This December in the Owen Theatre, we're celebrating new work with our annual New Stages festival, which this year will feature two new workshop productions and four staged readings—all free of charge.

Since its first incarnation in 2004, the Goodman's New Stages Series has given audiences a first look at over 50 new plays in development via staged readings; more than half of those plays have gone on to receive full productions at the Goodman and other theaters around the country.

Developmental Productions (Full Stagings of a New Play in Process)

• 

  Song for the Disappeared

  By Tanya Saracho
  Directed by Laurie Woolery

  December 8 - 23, 2012

  This gripping new drama from playwright Tanya Saracho (El Nogalar) tells the story of a fractured family that comes together when the youngest son mysteriously disappears—presumably at the hands of the narcos that dominate the US/Mexico border.

  RESERVE TICKETS

• 

  The World of Extreme Happiness

  By Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig
  Directed by Jonathan Berry

  December 9 - 23, 2012

  Savage, tragic and desperately funny, The World of Extreme Happiness is a stirring examination of a country, China, in the midst of rapid change, and of the courageous individuals struggling to shape their own destinies.

  RESERVE TICKETS

Staged Readings (Script-in-Hand Concert Readings

• 

  Stutter

  By Philip Dawkins

  Saturday, December 15 at 3pm

  Rosemary lives a quiet, unassuming life, teaching piano in a small Iowa town. But her world is turned upside down when she learns a secret about her past—a terrible injustice which happened not only to her, but to other vulnerable children. When she’s asked to join a class action lawsuit, Rosemary must decide where her responsibilities lie—and whether to let her past invade her present.

  SOLD OUT

• 

  The Solid Sand Below

  By Martín Zimmerman

  Saturday, December 15 at 11am

  Julian Flores narrowly escapes a prison sentence and lands in Iraq where he’s anything but a model soldier. But when an I.E.D. blast nearly costs him his life, something changes for Flores. Soon the adrenaline, clarity, and intimacy of battle become something he can’t live without—even after he returns home. 

  SOLD OUT

• 

  Buzzer

  By Tracey Scott Wilson

  Sunday, December 16 at 2pm

  Jackson is a young, successful African American attorney determined to build a life in the rapidly gentrifying neighborhood of his youth. He returns with his white girlfriend and best friend in tow, but the trio are soon forced to confront their deepest presumptions as racial and sexual tensions—both inside and outside the apartment—quickly rise to the surface.

  SOLD OUT

• 

  2666

  By Roberto Bolano
  Translated by Natasha Wimmer
  Adapted & Directed by Robert Falls and Seth Bockley

  Monday, December 17 at 6pm

  This soaring adaptation of Chilean-born author Roberto Bolaño’s masterpiece begins with a group of hapless European academics hot on the trail of an elusive author—a search that leads them into the dark heart of a Mexican border city where the murders of hundreds of women remain unsolved. The narrative erupts from there into a stunning portrait of the twentieth century that spans more than 100 years and takes us from Spain to Mexico to Germany and beyond in a series of stories that illuminate the power of literature to reflect and transform the world. An unflinching look at the nature of evil, this ambitious new work is not to be missed.

  SOLD OUT