Written by Hanoch Levin
Directed by Riv Massey
Dramaturg: Bethany Larsen

Featuring: Ellen Hada, Amanda Hopper, Adam Hyland, Chris Kloko, Lesley Miller, Collin Smith, Leal Vona, and Amy Windle

Heffetz is a biting black comedy by Hanoch Levin, Israel's most prominent playwright and director. A seemingly straight forward domestic drama, the play revolves around themes of power and humiliation, marriage and suicide, politics and statehood, and the utter beauty and ultimate futility of life in a complicated world.

The indomitable Tayglach and Clemensaya, along with their incredibly perfect daughter Phogra, taunt and torture their distant relative Heffetz until he reaches his breaking point. A tired waitress, a hypochondriac best friend and a mysterious sooth-sayer each serve in their own way to push Heffetz toward his inevitable end in this new adaptation of Levin's 1972 work.

This play had a previous Scene Herd Uddered Workshop in December 2007.

Written by Sharon E. Cooper
Directed by Kitt Lavoie

Featuring: Josh Bywater, Chris Comfort, Arielle Gordon, Jenny Kirlin, Stephanie Parrott, Becky Sterling, and Paul Young

Working in an experimental manner, playwright Sharon E. Cooper used the seven weeks of the Scene Herd Uddered workshop process to create and shape the script for this conceptual piece focused on women's ongoing beauty battle. Inspired by the idea of what it's like to be a woman, even a young woman, in the age of Botox, Pretty follows a group of women friends over a ten-year period, from their days in college to one of their weddings.

Written by
Bethany Larsen
Directed by
Julie Fei-Fan Balzer
Conceptual Design by
Ann Bartek

Murder, incest, political intrigue, and a werewolf...all on Park Avenue. This is a modern pop culture infused twist on John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi, set in Manhattan's fanciest zip code.

Starring: Misty Coy, Maria Teresa Creasey, Dan Evers, Josh LaCasse, JJ vonMehren, Melanie F. Siegel, Collin Smith, and Yesenia Tromp

The place where I start is November 5th, 2008. I have chosen this time in history to rest my voice. That is where Balance begins for me.  

On the evening of November 4th, 2008 I sat, as did millions, holding my breath and waiting. When the news called Obama's victory I sat and wept. I surprised myself for I thought I had no more tears left to shed. I remember very little of the rest of the evening, except a sense of hope, which I rested my head upon and slept as I hadn't in years.  

As I caught up on the election-day results November 5th, 2008 I was sadly reminded that change comes slow. With the passage of Proposition 8 in California, and other anti-gay initiatives in Arizona, Arkansas, and Florida my inspiration quickly evaporated. I once again crashed into the reality of my world.

I started Balance at this point. Balance for me is walking between two worlds. As a lesbian there is a world outside my door, one that doesn't include me or the actual world I exist in. My country's politics, its laws exclude my existence. In an election promising change, in an atmosphere of hope, the reality on November 5 th , 2008 was that as a Gay American I was again on the outside looking in.

Hope is a dangerous thing, it can make you care again, it can bring forth tears that feed a seed of need, of want, and it can blossom to discontent. And with discontent comes change.

Barack Obama: "If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

It's the answer that -- that led those who have been told for so long by so many to be cynical, and fearful, and doubtful about what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.

It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America. The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term. But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you, we as a people will get there."

As an American, a Gay American I will hold my president to that promise. And I will not stay silent, or inactive, I will put my hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.

In writing Balance I have called upon the echoes of the past. For as everything we know, history, and words repeat themselves. I wish to thank those voices - Barack Obama, Marge Piercy, Sojourner Truth , Wilma Mankiller, Seneca Chief Red Jacket, Urvashi Vaid , Abraham Lincoln, Shirley Chisholm, Harvey Milk, Carrie Chapman Catt, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Gloria Steinem, Martin Luther King, Jr., Robin Morgan, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony. My voice joins their chorus for a better day, for a better world, for a future where all things are possible and balanced.