New Works Series

Week 1: Zelda's Mama's Cookin' 
by Harold Smith

June 6 through June 8, 2008
at Cue Productions Live

Zelda Larue owns a thriving diner in Buckboard, Texas in November, 1952. The reasons for the diner’s success are obvious to the local gentry: Zelda’s affection for her customers, and her Mama’s wonderful cooking. Grady Overman, a local mechanic/garage owner, frequents Zelda’s café several times a day, primarily in pursuit of Zelda, a long-time widow.  Zelda’s late husband, Butch, declared dead after going “missing in action” in Italy in 1942, suddenly reappears, an apparent amnesia victim, wanting to resume his married life with Zelda. There are complications, but Grady has a solution, arrived at with the aid of the local Sheriff, Rag Chambers.

Week 2: Sister
by Jean Butterfield

June 13 through June 15, 2008
at Cue Productions Live

Erica Campbell works in the field of experimental genetics. Through her work a window is opened between species, and the resulting hybrid creature changes her view of humanity. Can she keep the secrets of her past and still maintain a place within the human tribe in the future? Or will she have to choose another tribe to belong to?

Week 3: Abigail Dreary
by Michele Ianiro

June 20 through June 22, 2008
at Cue Productions Live

The Weylis family has just moved from the big city of Dennison to the small town of Canyon Ridge with the hope of starting a new life. Though Nicholas, the oldest son, is nursing a broken heart, he finds himself strangely attracted to a young woman named Abbey. Abbey is the kind of girl who gets what she wants and what she wants is Nicholas. Soon Nicholas and his twin sister Nancy discover that they must get to the bottom of a troubling mystery about who and what Abbey is. Only with the help of their friends, Adam and Monica, and an unlikely source do they have any hope of saving Nicholas from the clutches of ABIGAIL DREARY!

Week 4: Jubilee 
by Susan Sobeloff

June 26 through June 28, 2008
at Cue Productions Live

In a dystopian future, a shaky political peace is newly declared after a civil war. Lij and Laurel, two women soldiers, clash with Gideon, a newly appointed judge charged with holding the peace, and Alex, a young woman apprentice studying law. The first act culminates with Lij and Gideon marrying, over the objections of their friends, because they each see the alliance with the other as a means to achieving
political and personal goals. The second act unfolds the story of the family life created through this marriage of utility. Gideon and Lij have three daughters: Jubilee, Sojourner, and Lily. These three sisters are forced to make choices, choices that bring them into the adult world, about whether or not to seek their own political voice and power in shaping their country's future.

Readings directed by John Butterfield
Production artwork by Jean Butterfield