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PHASES aims to fulfill New Moon Theatre Company's mission to present underproduced classic and contemporary works by presenting staged readings of pieces that have not been produced in Memphis within the last decade, if ever.
Each presentation will feature a full reading of the script, a curated audience discussion, snacks, beverages, and the opportunity to find a work to present as a full production in future seasons.
SERIES 1 - SUMMER 2026
BOOTYCANDY
By Robert O'Hara
Directed by Cleavon Meabon, IV
DATE TBD
TheatreWorks @ the Square
2085 Monroe Avenue
Memphis, Tennessee 38104
About BOOTYCANDY
Sutter is on an outrageous odyssey through his childhood home, his church, dive bars, motel rooms, and even nursing homes. Playwright Robert O'Hara weaves together scenes, sermons, sketches, and daring meta-theatrics to create a kaleidoscopic portrayal of growing up gay and Black. Uproarious satire crashes headlong into the murky terrain of pain and pleasure and… Bootycandy.
CAST
HORSE GIRLS
By Jenny Rachel Weiner
Directed by Kaylea Jo Egnor
DATE TBD
TheatreWorks @ the Square
2085 Monroe Avenue
Memphis, Tennessee 38104
About HORSE GIRLS
Twelve-year-old Ashleigh rules the Lady Jean Ladies, South Florida’s most exclusive horse club. News that her family’s stables are being sold and their horses killed for meat throws the Ladies into crisis in this dark comedy of middle school deception and lies. Horse Girls is a play about pre-teens: their obsessions, their insecurities and their desperate need to find a place in the world.
CAST
HEAVENS
TO BETSY
A New Play
By Justin Burgess
Directed by Katie Houston
DATE TBD
TheatreWorks @ the Square
2085 Monroe Avenue
Memphis, Tennessee 38104
About HEAVENS TO BETSY
A pre-apocalyptic comedy. On the first day at her new job, an eccentric woman named Betsy Cardona, mistakenly triggers the launch of a nuclear bomb. To save the day, and the world, she’s forced to navigate a byzantine network of Cold War-Era machinery put in place after devastating budget cuts. Betsy has a tight deadline and nothing to help her but a mostly-redacted manual and a mechanic with a hammer. Can she stop the bomb in time or cause a worldwide nuclear apocalypse?
CAST
WHITE NOISE
By Suzan-Lori Parks
Directed by Claire D. Kolheim
DATE TBD
TheatreWorks @ the Square
2085 Monroe Avenue
Memphis, Tennessee 38104
About WHITE NOISE
Leo, Dawn, Ralph, and Misha are four longtime friends and sometimes lovers who are coming into their own in the city, until a violent police encounter prompts Leo to suggest an audacious experiment that unmasks long-simmering secrets among the group. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks brings her bold sense of humor and history to a story about four thirtysomethings in a not-at-all post-racial world. 
CAST
FAIRVIEW
By Jackie Sibblies Drury
Directed by Marc Gill
DATE TBD
TheatreWorks @ the Square
2085 Monroe Avenue
Memphis, Tennessee 38104
About FAIRVIEW
At the Frasier household, preparations for Grandma’s birthday party are underway. Beverly is holding on to her sanity by a thread to make sure this party is perfect, but her sister can’t be bothered to help, her husband doesn’t seem to listen, her brother is MIA, her daughter is a teenager. Maybe nothing is what it seems in the first place. Fairview is a searing examination of families, drama, family dramas and the insidiousness of white supremacy.
CAST
SERIES 2 - FALL 2026
BOY MY GREATNESS
By Zoe Senese - Grossberg
Directed by Jari Head
DATE TBD
TheatreWorks @ the Square
2085 Monroe Avenue
Memphis, Tennessee 38104
About BOY MY GREATNESS
What happened to the boys who played Shakespeare's women? In the summer of 1606, six boy players warm up, run lines, gossip, and fall in and out of love all in between rehearsals for the premieres of Antony and Cleopatra and Twelfth Night. As the plague and rising religious conservatism threaten their way of life, they are all forced to reconsider their futures on the stage.
CAST
THE MOST SPECTACULARLY LAMENTABLE TRIAL OF MIZ MARTHA WASHINGTON
By James Ijames
Directed by Lymonte' Thomas
DATE TBD
TheatreWorks @ the Square
2085 Monroe Avenue
Memphis, Tennessee 38104
About MIZ MARTHA WASHINGTON
The recently widowed “Mother of America” lies helpless in her Mount Vernon bed, ravaged by illness and cared for by the very slaves that will be free the moment she dies. As she begins to slip away, she falls deep into a fever dream of terrifying theatricality that investigates everything from her family to her historical legacy.
CAST
THE DEATH OF
ALAN CAMPBELL:
A WILDE AFFAIR
A New Play
By Savannah S. Miller
Directed by Hunter Steele
DATE TBD
TheatreWorks @ the Square
2085 Monroe Avenue
Memphis, Tennessee 38104
About A WILDE AFFAIR
Based on ten pages of The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, The Death of Alan Campbell: A Wilde Affair is an exploration of the title character’s demise in the wake of Gray's destruction. After Gray implies he will blackmail him for his sexuality, Alan Campbell is called upon to dispose of the body of Basil Hayward. When we next hear about him, we are told that he has committed suicide. But what actually happened?
CAST
LAST SUMMER AT
BLUEFISH COVE
By Jane Chambers
Directed by Max Robinson
DATE TBD
TheatreWorks @ the Square
2085 Monroe Avenue
Memphis, Tennessee 38104
About LAST SUMMER
Set in 1980, the play is set at Bluefish Cove, a lesbian beachside haven where Lil Zalinski and her close-knit group of friends take refuge each summer to live and love freely. When a straight woman named Eva wanders unknowingly into their midst, she sends the Cove into a tailspin and knocks Lil off her feet.
CAST
MARY BENNET'S LIVING
A New Play
By Emily Draffen
Directed by Christina Hernandez
DATE TBD
TheatreWorks @ the Square
2085 Monroe Avenue
Memphis, Tennessee 38104
About MARY BENNET'S LIVING
A slice of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, reimagined. Know-it-all Mary Bennet is tired of being teased and misunderstood by her family. Upon learning Mr. Collins will be visiting Longbourn, she determines to secure a marriage proposal from him so she can escape them--but quickly learns that she may not know as much as she thought.