If you haven't thought about the holidays, perhaps you should... because you should be auditioning your holiday show in a couple weeks!  May we recommend our latest from Robert Joseph Ahola?  The perfect story for Christmas, A Meerkat Christmas is full of surprises. And in the end redemption is the final gift that it gives. It is late December and the Jacobsen family - a lovable if slightly neurotic bunch of overachievers - is preparing for yet another Christmas. Father is a fallen Wizard of Wall Street who has lost his touch with portfolios and with his wife. Ester is a Southern Belle and the consummate social climber who realizes too little too late that she married the wrong man. Julius is a 30-something workaholic. Matty is a seemingly simple-minded bimbo whose only talent seems to be making every man feel like a hero and every woman feel she is a threat. Hydra (a.k.a. Dragon Lady) is bitter about the world, especially men, and doesn't care who knows it. Enter Erin, who has informed the family that she's bringing her fiancé, "someone older but quite magnificent in every way." His name is Kristoff Meerkat Elwing III, and he will bring a Christmas that no one will ever forget. 3M/4W

 

Also released are two new shorts from Patrick M. Brennan, known by JAC audiences already for his one-act Simbiotic, and his other short, dog_eat_dog.com.  Brennan's new plays are BITS and No Politics.  First, Claude and Shannon are running late.  They have to get to that wedding right now!  Fortunately for her, Shannon just picked up the latest word in transportation-the iGo Teleporter, which converts people to BITS and "beams" them across time and space!  Unfortunately for Claude, he's terrified of the thing.  How will they resolve this and get to the wedding on time?  Then, it's not easy for Jack and Amy. All they want to do is have a nice family get-together without igniting another War Between the States. But when Amy's father Arthur, her mother Diane, and Arthur's new wife Carol, come over to celebrate the impending birth of Jack and Amy's baby, it's hard to keep the "P-word" out of the conversation. Somewhere between "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" and "What's the Matter with Kansas?", No Politics is a hilarious and provocative exploration of a group of people who love each other even as they stare at each other across the Red-Blue divide.

 

The latest of our releases came out today.  T.F. Cahill's The Seduction of Thomas Sorrell is the story of a man on the brink of becoming Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court- when he arrives in San Francisco to teach a Summer course at a local law school. Away from Washington and his wife, Margaret, he meets a local artist, Janice Kitteridge. While sitting with her for his portrait, he reveals to her the emptiness of his life. Janice, in turn, gives him a lump of clay and encourages him to sculpt. By working the clay, his emotions begin to unfold, and life becomes new, exciting and fun for him. He wants to be free; to give up the law and live an artist's life...and to love Janice. Janice loves him, too.  When Sorrell's wife unexpectedly comes to town to see his portrait unveiled by the law school, he feels betrayed. He later discovers a truth which forces him to believe that Janice is no different that the other vultures that pick and pull at him. The Seduction of Thomas Sorrell is a story of seduction by a law school, a painter, and even a man's wife. Yet Sorrell is not blameless; he has shaped and been shaped by his marriage to Margaret and his devotion to the law. He is pushed and pulled by two women vying for his affections. In the end, he has to make a choice, knowing that whatever choice he makes, he will lose. 5M/2W