Created by the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel, the “Bake-Off” is a communal event in which writers are given a random list of “ingredients” to incorporate into their play to help inspire creativity and give them permission to play. This year’s ingredients for HVSF’s Bake-Off were selected with the help of Ms. Vogel and included:
- combine tractor
- burning leaves
- a hayride
- kids dressed for Halloween
- the moon
- a frightened stag attempting
to cross route 9A - a dirt road
- a scary story told by a campfire
- a premonition
- an old, dusty trunk
- a basket of apples
On Sunday, November 24 professional actors from the HVSF company will read the plays. Read on to see the works of your neighbors selected for this year’s Bake-Off…
GHOST STORIES
by Lila Nawrocki
Beacon, NY
What kinds of tales do ghosts tell around the campfire? Why, those of the living, of course! When a newly dead ghost joins the group, spooky hilarity ensues.
AUNT TESSA’S PEAR TREE
by Eileen Burns
Peekskill, NY
A beautiful, poignant story about memory loss and how a perfect pear can bring pure and simple joy.
LAST HAYRIDE
by Steve Chizmadia
Peekskill, NY
A brother and sister debate whether to sell the farm that’s been in the family for years.
WHY?
A One Woman Play
by Ellen O’Neill
Salt Point, NY
When a woman visits the home she grew up in, she’s flooded with painful and mysterious questions about her childhood.
NEW HARVEST
by Julie Smith
Croton-on-Hudson, NY
A moving and funny tale of a mother and her mother, and the difficulties of raising a child.
THE WOMAN’S LAND ARMY
by Stephanie Buckley
Park Ridge, NJ
During World War II, the Women’s Land Army placed women with farms that needed workers while the men were at war. As three young women take up their assignments, they are forced to reckon with the painful new reality of their lives.
MAGGIE’S FARM
by Jennifer Persechino
New Hartford, CT
The story of an unlikely friendship between a scarecrow and a crow.
Director Raz Golden
Stage Management Caitlyn Halvorsen
Bake-Off Associate Producer and Literary Manager Christine Scarfuto
Sponsored by a Humanities New York Vision/Action Grant
