IAMA’s 7th Annual NEW WORKS FESTIVAL

IAMA Theatre Company, committed to cultivating new voices and creating new, boundary-pushing work, will host its 7th Annual New Works Festival this December. Featuring eight new plays presented as staged readings, IAMA’s New Works Festival gives audiences an early look at future hits and allows playwrights to experience public reaction to their work for the first time. Thanks to a generous award from the National Endowment for the Arts, this season’s festival has been expanded to eight new works, up from six in previous years.

• Thursday, Dec. 5 at 8 p.m.:
Grief World, written by Hannah Kenah, directed by Hannah Wolf
In this furious satire for these regressive times, a group of men rages at Mother, two teens attempt to heal via equestrian therapy, and Crone & Spinster battle it out on blood-soaked archetypal grounds.

• Friday, Dec. 6 at 8 p.m.:
Wad, Written by Keiko Green, directed by Rebecca Wear

“True-Crime”-obsessed 17-year-old girl Nyce becomes pen pals with 40-year-old Jim, a man on death row. As Jim’s execution date nears, he and Nyce live out alternate realities, fantasize about death and dying, tell a bunch of lies, and eventually get to something close to the truth.

• Saturday, Dec. 7 at 8 p.m.:
Hit Machine (or True Wes), written by Jonathan Caren, directed by Jamie Castañeda

A “True West” for the 21st century where the Musks and Zuckerbergs have all the power and must contend with those pesky artists and naysayers. Even worse when the irritant is family. Can two music-obsessed brothers Alex and Wesley get beyond their differences to make something epic? This new work with original music by the artist Ben Harper offers an inside look at what it takes to make a hit song from a family that does not pull its punches.

• Sunday, Dec. 8 at 8 p.m.:
Baruch HaShem, written by Joshua Levine, directed by Stefanie Black*

A humorous family drama about a modern-day Jewish family in the suburbs of Orlando, Florida and how differing beliefs and trauma bring them together and tear them apart.

• Thursday, Dec. 12 at 8 p.m.:
Beautiful Blessed Child, written by Daria Miyeko Marinelli, directed by Reena Dutt

Zen minimalist cowboy Aimiko has never taken a road trip with their mom. Hamstring-slicing housewife Sharon has never seen nor heard of any sort of mother-daughter-child road trip. And so, these brave pioneers take to the road, driving West at, 10 miles per hour above the speed limit, with tales of cannibals, crane wives, and samurai children, buzzing over the airwaves, offering avenues of survival, all of which are only moderately helpful when Aimiko’s car radiator suddenly goes dead.This is their story. Kind of. And again. And again.

• Friday, Dec. 13 at 8 p.m.:
Foursome, written by Matthew Scott Montgomery*, directed by Tom DeTrinis*

Best friends and two couples Noah, Felix, Tahj, and Kobe blur the lines between sex, friendship, and romance on a fateful New Year's Eve in this very-modern romantic comedy about queer love, chosen family, growing up and navigating the last year of their twenties.

• Saturday, Dec. 14 at 8 p.m.:
Care Less, written by Chloé Hung, directed by Lily Tung Crystal

Has one ever felt like no matter what they did, they’d never meet their parents’ expectations? Meet Dad. He's enlisted the help of The Scientist to create the perfect AI daughter, Claudia. But with each iteration of Claudia, he finds fault. Little does he know that he is the subject in the experiment. Viewer discretion is advised as seeing this play may make one want to call their parents... or block their number.

• Sunday, Dec. 15 at 8 p.m.:
The Playground, written by KJ Cuitiño Bjorge, directed by Margaux Susi*

In this dark comedy, eight wealthy moms gather at a Los Angeles home to serve as proxies for their six-and-seven-year-olds’ private school student council meeting, encompassing chaos, despair, and a couple of minutes of hell.