It’s a brand-new year, and we all know what that means! Months of snow, cold, and seasonal affective disorder, of  course. Fortunately, there’s a treatment: quality theater to bring a beam of sunshine into the heart of this wretched season. As it so happens, there are three short play festivals in Massachusetts over the next month or so that are sure to cure your winter blues. (Or at least take your mind off them for an hour and a half.) And by an amazing coincidence, I have plays in each of the three festivals!

First up is the New Works Festival presented by Acme Theater Productions of Maynard. This will be my third time here, this time with “The Change,” directed by my good friend Lisa Burdick. Lisa has a play of her own in the festival, as do such luminaries as Patrick Gabridge, Christopher Lockheardt, Rick Park, Cynthia Faith Arsenault, and many others. It runs over two weekends, January 8 and 9, and 15 and 16, at 8:00 each evening, but note that “The Change” is only going to be performed on Friday the 8th and Saturday the 16th.

Acme Theater Productions: New Works Winter Festival 2016
ArtSpace Maynard
61 Summer St.
Maynard, MA 01754
January 8 – 16, 2016

We then move to the North Shore, to the Firehouse Center for the Arts in Newburyport, which will be presenting its New Works Festival later in January. I’m very pleased to announce that my play “Too Too Solid Flesh” has been named the best of the ten-minute plays! It will be directed by Stephen Faria, another good friend of mine who (once again!) has a play of his own in the festival. Other playwrights with short works in the program include Deirdre Girard, R.D. Murphy, Ray Aresenault, and George Smart; there will also be full-length pieces by Alan Brody and Scott Sullivan. The festival will run on January 22, 23, 29 and 30, at 8:00 each night. There will be a different program each evening; “Too Too Solid Flesh” will appear only on the 23rd.

Firehouse Center for the Arts: New Works Festival 2016
Firehouse Center for the Arts
Market Square
Newburyport, MA 01950
January 22 – 30, 2016

Finally we lurch into February, when the Cohasset Dramatic Club (in Cohasset, of course) presents its third annual Briefs, a festival of ten-minute plays, and for the third time in a row they will be presenting a play of mine! I’m particularly pleased this year, as they will be presenting a brand-new piece, “Annunciation.” It will be directed by Lisa Pratt, who is (again!) a good friend of mine, but who breaks the pattern by not actually having written any of the other plays in the festival. Instead, we have such folk as Brandon Crose and Cynthia Faith Arsenault. The festival runs for only two evenings, February 5 and 6.

Cohasset Dramatic Club: Briefs III
Cohasset Town Hall Theater
41 Highland Ave.
Cohasset, MA 02025
February 5 – 6, 2016

I hope you can make it to one (or more!) of these events, and take a break from those winter doldrums.