Pop-Up Playfest

5 plays in 3 days, featuring rap, racecars, road trips and plays in every genre, from comedy to horror to sci-fi and back again. Read more about our plays below! In Carnegie Mellon University’s Studio Theatre in the Jared L. Cohon University Center.

A DAY OR TWO OF DIRT by Hannah Honey Shepard (Sunday, August 3 @ 2pm)

A surreal horror drama about five survivors of a plane crash in the Alaskan wilderness. Safety from one another cannot be guaranteed. They must ask themselves: where do the finite edges of rationale blur into faith, and what role does trust have to play?

ANATOMY OF A RACECAR: A RACING BALLET by maguire wilder (Friday, August 1 @ 8pm; after Doompacalypse)

Rosie loves racing, but her father won’t let her drive. He sits on the couch all day, watching her mother race, while Rosie secretly builds a car with the help of her trusty pit crew, the Spice Girls. An experimental play/ballet about grief, girlhood, and finding your own way.

CHAT-GPT HAS A KNIFE by Liggera Edmonds-Allen (Saturday, August 2 @ 7pm)

Chat-GPT has a knife. Thalia, a representative of humanity, has to convince them that our species is perfect; after all, we’ve got dirty limericks, cowboys, and Con O’Niel! They’ll take Chat-GPT on a tour of the best humanity has to offer in order to save us all — or die trying…

DOOMPACALYPSE by Sondai NaNaBuluku (Friday, August 1 @ 7pm)

When men self isolate and hide from the "real world", the mind becomes your sanctuary/Pr*son. It creates people to rebel with, a narcissistic ruler who needs to be overthrown, and a mirror around every corner that reflects your own madness back. Viktor Vaughn, the chauvinistic underappreciated Hip-Hop lyrical miracle, combats his apparent obsession with self-destruction and breaks free from the restraints of his own mind Pr*son.

IN THE BACKSEAT by Kate Isabel Foley (Saturday, August 2 @ 8pm; after Chat-GPT Has a Knife)

Paula Vogel’s How I Learned to Drive meets A Christmas Carol in an introspective magical realism narrative told through multiple timelines and one woman’s car. In the wake of a family tragedy, twenty-two-year-old English major Harper drops out of college to take an impulsive road trip across the US, and she won’t stop until she reaches the coast – it’s the best way to outrun the ghosts from her past. Until her ghosts start showing up in the backseat of her Subaru.

Info: When men self isolate and hide from the "real world", the mind becomes your sanctuary/Pr*son. It creates people to rebel with, a narcissistic ruler who needs to be overthrown, and a mirror around every corner that reflects your own madness back. Viktor Vaughn, the chauvinistic underappreciated Hip-Hop lyrical miracle, combats his apparent obsession with self-destruction and breaks free from the restraints of his own mind Pr*son.

Info: Rosie loves racing, but her father won’t let her drive. He sits on the couch all day, watching her mother race, while Rosie secretly builds a car with the help of her trusty pit crew, the Spice Girls. An experimental play/ballet about grief, girlhood, and finding your own way. 

Info: Chat-GPT has a knife. Thalia, a representative of humanity, has to convince them that our species is perfect; after all, we’ve got dirty limericks, cowboys, and Con O’Niel! They’ll take Chat-GPT on a tour of the best humanity has to offer in order to save us all — or die trying…

Info: Paula Vogel’s How I Learned to Drive meets A Christmas Carol in an introspective magical realism narrative told through multiple timelines and one woman’s car. In the wake of a family tragedy, twenty-two-year-old English major Harper drops out of college to take an impulsive road trip across the US, and she won’t stop until she reaches the coast – it’s the best way to outrun the ghosts from her past. Until her ghosts start showing up in the backseat of her Subaru. 

Info: A surreal horror drama about five survivors of a plane crash in the Alaskan wilderness. Safety from one another cannot be guaranteed. They must ask themselves: where do the finite edges of rationale blur into faith, and what role does trust have to play? 

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