined ultimate outcome for your tribe. Or, for Agent Mora, the questions of... read morePlaywright Elaine Jarvik on #GiveOUTDay
“How would you like to write a play about our first gay president?”
read moreActor Robert Scott Smith on #GiveOUTDay
Over my 17 years as a professional actor I have only played six LGBTQ+ identified characters, three of them at Plan-B.
read morePlaywright Matthew Greene on #GiveOUTDay
I’ll own up to the true inspiration behind the script’s central figure: it’s me.
read moreTami Marquardt on #GiveOUTDay
I was so moved by our first out-loud-and-proud public recognition as a married couple that I literally had tears in my eyes.
read moreManaging Director and resident sound designer Cheryl Cluff interviews her husband Todd Riesen about his failed parachute on his first sky dive, which has nothing and everything to do with JUMP
Well my chute opened and you’re supposed to release these hand brakes, then you have to quickly assess your situation to make sure everything is good, and … it wasn’t good.
read moreJenifer Nii’s THE WEIRD PLAY premieres March 1-11
I’d seen a handful of shows in my youth (including a particularly alarming Idahoan-interpreted MAN OF LA MANCHA). I’d never read a play just for fun. But life is a wild ride. Mine had just steamed through most of a music degree at university, then swerved toward journalism after a Schumann etude ate my finger. Then, through some loopty-loops I still can’t really follow, I landed in the back row of a campus production of Marsha Norman’s play GETTING OUT that cracked my heart and I saw, for the first time, how theatre can transport, and open up and shake.
read moreOur upcoming co-productions with Sackerson (THE WEIRD PLAY) and Flying Bobcat (JUMP)
“It’s different from anything I’ve ever done, putting into play every aspect of theatre I’ve been afraid of taking on.” – Jenifer Nii, Playwright, THE WEIRD PLAY
“Hopefully it will be a worthy addition to the legacy of David Fetzer!.” – Austin Archer, Playwright, JUMP
read moreToday is the global day of giving known as #GivingTuesday
Funds donated through Facebook today, beginning at 6am MST, will be matched by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. And Facebook is waiving all fees!
read moreAnnouncing the 2017/18 Script-In-Hand Series!
THE PRIESTHOOD by Carleton Bluford
MOUNTAIN LAW by Melissa Leilani Larson
Pieces from the THEATRE ARTISTS OF COLOR WRITING WORKSHOP
Playwright Matthew Ivan Bennett’s Sweet 17 at Rose Exposed
Plan-B Theatre has premiered 16 ten-minute plays by Matthew Ivan Bennett; the 17th premieres this Saturday as part of ROSE EXPOSED…THE SKY IS FALLING!
read moreAustin Archer on creating our third subscription offering: JUMP
JUMP initially unveiled itself to me as a narrative surrounding four characters. I had to figure out what that narrative was outside of the central incident of the failed skydive. And I honestly had very few ideas.
read moreJenifer Nii on creating our second subscription offering: THE WEIRD PLAY
It’s the first time I’ve scripted in any detailed way a vision of what I wanted the piece to look like, and to use those elements as characters with roles to play. And, I wanted to write something that invited (required, really) audience members to participate and determine what the play is about and what it means to them.
read moreEric Samuelsen on creating our season opener THE ICE FRONT
The result is THE ICE FRONT, a celebration of the courage it takes to pretend to be someone you’re not in order to be who you are.
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