OFF THE PAGE ARCHIVE
Word for Word's Off the Page staged reading series has been our testing ground for new material. Here is an admittedly partial archive of stories that have been performed.
2022
July 25, 7pm: Black Box, by Jennifer Egan
Directed by Vanessa Flores
"Black Box" is a science fiction short story published in May 2012 by American writer Jennifer Egan. It was released in an unusual serialized format: as a series of tweets on The New Yorker's Twitter account over nine days beginning May 25, 2012. The story is in the form of "mental dispatches" from a spy living in the Mediterranean area in the near future.
August 8, 7pm: Children of the Sea, by Edwidge Danticat
Directed by Margo Hall
A young man on a boat flees to America for asylum while a young woman, his lover, stays behind in Haiti trying to survive increasing violence and chaos. In the face of senseless brutality and adversity, the two write letters to each other they can never send.
September 4, 5pm: Eternal Love, by Karen Bender
Directed by Amy Kossow
Word for Word shines a light on our society's fear of confronting the idea of the adult lives of neurodivergent people. In " Eternal Love," we follow the story of one family who nervously chaperones their adult neurodivergent daughter and her new husband on their Vegas honeymoon
Used by kind permission of author, all rights reserved.
October 3, 7pm: The Second Bakery Attack and Bakery Attack, by Haruki Murakami
Directed by Keiko Shimosato Carreiro
Two related stories by one of fiction's most beloved authors. A newly married couple realizes they have a lot to learn about each other after they're both seized by an insatiable hunger in the middle of the night. Stirred by her husband’s revelation about an impulsive event from his youth, the wife takes control and leads them into the night to satiate their bottomless hunger.
October 22, 7pm
Home by George Saunders
Directed by Sheila Balter
at the American Bookbinders Museum
The story of Mikey, a war veteran returning to a home that is increasingly cruel and absurd—and his quest for understanding and compassion. Saunders’ subtle yet farcical humor brings a unique slant to otherwise dark topics.
