Dirt Roads

Transgender playwright Jade is writing a play. It is based on her own life, and she's going to use it to finally create a realistic depiction of trans experiences in rural American high schools. Drawing on her past, she sketches a cast of characters, their names replaced with Commedia Dell'Arte stock characters, and begins to weave a tale of stolen honor, infidelity, blackmail, and a high school production of Into the Woods.

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All the while, her brother doubts her work. Is this really what happened? And, more importantly, is revisiting all of this really good for Jade? Is she processing, or ripping open new wounds for the sake of a good story?

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As Jade writes and rewrites, her approach becomes more experimental, veering further and further from the truth until the play she is writing collapses in on itself, destroying the barrier between past and present, and forcing Jade into a different kind of reckoning.

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Dirt Roads is adapted from Parker Atkin's play of the same name, and has book and lyrics by Parker and music by Dawson. The score blends jazz and folk influences, sketching the palates of an urban transplant and the sister who never really left home. Through its uniquely multi-layered meta-theatrical storytelling, Dirt Roads explores memory, storytelling, and the impact of the exploitation of personal trauma on those doing the telling.