Our treasured anthology series returns for its seventh installment. Footholds is a collaborative journey between The Impostors Theatre Co. and local artists.

Each year, we challenge writers to submit a short play for us to produce. By introducing a single, ambiguous constraint–a thread that runs through each accepted piece–we ask our writers and collaborators to start with the same limitation and branch off wherever their imaginations take them.

Our past volumes have showcased versatile properties (a pile of red construction paper, a jar half-filled with earth, a skeleton key) as well as locations rife with possibility (a trolley car stationed between two stops, an attic full of forgotten favorites, a lamp-lit alleyway). Each collection has celebrated the spectrum of dramatic storytelling, from satire to horror to romance to movement pieces. The cross-collaboration of multiple playwrights, directors, designers, and performers alike elevate this “grand experiment” to a true testament of creative community building.

This year's foothold: A narrow, weathered bridge (not safe for driving) where visitors must pay tolls–symbolic or literal–for passage. Engraving its aged wood are initials and messages, evidence of visitors past.

“BEWARE! TROLLS! (AND THEIR REMARKABLE EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE)”
by Annika Andersson
directed by Kayla Higbee
When crossing the not-so-metaphorical bridge to adulthood, travelers must give up a cherished childhood “something”—and each bridge troll does the transaction a little differently.

“BURN THAT BRIDGE WHEN WE GET TO IT”
by Greta Mae Geiser
directed by Rashaad A. Bond
When her latest situationship is too good to be true, a frequent visitor to the bridge of forgetting returns with the hopes of putting the past behind her, only for it to catch up—literally.

“HALBERDIERS”
by Alex Fortune
directed by Tim McCarthy
A regular day on the job becomes one unlike any other as two bridge guards wrestle with their feelings for one another, all the while the dark cloud of duty hangs overhead.

“IF TRUE, FALSE”
by MD Frank
directed by Rachel Borgo
In a conflict-ridden future where humanity is infiltrated by clone-like dupes, a philosopher on the lamb must prove her identity to an old flame who’s already mourned her presumed death.

“I WAS ADAPTED FROM A SHAKESPEARE PLAY AND ALL I GOT WAS MY SOUL STOLEN BY A LOUSY MAGIC BRIDGE”
by Matt Schutz
directed by Stephanie Lewis
A couple of Shakespearean clowns find themselves stalled—and hungry—on one side of an obviously magical bridge, debating if their stomachs are worth more to them than their souls.

“THIS BRIDGE kills PEOPLE”
by Cody Lee Walker
directed by McManus
Three unwitting contestants wake up in a nightmarish game show they didn’t sign up for, fighting for their lives in front of a live studio audience.