Dream Up Festival 2025

The lucky 13th edition of TNC's diverse fest, curated by literary manager Michael Scott-Price, features 22 works, nearly all of which nearly are world or U.S. premieres. Outer space is a theme in at least three: Fletcher Michael's First Liar on the Moon imagines the lives of the actors who played astronauts in a fake lunar landing; Thomas M. Copeland's One in Twenty-Five looks at the aftermath of the Challenger explosion; and Blake Du Bois and TJ Canlon's Dune! The Dunesical (The Unauthorized 4D “Muad’Dib” Experience) - Part 1 is a musical send-up of Frank Herbert's sandwormy saga. Among the more down-to-earth offerings are Sloan Aulgur's Green Herrings in a Yellow Room: A Counter Production of The Yellow Wallpaper, a deconstruction of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's famous short story, and Steven Sarao's The Boys From Kingsbridge, about a pair of Bronx buddies who grow up to be cops. Solo shows include Elizabeth Alice Murray's Con*Cussed, about recovering from a head injury; Rodolfo Avarado's Undesirable Secrets, about a Mexican-American P.O.W. who spent time in a Nazi camp; and Steven and Rick Simone-Friedland's Kind Stranger…a memory play, adapted from Tennessee Williams's 1975 autobiography. Visit the Dream Up website for a full list of shows.