Mile Square Theatre presents 19th Annual 7th Inning Stretch

Published by New Jersey Stage
05/28/2023

(HOBOKEN, NJ) -- Mile Square Theatre presents the 19th Annual 7th Inning Stretch of June 16-17. Each year, seven playwrights write seven 10-minute plays involving baseball. The plays run the gambit from heartwarming to hysterical; realistic to absurd. Whatever they are, you'll enjoy a terrific lineup of short plays about the great American pastime. This year's event features world premiere short works by a roster of playwrights including: Tim Errickson, Charlene Jean, Michelle Tyrene Johnson,  Cherise Kimoy, Tim J. Lord, Nandita Shenoy and SC Stowe.

Regarding the annual event, Artistic Director Kevin R. Free says, "7th inning Stretch always excites me, because it’s so celebratory. I love seeing the theater full of families who love both new plays and baseball, and this year, I hope for a bigger celebration, since we are naming the stage to honor Chris O’Connor’s years of service to Mile Square Theatre and the city of Hoboken."

Performances take place Friday, June 16 at 8:00pm (tickets range from $24-$35) and Saturday, June 17th at 8:00pm (tickets are $75 and includes admission to the event Gala and Triple Play Party, at which the stage of Mile Square Theatre will be dedicated to and named for the organization’s founder Chris O’Connor). Tickets are available for purchase online. Running Time: 90 Minutes; Recommended for ages 12 and up.

Tim Errickson is a writer based in NewYork City. He recently completed his MFA in Writing for Stage & Screen with Park Point University. Tim is also the Artistic Director of Boomerang Theatre Company, an award-winning nonprofit theater. His play The Messy Antigone Project was selected as a finalist for the Screen Craft Stage Play 2020 competition. Prior to that, his play Warm Roses (an adaptation of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya) premiered in a Zoom production in October 2020. Productions include The Firebird with Rising Sun Performance Company at the 2015 Planet Connections Theatre Festivity (receiving 5 PC Award nominations) and Endless Summer Nights with Boomerang in September 2010 (“Pick of the Week” by nytheatre.com). He is currently at work on his new play with music Wonderland, as well as projects for screen and audio. Tim studied at Hofstra University’s experimental New College, The University of London, Circle Repertory Company, Primary Stages/ESPA and Point Park University.

Charlene Jean is a Haitian-American Queer playwright of Bricks (A 20-Year Music Tour of Reparations), King Afua, Shit In The Blood: A Biomythography of Recipes (co-devised with Bryanna Bradley and Courtney Bryan Devon), and film-installation featuring music by Myles E. Johnson, Black Planet. As a playwright, performer, and producer of her works, Charlene is a 2022 MAP Grant Fund Awardee, 2023/2024 Creative Capital WILD FUTURES finalist, Jonathan Larson Grant finalistand an O'Neill National Musical Theatre Conference finalist with multidisciplinary works presented at Weeksville Heritage Center, Harlem Film House, Mother New York, International Society of Curational Programming, and JACK Arts Radical Acts Festival.Next for her works: Brick Theatre’s New Works Festival, and Movement Research at Judson Memorial Church (SITB), Hi-Arts CRITICAL BREAKS residency, En Garde Arts Development/dramaturgy and Manhattan School of Music Musical Theatre lab (Bricks) culminating in a live cast album recording Summer/Fall 2023.

Michelle Tyrene Johnson is a public radio journalist, author, and former attorney from the Greater Kansas City, Missouri Area who now lives inLouisville, Kentucky. As an award-winning playwright, Johnson’s plays have been staged nationally, including in California, Texas, Illinois, Nevada, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Utah. Several of her plays, such as Wiccans in the Hood; The Negro Whisperer; Trading Races: From Rodney King to Paula Deen; Echoes of Octavia; and The Green Book Wine Club Train Trip have been in New York City festivals and readings. Her play Only One Day A Year was chosen for the Kennedy Center’s 2020 New Vision/NewVoices Festival and received an award from the National Endowment for the Arts for its World Premiere at the Coterie Theatre in Kansas City, Missouri. Johnson received her MFA in Writing, with a focus on playwriting, from Spalding University in May 2022.

Cherise Kimoy is a dedicated, risk-taking artist who hopes to bring awareness and delight to others through her work. Originally from Miami, FL, she received her BFA in Acting from theUniversity of Central Florida then professionally performed regionally, being featured in musicals, plays, original works, readings, TV and film opportunities on networks like Netflix and OWN. During the pandemic, when so many of us discovered so much about ourselves, Kimoy discovered a deep love for playwriting. Although she featured in playwriting and collaborative works prior, like Tectonic Theatre Project’s The Album and various other new development workshops, it wasn’t until creating a play inspired by her mother’s passing (check cherisekimoy.com for where Motherless is being featured) that ignited something in her. She is super excited to be a part of this opportunity and she looks forward to creating more! God is love.

Tim J. Lord is the recipient of the inaugural Apothetae-Lark Fellowship for a writer with a disability and a 2017-

18 Jerome Fellow at The Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis. His play We Declare You a Terrorist received a finishing commission from Round House Theatre and was produced there in 2022, At the Lark, he developed a trilogy of plays that radically re-imagine the Oedipus story: Down in the face of God; On Every Link a Heart Does Dangle; or, Owed; and I Never Cared for You; or, Lies. Currently, he is working on a commission for the Kennedy Center. Other work has been developed and produced at The Public Theater, The Lark, Actors Theatre of Louisville, New Harmony Project, The Playwrights’ Center, Pillsbury House +Theater, Circle Rep, the Summer Play Festival, The Cutout Theatre, The Vagrancy, Barn Arts Collective, and The Working Theater. Tim studied with Paula Vogel while a resident of Providence, RI, and is a graduate of the MFA Playwriting Program at UCSD.

Nandita Shenoy is an actor-writer living in New York City. Most recently, her play The Future Is Female...premiered at the Flint Repertory Theatre. Her play Washer/Dryer has been produced multiple times across the country including an Off-Broadway run in which she also starred. Lyme Park: An Austonian Romance of an Indian Nature, was produced by the Hegira in Washington, DC, and Satisfaction had a developmental run at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Nandita won the 2014 Father Hamblin Award in Playwriting, a 2018 Mellon Creative Research Fellowship, and a 2022 Hermitage Fellowship. Acting credits include world premieres of plays by Chelsea Marcantel, Madhuri Shekar, Adam Szymkowicz, Eric Pfeffinger,and Richard Dresser as well as a season at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. She sits on the Steering Committee of the Asian American Performers Action Coalition (AAPAC) which recently won a Tony Honor for its advocacy work.

Mile Square Theatre is located at 1400 Clinton Street in Hoboken, New Jersey. The company was founded by Chris O’Connor in 2003 as a non-profit professional theatre. Their mission is to enrich and engage the region through the production of professional theatre and innovative arts education. MST produces professional theatre year round, including shows for young audiences and our annual festival of plays about baseball, 7th Inning Stretch. The MST Dance Academy provides pre-professional dance training in ballet, contemporary, tap, theatre dance, flamenco and hip hop; classes run on an academic-year schedule. MST Education provides workshops in acting and improvisation for all ages in spring and fall.