American Dreaming 2023 - Play Festival

AMERICAN DREAMING: A NEW PLAY FESTIVAL

Join us under the Swift House Inn Tent on August 10 - 13 to discover 3 brand new works for the stage by these outstanding playwrights selected from a nationwide search. 

Tickets will be available through the Town Hall Theater Box Office: www.townhalltheater.org or at 802-382-9222

Tickets also available at the tent

Friday, Aug. 11at 7pm

Cowgirl 

by Justin Aaron Halle

Three city friends convene on a fracking ranch in Wyoming for a wild western wedding—but when Lila unearths "Cowgirls," a relic of a feminist board-game-without-a-board, all bets on a seamless wedding are off. The game’s provocative questions threaten to unravel the tender secrets and dark desires that lurk just beneath the surface of these friendships. Cowgirl is a queer, passionate, and transformative dark comedy that gallops its way through questions of identity, the temptations of fracking, and the cruel permanence of mustard stains. Oh, and one more thing: beware The Aunts. 

Justin Aaron Halle (Playwright) is a queer, Jewy, and New York-based playwright and pansy. Their plays include Case Studies: A New Kinsey Report (Exponential Fest and The Brick), Cowgirl (Columbia @ Roundabout Prize Finalist), and Delaware, Come Home (Lucille Lortel, published in Best of Red Bull Theater’s Short New Plays). Justin’s monologue “Judy New Year” was recently published in WE/US: Monologues for the Gender Minority (Smith & Kraus) and their MFA thesis play, a gay-ass meditation on masculinity, mysticism and the Old Testament called Vile Isle, was performed at Columbia University under the mentorship of Jen Silverman.

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Saturday Aug. 12 at 7pm

Lessons

by Matthew Chong

Yuri is a sixteen year old Korean-American girl with aspirations of becoming the premier concert pianist of her generation. It seems like that dream might be realized when she’s chosen to study under a renowned composer and tastemaker in the classical music world. But his sadistic teaching methodology pushes her to the brink, exposing fault lines in the model minority myth, and the dangers of obsessive pursuit at the expense of a healthy life.

Matthew Chong (Playwright) is a Korean-American playwright. His work revolves around the Asian-American experience, and investigates the ramifications of living under a scarcity model. His plays include Lessons (Diverse Voices Playwriting Initiative finalist 2023, Bay Area Playwrights Festival semifinalist 2023), Jung (Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival), Assimilation (Pipeline PlayLab semifinalist 2021) and Plague Year (Red Bull Theater’s Short New Play Festival). He assisted Scott Rudin during the Broadway productions of Three Tall Women and To Kill A Mockingbird. He is a member of Playground-NY’s Writers Pool and has been published by Stage Rights. He graduated from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and will be pursuing an MFA at Yale University in the fall.

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Saturday Aug. 12 at 2pm

​Until the Day is Done

by Jared Michael Delaney

Anders & Margaret Mary have been married more than 25 years, living on the edge of civilization in Alaska. When Margaret Mary receives a diagnosis that changes the arc of her life, she, Anders and their friends must grapple with the new choices presented to them and who has the right to make them.

Jared Michael Delaney (Playwright) is a stage/screen writer & actor based in Philadelphia Pa. His full-length plays have been produced at Perseverance Theatre, New Jersey Repertory Company, Inis Nua Theatre Co, the Yes! Festival, Edinburgh Festival and Theatre Conspiracy. His short plays have been part of the QuarenStream, 1MPF & Going Viral online festivals and others produced by Athena Theatre, NJ Rep, MadLab Theatre, Aberrant Theatre, Pegasus Theatre, Raze the Space and the Philadelphia LiveArts Festival. His work has been further presented at the Valdez Theatre Conference and the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, in readings across the country and developed in writers’ groups Athena Writes and The Foundry. His play, Voyager One, was named a “Top Ten Production of the Year in New Jersey” in 2019. His pilots and screenplays have placed in such competitions as Big Break, Launch Pad and the Atlanta Film Festival. As an actor, he has appeared on stages Off-Broadway and regionally across the U.S. TV credits include Mare of Easttown, Dispatches from Elsewhere and various commercials. Film credits include Kinderwald, Universal Signs and the upcoming Hayride to Hell. He is the co-host of a weekly podcast about the musician Prince, titled When Doves Podcast, available on all platforms. M.A., Villanova University; M.F.A., Queens University of Charlotte. Member: Dramatists’ Guild, AEA, New Play Exchange. www.jaredmichaeldelaney.com