Patrick Gabridge – författare

StageSource’s New England New Play Alliance presents a diverse collection of eight new plays from some of New England’s best playwrights: Windowmen by Steven Barkhimer, Splendor by Kirsten Greenidge, Hell by Fire, Hell by Ice by MJ Halberstadt, Necessary Monsters by John Kuntz, Becoming Cuba by Melinda Lopez, Priscilla Dreams the Answer by Walt McGough, Easter at the Entrée Gold by John Minigan, and Saving Kitty by Marisa Smith. Each of these plays was produced by a different New England theater company, and the depth and breadth of this exciting collection of plays shows why Boston and New England have become a hub for new work.

Tornado Siren is the story of two outsiders drawn together by the simple beauty and deadly destruction lurking on the Great Plains.

Tornado researcher Victoria Thomas discovers an impossible set of footprints in a muddy field near Memphis. They indicate that a man walked away unharmed after being engulfed by the full fury of a twister.

A year later, Victoria finds an identical set of mysterious tracks in Kansas and becomes obsessed with finding this odd wanderer. His existence challenges her very conception of reality and stimulates something deep within her imagination.

When she finally does find Ben Fulgar, Victoria can’t believe her own eyes or his improbable story. She’ll risk her life to prove to herself that the world operates according to rational rules. During their adventures on the prairie, their relationship intensifies into a love that will be challenged by the ultimate forces of nature.

In The Secret of Spirit Lake, eleven-year-old Tyra is stuck spending the summer with her irascible Grandpa Rudy in a lakeside town where she’s the only black person (she’s adopted). Clearly this is going to be the worst summer ever. And a weird one, too. Every night, Rudy disappears into the woods, hauling tools and maps. He’s searching for something, and Tyra desperately wants to know what it is.One night, Tyra follows her grandfather and discovers him digging for an old bootlegger’s buried treasure. He swears her to secrecy, but soon Tyra leads her new summer friend, Cory, to Grandpa Rudy’s dig site. After being chased deep into the woods by an enraged Rudy, Tyra and Cory uncover clues that lead to Emerald Eddie’s secret stash. However, Grandpa Rudy isn’t the only person in Spirit Lake obsessed with Emerald Eddie’s legendary treasure, and it becomes a race to see who will find it first. Someone has been poking around the excavation and has even broken in to Rudy's house. Soon, Tyra, Rudy, and their friends find themselves in very real danger.  Only a great sacrifice will allow them to escape unharmed.The Secret of Spirit Lake is a fun summer adventure that touches on race, adoption, and intergenerational relationships.  In addition to reaching a general middle grade readership, this book’s exploration of race and transracial adoption will make it of great interest to the numerous multi-racial and adopted families eagerly searching for fiction with characters who share some of their experiences.