Break A Leg Productions is proud to work with playwrights digitally in order to help develop their plays.
After selecting submissions that coincide with our mission, BAL conducts both online and in person table readings and feedback sessions in order to help playwrights meet their script’s goals.
Swimming Upstream
by Rich Rubin
Jen is a young marine biologist whose life is currently in turmoil. Climate change is affecting the world’s salmon, but Jen’s boss won’t let her report her findings. Jen’s new boyfriend, a super-hero aficionado, think’s the salmon’s life-story is eerily similar to Superman’s. And did we mention that Jen’s mother tries to help by repeatedly quoting Ronald Reagan? As Jen encounters the zigs and zags of both her professional career and her personal relationships, she discovers that going with the flow is sometimes not a viable option, and that swimming upstream is the only way to proceed.
Directed by Valerie Adami-Julin
Featuring: Teri Black, Drew Jordan, Yelena Friedman, Valerie Mitchell, Timothy Paul Jobe
About the Playwright
RICH RUBIN’s plays have been staged throughout the U.S. as well as in Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Mexico. Full-length plays include PICASSO IN PARIS (winner, Julie Harris Playwright Award); SWIMMING UPSTREAM (winner, Todd McNerney Playwright Award; finalist, Reva Shiner Comedy Award); CAESAR’S BLOOD (finalist, Oregon Book Award, finalist, Ashland New Play Festival); SHAKESPEARE’S SKULL (winner, Portland Civic Theatre Guild New Play Award); LEFT HOOK (finalist, Woodward-Newman Drama Award; semifinalist, O’Neill Conference); ASSISTED LIVING (winner, Neil Simon Festival New Play Award) richrubinplaywright.come