Silverthorne Theater Company and LAVA present:

Gridlock

by Ellen Meeropol

Directed by Jan Maher

June 11, 2021

7:30 p.m.

Set in an unspecified re-purposed building in a small Western Massachusetts town, Northampton author and playwright Ellen Meeropol’s Gridlock tackles issues of climate change and radical activism as two sisters reunite after a fifty-year separation. On Friday, June 11, a public reading of this work-in-development will give audience members and artists the chance to hear and comment on this new play.

The reading will take place at 7:30 pm at the LAVA Center at 324 Main St, Greenfield. The reading is free and open to the public, but seating capacity is very limited, so reservations are advised by calling 413-768-7514 or writing to [email protected]. Attendees should have been fully vaccinated. Gridlock will also be streamed live on our YouTube Channel here: https://youtu.be/7H7vLWxJ4r4

After the reading there will be a post show discussion, for both the live audience and those who watched via livestream! To join the discussion virtually when the livestream is finished, please join us on Zoom at 9:05 pm: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84193313269?pwd=UjRLMXpVamQvYXhCNkpwZi9kcE5mUT09

Meeropol’s play is loosely based on the characters and events portrayed in her recently released novel Her Sister’s Tattoo (Red Hen Press, 2020). Two sisters are caught up in the anti-war protests of the mid-‘60s, but as a result of “the thorny intersection of family loyalty and clashing political decisions”, a half-century estrangement ensues. Gridlock brings the two, now in their 70’s, back together when a widespread and days-long outage of the national electrical grid throws the country and the local communal living group into a difficult position.