A DREAM BEYOND THIS PAIN

Written by Jonathon Ward
Directed by Lori Kee

Part of TNC’s New City, New Blood Reading Series at Dream Up Festival 2026!

Sunday September 13, 2026 at 11:00 AM
Run Time: 90 minutes, No intermission
CABARET THEATER

FREE

$5 Suggested Donation

Reservations can be made at tncdreamup@gmail.com

THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
155 First Avenue (between 9th & 10th Street)
New York, NY 10003
Directions

A DREAM BEYOND THIS PAIN

A drama of three generations of a middle-class family living the American Dream on Long Island taking care of life’s pains with prescribed medications and recreational substances. When the grandson’s dream falls apart as a result of opioid addiction and the grandfather has to leave his home because he’s mixing up his medications, and the father refuses to take his prescribed SSRI, each generation’s aspirations for the family come unraveled. They must find a way to rediscover a shared dream that will sustain them as a family and as individuals living in a new American Reality.

Cast

TBA

Bios:

JONATHON WARD (producing playwright) is a New Yorker who creates theatre for the delightful hell of it. He’s had the pleasure to create, publish and develop new theatre in USA and Canada in FringeNYC, ATHE New Play Development Workshop 2022, New Circle Theatre Company, Chelsea Rep/The Acting Studio, Eventide Theatre (winning the Kaplan Playwriting Competition, 2022), Indie Theater Now, Secret Theatre, Theatre Conspiracy, Birdhouse Theatre, Manhattan Repertory, Itinerant Theatre, Plays and Pizza, Little Funky Theatre, William Inge Festival (twice), Metropolitan Playhouse (three times), Barter Theater, InspiraTO, Abrons Arts Center, Applause Books (Best One-Act Plays 2014-15), Huntington Arts Council, Cooperstown Art Museum, Little Victory Players, Pulse Ensemble, Community Free Theatre, NYU Studio Tisch, Urban Youth Theatre, University of Chicago and others. He has received five NYSCA commissions, as well as grants from New York University, and private foundations. During his thirty years as an arts administrator, he was the Director of the Theater Program at the Henry Street Settlement Abrons Arts Center and Department Administrator of the NYU Graduate Acting Program. He has written and had produced over 20 plays and produced and presented over 200 shows of other artists. Some of his plays can be found on the New Play Exchange at: https://newplayexchange.org/users/10146/jonathon-ward

LORI KEE (director) is an award-winning director & experienced collaborator on new work. Recent: Japanese Porno by John Patrick Shanley. Upcoming: Zeph and Violet by Krystle N. Adams (Oct 27), 5 One Acts by John Patrick Shanley at the Actors Studio (Nov). She directed the premiere of Pulitzer Prize winning playwright John Patrick Shanley’s play Candlelight. Projects: The Listening Room/with I. Dumeng (Michela Jeffrey), The Chaplin Plays (Don Nigro), Luft Gangster (off Bway, Assoc Dir w/Austin Pendleton), The Big Funk (John Patrick Shanley), Paper Dragon (Alisha Silver), over 60 one acts & other new work including by: John Patrick Shanley (The Lost Years, Brooklyn Laundry, Tennessee, French Waitress, & Japanese Porno), Lyle Kessler, Craig muMs Grant, Webb Wilcoxen, Kristina Poe, Florencia Lozano, Maggie Diaz Bofill, Melissa Skirboll, James McLindon, Arlene Hutton.

Associate SDC, Actors Studio PDU. Resident Director/Member of Nylon Fusion for over a decade. She is an Associate Professor of Theatre at CUNY BMCC. www.lorikee.com @thelorikee