Nine plays chosen from more than 350 submissions will be featured at City Circle Acting Company’s New Play Festival on February 4 and 5 at the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts.  All of the short plays center on family bonds and making connections in our contemporary lives. The featured plays are:

A Different State by Terry Riley

Three women of a certain age wait for a service to begin and talk about the guest of honor

Batting Practice by Rand Higbee

A lonely man meets a woman potentially out of his league at a baseball game

Choices by Barbara Lau

A couple discover they are unexpectedly pregnant and must make a choice

Driven to Distraction by Matt Crowley

A mother and child attempt to have a technology-free weekend

Mads by Matthew Falduto

A father faces additiction while attempting to raise and care for his daughter

Picnics at Windy Creek River by Brian Tanner

A family gathers in the hospital room of an elderly matriarch and recall other times they have come together

Retail Therapy by Anthony Craine

A father and son grapple with each other and their future in the father’s hospital room

We Appear to Have Company by Greg Freier

A man and woman attempt to enjoy an evening at home only to discover a clown has unexpectedly arrived

Ken and Barbies’ Root Beer Date by Kent Forsberg

A young man reconsiders a childhood friendship

The Play Festival will be held during the run of Urinetown at the Performing Arts Center. “Each short play will be simply produced in tandem with Urinetown,” says director Jesse Jensen. “The musicalUrinetown came from a new play festival similar to this one so it’s only fitting that we allow audiences to see theater at different stages within the same weekend.

Actors interested in being a part of these productions are asked to email their resumes to citycirclenewplay@gmail.com.

Tickets to the New Play Festival are $10 and can be purchased at http://www.coralvillearts.org/ or by calling 319.248.9370 or in person at the CCPA box office at 1301 5th Street and at the Coralville Recreation Center at 1506 8th Street.