At our first Ashby Retreat in July 2005, our Company of Artists convened in Ashby to develop three scripts, and read them before audiences for the first time:

Better Off Dead by Shawn Sturnick
It’s opening night and our playwright-protagonist is mistakenly reported dead in a freak accident. Despite a consensus of awful reviews, his play incites a ticket-buying frenzy -- everyone wants to see “the play the dead guy wrote.” So now our playwright is famous and his awful play is a great box-office success… as long as he stays dead. And his producer and agent are willing do to anything to keep him that way. Including kill him. Company member Shawn Sturnick delivers this deliciously zany comedy!
Our work on Better Off Dead was so successful that we chose it for our inaugural production! Village Theatre Project presented the World Premiere of Better Off Dead at the Groton-Dunstable Performing Arts Center in April 2006.

Theresa at Home by Janet Kenney
It is 1956. Theresa has returned from her honeymoon and is unpacking toasters, dishes… and statues of the Christ child – reminders of the convent she aspired to before marrying and starting a new life. As her mother, sisters, assorted neighbors and nuns blast in and out of the apartment, Theresa wrestles with fears that she may have taken the wrong path. Janet Kenney’s My Heart & My Flesh was produced by the Coyote Theatre in Boston in spring 2005; and her awards and experience include the Perishable Theatre Women’s Playwriting Festival, Provincetown Theatre and two-time O’Neill Finalist.

Theresa at Home was a great success as well. Playwright Janet Kenney continued working on the script following the conclusion of the 2005 Retreat, and has now completed the play. Village Theatre Project will present the World Premiere in April 2007, in collaboration with Boston Playwrights Theatre.

Bodies of Thought by Christine Hamel
Circumstances surrounding the suicide of Sadie Hopper, a political theorist and expert on American icon Marilyn Monroe, are mystifying and troublesome. As Sadie’s former student Max probes the questions surrounding her death, he grapples with choices about how to live his own life and find personal freedom in the face of the roles he feels destined to play. Playwright Christine Hamel created the script during the past year and participated in a workshop of the piece at Boston University in April 2005.