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Sunday, May 4th Time: 6-8pm
NOTE: Tickets for Through the Valley are handled directly through the Boston Theatre Marathon.
Through the Valley
SYNOPSIS: After a family funeral, amidst the terror of the early AIDS crisis, a brother and a sister bicker, reminisce, and discover secrets.
Boston Playwrights’ Theatre produces the annual Boston Theater Marathon (BTM), an award-winning, all-day marathon of new 10-minute plays. The plays are chosen from approximately 400 entries from New England playwrights, and the 50 selected plays are produced by 50 New England theatre companies which donate their time (and talent!) to this event.
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Inspired by the iconic Boston Marathon, the BTM is a theater endurance event designed to make connections between local playwrights and local theatres—seeding new collaborations and strengthening existing ones, and encouraging more companies to consider producing new plays by local writers!—and to introduce audiences to the breadth and depth of the Boston playwriting and theatre scene.
The yearly event provides a showcase—and a connecting point—for the entire theatre community.
Generously supported over the years by the Boston University Center for the Humanities and by individual donations, the BTM gifts its net proceeds to the Theatre Community Benevolent Fund, an organization that helps area theatre artists and companies in crisis.
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In 2000, the BTM received a special Elliot Norton Award from the Boston Theatre Critics Association for “Enlivening Local Theatre.”
Meet the Team
Anna Kraffmiller
(Playwright)
Anna Kraffmiller is a Boston-based playwright interested in exploring queer history and memory-making. She is a recent graduate of Wellesley College. Her play Through the Valley received readings at KCACTF Region One in New Britain, CT., and at Horizon Theatre Company in Atlanta, GA.
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Megan Lummus
(Director)
Megan (she/her) is an openly queer and neurodivergent stage and film director. She is a Resident Director with the Neurodivergent New Play Series, and the Accessibility Chair/Board Member for Studio Theatre Worcester. She recently spoke as a panelist at the BroadwayCon 2025 panel: Politics on Stage. Select directorial credits include: Appeal of Murder by Ashley Jones, Evidence! by AJ, Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Simon Stephens. She has been featured in The Theatre Times and Playbill for her work. Her work has been awarded by the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, and nominated for multiple Broadwayworld Awards.
Katherine McCrackin
(Eileen)
Katherine (any pronouns) is an openly autistic and multiply disabled artist working as an actor, fight coordinator, and intimacy director. Select previous credits include Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing; Chris in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime; Guildenstern in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead; Marianne in Constellations; Jo in Little Women. Katherine recently spoke at BroadwayCon 2025 on the panel Politics on Stage. When not acting, Katherine explores disability accessibility in other areas of theatre through her podcast Breaking Boundaries: Accessible Paths in Theatre for Disabled Artists.
IG: @katherine.mccrackin
Brenden Bartlett
(John Paul)
Brenden (he/they) is absolutely over the moon to be making his Studio Theatre Worcester debut, as well as being featured in the Boston Theatre Marathon (another first)! He has been doing theatre all around the North East, beginning in central Massachusetts, moving to upstate New York, then finding a couple groups out in western Mass, most recently gracing the stage as Henry and Gabe's understudy in Next To Normal (Exit 7 Players) and as Miles Tuck in Tuck Everlasting (Barre Players). His most recent project has found him starting up a new theatrical adventure in central Mass called "Rotten Apples", aimed to bring engaging, mature, and thought-provoking theatrical experiences to the central Massachusetts community. He would love if you could check them out if you have a chance! To end off, he hopes you enjoy the show and thank you for coming to the Boston Theatre Marathon!