FIFTY BOXES OF EARTH

by Ankita Raturi MFA '23

directed by Cambria Herrera MFA '23

PERFORMANCE DATES

Preview:

• May 2 @ 7:00pm

Showings: 

• May 6, 11, 12 & 14 @ 7:30pm
• May 7 @ 2:00pm

ABOUT THE PLAY 

Q imports earth from their homeland to grow peculiar plants in a community garden, cultivating a little plot of home in this new land. Jon, the community garden manager, doesn’t trust this mysterious immigrant or their foreign dirt. But much to his terror, Jon’s eleven-year-old daughter is intractably drawn to the enigmatic Q and their unearthly garden. A creative response to Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Fifty Boxes of Earth asks us to consider the heavy costs of leaving a home to put down new roots.

This is a play that is just as magical as it is grounded in necessary truths for our time. Truths about taking care of each other and the land. It’s about both learning from our most ancient past through the mistakes and traditions of our ancestors and looking forward to how we can make a better future for the next generation. We’ll see the power of connection to ancestors, connection to land, fear of the other, and desperate familial love explode into a transformative, queer garden.

CONTENT WARNINGS

Lighting flashes, strobe, and photosensitive effects; blood

ABOUT THE WAGNER NEW PLAY FESTIVAL

This show is part of the Wagner New Play Festival, an annual festival of new works by MFA playwrights, in collaboration with MFA/PhD directors, actors, designers, stage managers, and dramaturges.