by Molly Bicks

INKubator 2018-2019

In 1951 Charmaine was crowned “Miss Atomic Power” at a pageant celebrating the first atomic bomb dropped in Nevada. Twenty years later, Charmaine and her daughter Bets run a failing roadside attraction alongside two space aliens named Dave, stranded in the desert under mysterious circumstances. In the summer of 1971, Bets secretly enters the 20th Anniversary Miss Atomic Power Jr. Competition hoping to win a scholarship to college and leave her life behind. However, plans change when Bets and Charmaine are recruited as star witnesses in a lawsuit against the federal government for knowingly poisoning its inhabitants during nuclear testing. As past and present collide, all are forced toward a new understanding of their state, their country, and each other.

DEVELOPMENT HISTORY
- Finalist, National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, 2024
- Fellowship, Terrence McNally New Works Incubator, 2023
- Reading, Breaking the Binary Theatre, 2023
- Runner-up, Yale Drama Series Prize, 2021