vein, Wondrous Strange, this year's show commissioned for our company of

Acting Apprentices, also looks at how past traumas can haunt us. Drawing
inspiration from ghost stories and hauntings from around the city of Louisville
and the state of Kentucky, playwrights Martyna Majok, Meg Miroshnik,Jiehae
Park, and Jen Silverman explore how traces of past connection, whether to
places or to people, just won't let go of us—nor we of them.

What the ghosts of the past want to impart can be murky, though, and even
the annals of history don't always offer clear answers. Such is the case in
Brendan Pelsue's eerily prescient Wellesley Girl, which imagines the state of
American politics in 2465—years after an environmental disaster has reduced
the country to a small handful of New England towns. Due to gaps in the
historical record, these last Americans don't know quite how they landed in
this reality—and when potential invaders arrive, their shared terror doesn't
mean they can agree upon how they'll face the future. Truth is also subjective
THIS RANDOM WORLD
in Cory Hinkle's playful, post-apocalyptic This Quintessence of Dust, in which (The myth of serendipity)
a woman narrates her relief that she's finally free of social media, but has to
contend with two eager ex-boyfriends with their own versions of the past. by Steven Dietz
And if common understanding is elusive at the end of civilization, it's also
hard to come by at the edge of the galaxy: James Kennedy hilariously imagines
a crew of bored astronauts whose moral and navigational compass is starting
to crack in Trudy, Carolyn, Martha, and Regina Travel to Outer Space and Have a Copyright © 2G16 by Steven John Dietz. All rights reserved. CAUTION:
Professionals and amateurs are hereby warned that This Random World is subject to a
Pretty Terrible Time There.
royalty. It is fully protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America
From a spaceship careening through the stars to a church in Uganda, from and of all countries covered by the International Copyright Union (including
a squabbling future U.S. Congress to Neverland, the singular worlds of the the Dominion of Canada and the rest of the British Commonwealth), the Berne
2016 Humana Festival of New American Plays feel utterly distinct from Convention, the Pan-American Copyright Convention and the Universal Copyright
Convention, as well as all countries with which the United States has reciprocal
one another, conjuring rich visual and emotional landscapes. If there is a
copyright relations. All rights, including professional, amateur stage rights, motion
cumulative awareness here of human impermanence, of uncertainty about
picture, recitation, lecturing, public reading, radio broadcasting, television, video
where we've been and where we're going, that sensibility finds its expression or sound recording, all other forms of mechanical or electronic reproduction, such
through voices that are as wonderfully idiosyncratic as any compilation we as CD-ROM, CD-I, information storage and retrieval systems and photocopying,
can imagine. And perhaps it's a given that theatre—this most immediate, and the rights of translation into foreign languages, are strictly reserved. Particular
live, and elastic form of storytelling—addresses the ephemeral, by its very emphasis is laid upon the matter of readings, permission for which must be secured
nature. But the pleasure of editing this volume has been revisiting these texts from the Author's agent in writing.
and thinking about them in concert as we recall their marvelous Louisville
Required royalties must be paid every time this play is performed before
productions. While we can't botde up our memories, we hope to help facilitate
any audience, whether or not it is presented for profit and whether or not
something much better: making the scripts directly accessible, so that these admission is charged.
vibrant worlds live on in readers' imaginations—and so that you can draw
your own connections. For inquiries concerning performance rights in North America, please contact:
Dramatists Play Service, Inc., 440 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016,
—Amy Wegener andjenniPage-White
postmaster@dramatists.com. All other rights inquiries should be addressed to:
Agency for the Performing Arts, 135 West 50th Street, 17th Floor, New York, NY
10020. ATTN: Beth Blickers, 212-621-3098, bblickers@apa-agency.com.