The Cincinnati Playhouse has filled in the “TBA” in its 2018-2019 schedule with yet another world premiere play by an up-and-coming female: Chelsea Marcantel’s comedy Tiny Houses will conclude the Shelterhouse season (May 4-June 2, 2019), which will feature all female playwrights. It’s the story of four young adults who are determined to build a 200-square-foot tiny house in Oregon. Despite their goal of finding meaning in minimalism, their project keeps going off the tracks. Will living small be a huge mistake? Marcantel’s bio states that she’s “extremely interested in humans as small-group primates, and what happens when the rules and value systems of our chosen groups cease to serve us.”
It's a co-production with Cleveland Play House, which means it's also a shared world premiere with shared performers, creative team and costs. Laura Kepley, artistic director of Cleveland Play House, will direct both theaters' presentations of the play. It will be in Cleveland March 23-April 14, 2019, and there will be a reading of it in Cleveland this May 19.
In its press release announcing the play, Cleveland Play House described it this way: "Tiny homes are all the rage! Bohdi is a hypnotherapist. Jevne is a YouTube artist. Olllie sells haunted dolls online. Cath just left her job to move to Oregon with her new boyfriend.And they are all building a tiny house together in the back yard. As the dwelling comes together onstage, tensions swell, discoveries are made, and long-buried feelings rise to the surface. In a world where bigger is always better, can tiny really equal happy? Or is this a recipe for disaster? A comedy about what happens when the world shrinks."
Marcantel is an LA-based writer, director and collaborator. In 2016, she completed a Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Fellowship at New York City’s Juilliard School. Marcantel’s plays include Airness (a popular production at Actors Theatre’s 2017 Humana Festival in Louisville) as well as Everything Is Wonderful, Ladyish and Devour. Her shows have been produced around the United States and Canada. She is currently working on commissions by the San Francisco Playhouse and the Delaware Theatre Company.
For a full earlier story on the Playhouse's 2018-19 season, visit here.
