GENEVA — A fractured family. A mysterious visitor. A pocket full of secrets. Will they find beauty in what’s broken?
Playwright and Hobart and William Smith Colleges Professor of Theatre Chris Woodworth grapples with that question in the new play “Chicory.” Chicory will be performed as a script-in-hand staged reading Nov. 29, beginning at 7:30 p.m., in McDonald Theatre of the Gearan Center for the Performing Arts on the HWS campus.
Admission is free. Doors open at 7:15.
Tensions are high and tempers run hot between siblings Graham and April as they struggle to run their family’s small-town bar. The harder Graham tries to bridge the chasm between them, the further April pulls away. The arrival of a mysterious visitor threatens to shatter all their lives.
Familiar Rochester-area actors appearing in the reading include Jeff Siuda as Graham, Abby DeVuyst as April, and Michaela Buckley as Beth. Eric Lefler reads stage directions.
Woodworth chairs the Theatre Department at HWS. Her plays “Fossenvue,” “We Are the Volcano,” “Medea Kills Her Children,” and “Petrichor” have received staged readings in the region, and several of her short plays have been produced in New York, Ohio, Texas, and Florida. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild and Honor Roll.
The staged reading lasts about 85 minutes. The play contains strong language and adult situations.
This project is made possible with funds from the Auburn Public Theater Regrants program, with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by Auburn Public Theater. For more information, visit https://www.thisworldofyes.com/chicory or contact Chris Woodworth at cwoodworth@hws.edu.