$15 / General Admission

The Firehouse Center for the Arts is proud to present the closing performances of our 2025 New Works Festival featuring One Act Meridian Summer by Candace Perry. Highlighting the Honegger Prize winning short Ellen Talks About the Bird* by Donna Sorbello, supported by Grammy G by Christopher Lockheart, Pass the Salt by Leslie Powell, and To Our Beloved Shareholders by Gregory Hischak.

Meridian Summer

by Candace Perry

Civil rights are challenged, argued, and obstructed in Meridian, Mississippi in the summer of 1964.

Candace Perry is a writer, teacher, and social justice activist who strives to change the world, one play at a time. Over 40 of her short plays have been produced in the US and Ireland; her four full length plays have had readings, workshops and productions in New York and at Cape theaters; and a dozen of her short plays have been produced online. She lives in Wellfleet with her husband, Charles Thibodeau. More info at www.candaceperryplaywright.info.

Ellen Talks About the Bird*

by Donna Sorbello

Two sisters, seemingly mundane lives, of coupons and coffee but also a heart filled with a secret.

Donna Sorbello’s theatre works have been produced at the New Market International Festival, Canada, Lincoln Center Library Theatre, Odyssey Festival at Asolo Theatre, Boston Theatre Marathon, International Festival for Peace and Justice, Studio 620, Gloucester First Night, Open Voices, BPT (staged readings) Turtle Lane Theatre, Priscilla Beach Theatre and Tampa Bay Festival, with online fundraisers for Theatre Alliance and Wellfleet Harbor Theatre. A past winner of the Robert J Pickering award, she has been a finalist for the Eugene O’Neill Center, New Dramatists, WCVB Prime Time Drama Contest, and the Kennedy Center College competition. Her historical novel for middle-school girls, Daughter of Liberty, Latticework Press,(Barnes and Noble, Amazon) combines American Revolutionary history with magical realism.She has many published articles and interviews. As past Director of Emerging Playwrights, a grant-funded program for City High School students at Wheelock Theatre, she helped foster and bring to production the work of young playwrights. She has taught Playwriting for the past twelve years. She is a graduate of Emerson College, and Boston University, studying under Derek Walcott and Kate Snodgrass.

Grammy G

by Christopher Lockheart

We all have a need to hear our mother say, “I love you.” So who cares if she raps it?

Christopher Lockheardt of Groton, MA, has had 45 of his short plays produced over 260 times by 95 different theaters in the United States, Canada, Ireland, Hong Kong, Egypt, and Australia. His work has been included in ten short play anthologies, including four of Smith & Kraus’s Best Ten-Minute Plays of the Year collections.

Pass the Salt

by Leslie Powell

Two “mature” sisters revert to their younger selves over a saltshaker.

Leslie Powell (she/her/hers) writes plays, fiction, nonfiction, essays, and poetry. “Baby Ghost” as creative non-fiction published through Cool Bean Lit can be found here: CoolBeansLit.com/issue2 Her plays have been read and produced throughout the U.S. and in Toronto, Canada. Most recently “Baby Ghost” appeared as a staged reading at the Scottsdale Desert Stage theatre, January 2024 in Scottsdale, Arizona. “Baby Ghost” was developed and presented under the title “The Way Life Should be” at the Actors Studio of Newburyport, Massachusetts and the Firehouse Center For the Arts, also in Newburyport. “Heart-Land: a Lesbian Drama” was selected for National Pride Month in 2022 and presented as a staged-reading for Aria Production in San Antonio, Texas, Her first poem “Stuffed” was published in KYSO zine and selected for ‘Best On The Net’ in the print version. Her fiction “Benediction for a Murderer” has appeared in Zoetrope online and her essay “Son of Man” appeared in Pandora magazine.

To Our Beloved Shareholders

by Gregory Hischak

The torch of corporate-speak has been passed to a new generation.

Gregory Hischak is a writer and performer living in Yarmouth Port, MA.