Hear/Now: LIVE!

Featuring The Telegram by Mashuq Mushtaq Deen and That Old Perplexity by Deb Margolin, directed by Jonathan Silverstein

December 10 — 19, 2021

In 2020, Keen Company created Hear/Now: A Season of Audio Theater which updated the radio drama through a modern Off-Broadway lens. In 2021, as a bridge back to the theater, we are proud to produce two newly commissioned plays in an exciting live format.

Hear/Now: LIVE! reinvents the old-fashioned radio broadcast for the stage, featuring two world premiere plays by Mashuq Mushtaq Deen and Deb Margolin! Watch as an existential Western and a chaotic subway ride come to life through original music, live foley sound effects, and a thrilling cast of characters! Get ready, anything can happen when you’re live.

The Telegram by Mashuq Mushtaq Deen: Augie is the consummate cowboy - she’s hardened, principled, and quick on the draw. But when the Kid tags along, expecting stagecoach races, shootouts, and barrels of whiskey, he finds himself entirely unprepared for the absurd realities of the Wild West. Sort of your traditional radio Western, sort of not.

That Old Perplexity by Deb Margolin: While Manhattan is still reeling from the fall of 2001, Mary and Barbara find themselves in the midst of their own private crises. As their morning commute stalls, the beautiful discord of the recovering city is healed in a tiny way through the women's sudden intimate connection, the bizarre grace of a vagrant, and the organic ascendance of kindness. A comedy!

Hear/Now: LIVE! will run 90 minutes with no intermission, and each piece will be presented at every performance.