Dance Nation

by Clare Barron
directed by Erin Healani Chung

Everyone is nice.
Everyone is vulnerable.
And everyone is trying their hardest.

Somewhere in America, an army of pre-teen competitive dancers plots to take over the world. And if their new routine is good enough, they’ll claw their way to the top at Nationals in Tampa Bay. A Pulitzer Prize-nominated play about ambition, growing up, and how to find our souls in the heat of it all.

Dance Nation is the fifth of six monthly staged readings in the Play Reading Series, the Mālama Arts initiative to support excitement and offer opportunity for plays in Hilo. Each month, MA will select a play for local actors to read for a live audience. Staged readings are exciting yet low-pressure opportunities to present actors and audiences with new material. With generous support from the County of Hawai’i and in collaboration with Hilo Community Players, Mālama Arts is pleased to offer the Play Reading Series free of cost.

Content warning: Dance Nation is best suited for adults or teens over the age of 16. This reading contains coarse language, depictions of gore and sexual content.

Dance Nation is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French. www.concordtheatricals.com