Ashland New Plays Festival presents ‘Now This’

Ashland New Plays Festival (ANPF) will present a dramatic reading of Scott Kaiser’s play “Now This” at 7:30 p.m. Monday, May 23, in the Great Hall at the Unitarian Center, 87 Fourth St. in Ashland. Kaiser is in his 26th season at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, where the is director of company development now. He will join a cast of 14 actors in this story about the tragic consequences of American consumerism.

Featured with Kaiser will be ANPF artistic director Kyle Haden and a number of actors playing this season at OSF, including Daniel Duque-Estrada, Armando McClain, Dylan Paul, Jamie Ann Romero and Triney Sandoval. Sara Becker will direct.

“Now This” was developed by Kaiser at OSF’s Black Swan Lab several years ago and was performed previously in Houston, Texas, under Becker’s direction. It explores the fictitious town of Purple Mountain and a terribly fatal response one teenager inflicts on the community as his life unravels.

The play is set in the town of Purple Mountain, where teenager Joey Adderall is at the end of his tether. His girlfriend, Amy Clearblue, is pregnant; his father, Mort Soloflex, hasn’t spoken to him in years; his mother, Purelle Swiffer, is a clean freak; his former teacher, Activia Green, is a raging liberal; his boss, Shad Rogaine, has anger management issues; his roommate’s pit bull, Oswald, is a terror. He’s broke, alone, and without hope. What’s a young man to do? Joey heads to the Clear Cut Mall with a loaded pistol and shoots his way out of his disposable life, taking with him several fellow consumers. It’s all captured on CCTV by security specialist Randy Lenscrafter and uploaded to the internet for everyone to see. Can the people of Purple Mountain ever hope to understand — and learn from — Joey’s rampage at the mall?

General admission tickets ($15) are on sale at Paddington Station and at the door before the show, space permitting.