When you imagine your perfect utopia, what do you see?  

Maybe it’s that once in a lifetime family gathering when everyone gets along; maybe it’s living in that perfect city, with that perfect partner, with that perfect job. Maybe your utopia is less self-serving and more about our world at large. Perhaps you dream of a society where the laws of the land solely prioritize the underrepresented; there is access for all to good education and health care; there is a unified commitment to the abolition of systems that are oppressive by design.  

The thing about utopia is that its literal definition is “no place.” It doesn’t exist. Instead it’s in the striving for change, the wrestling with the injustices of the dystopia we see all around us, in the insisting on imagining “what can be” in the wake of memories of “what was” that we move towards a more whole and functioning society.  

a.k. payne. Remember this name because if you are a regular theatre goer (and we do hope you are), you will for sure come across it again and again. Their magnificent play is a story between two cousins. It’s a story that grapples with grief and regret, while celebrating the unwavering bond of kinship and our connections to home. It’s a play that beautifully navigates the what can be if time were infinite and options limitless in the face of the realities of upbringing, of roads taken and not taken, of latent grievances that can be paralyzing. More than anything this play teaches us that when we confront, face to face, loss and discomfort, only then can we dare to hope. 

This production of Furlough’s Paradise, as luck would have it, aligns with our celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition. For two decades our theatre has wrapped its arms around original stories by emerging writers from MFA programs across the country, stories that open our hearts and minds to the evergreen question, what can be? 

Take a moment and introduce yourself to your neighbor. Share your hardships and your joys. Share your visions of your imagined utopias. You might be surprised by how your dreams align. Even better, you might learn you have a dream you didn’t even know you have. Let’s create a revolution by defying the literal definition of utopia. If but for these couple of hours in the theatre, it just may exist.  

We are so glad you are here. 

Amanda