Alleyway Theatre is proud to take part in Women+ on the Edge of Democracy, a nationwide initiative that brings communities together to hear short plays and talk about the questions they raise.

Join us in the Cabaret for Part One, Part Two, or both. Each part features a different selection of plays and can be enjoyed on its own. Attend both to experience the full collection Alleyway is presenting.

A conversation follows each performance, hosted by Alleyway board member Karen King, PhD, Erie County Commissioner of Public Advocacy and Executive Director of the Erie County Commission on the Status of Women.

Part One

Sunday, October 25 at 1 p.m.

• Attestation by Lynn Nottage: Across a 2026 debate stage, a 1772 attestation hearing, a university hearing, and a conversation between a critic and playwright, Black women are repeatedly asked to prove the legitimacy of their voices and work. The same exhausted response echoes across centuries as authority shifts hands, but the interrogation remains.
• Shards by Judith Thompson: A woman surrounded by broken mirrors tells her story, questioning how she sees herself and how others have judged her.
• Another Four Years by Stella Feehily: On the eve of another Trump presidency, an Irish family’s conversation reveals political rifts, generational differences, and competing versions of the truth.
• Last Call by Ife Olujobi: In a bar under an increasingly repressive regime, two women weigh their relationship, their fears, and different ideas of resistance.
• Common Ground by Lauren M. Gunderson: Two people trade furious messages through their phones in a comic, escalating portrait of online division—until they encounter the possibility of sharing a room.
• The Day Is Dead by Zinnie Harris: As a crisis over the moon becomes a campaign against the sky, one woman watches alarming claims reshape ordinary life and what people are allowed to remember.
• And Where Has It Gone That Thick and Heavy History Book We Carried Through the Halls of Learning, Skinnied Now, Pages and Pages Years and Years Erased. Wasn’t It Beautiful? by Susan Miller: After a civic meeting falls apart, its chairperson and a young independent journalist search for a way to keep people talking across their differences.

Part Two

Sunday, October 25 at 6 p.m.

• The Edge of Democracy by Rona Munro: On election day in 1929 Scotland, two sisters debate whether casting a ballot for the first time can make a difference.
• Reasonable Suspicion by Lisa Loomer: A writer detained at a Texas airport faces an interrogation that turns her identity, work, and right to return home into questions.
• Little Houses by Lucy Caldwell: A woman recalls a childhood game with her sisters during a tense Belfast summer, finding a new understanding of the stories they told and the world around them.
• An Uplifting High School Graduation Speech by Sarah Ruhl: A federal judge returns to her former school to address its graduates, drawing on her own history to speak about bodily autonomy and the power of the vote.
• Maeve by Else Went: A woman travels home to meet her newborn niece, only to find that her brother and sister-in-law insist there was never a baby.
• Maya by Dael Orlandersmith: A library cleaner and writer cares for the books around her while defending the value of her own words and ideas.
  

Cast:
Part 1: Gabriella McKinley, David Mitchell, Kai Crumley, Kathleen Rooney, Spud

Part 2: Rebecca Elkin, Camilla Maxwell, Marc Anthony, Victoria Pérez

Special Thanks to Jean Sangster.

Women+ on the Edge of Democracy was initiated and commissioned by the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts in partnership with the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Learn more about the national initiative.