Nevada Bromley is a playwright and educator living in Vermont. She is an Assistant Professor and Director of Student Plays at Landmark College, a four-year school for students who learn differently.
Raised on a farm in Vermont, Nevada has also lived in Puerto Rico and Key West. Her hobbies include mahjongg, exploring back roads, songs and shanties of the British Isles and other regional music, dabbling with guitar, crafts and wildcraft, daydreaming with dogs and other creatures, and reading about the fascinating complexity of human and animal consciousness and behavior.
Apron Theater Company’s “Broth” Warms the Heart While Tickling the Funny Bone By Rick Cowan Nevada Bromley’s “Broth” is about a motley crew who improbably bond to save a home they love. Set in 1969 at the height of hippie era, the staged reading at Brattleboro’s Hooker Dunham Theater featured veterans from the local drama community as well as students and a teacher from The Putney School. “A space can hold so much meaning,” said the playwright in describing the threatened boarding house at the center of her play’s plot. Aging Irish Catholic divorcee Nell Bannister (Christopher Coutant) owns the home where Winston (Samuel Williams) studies to become a priest, Bridget (Maeve Campman) cleans the rooms while secretly moonlighting as a go-go dancer, Mr. Waters (Jim Maxwell) cooks broth and serves advice, and Nell's teenage niece, Justine (Acadia Barrengos), faces the challenges of adolescence without her mother. To pay the bills, Nell hosts the "Quit Smokers," a weekly support group comprised of souls from many walks of life, including: Laura (Chris Parker-Jennings), an aspiring author; Ned (Arthur Pettee), a factory foreman; a hippie hitchhiker named Moon (Supawat Vitoorapakorn); and Rupert (Lou Canelli), a department store window decorator. When Mr. Cheever (Jon Mack), the banker who secretly frequents the local go-go club, attempts to foreclose on the property, the group hatches a wacky plan to save the place that has brought them together. An autumn romance between Nell and local clothing storeowner Vincent (Michael Kennedy) adds poignance to the comedy. They knew each other as children at the local Catholic school and share memories of dictatorial nuns.
When asked about the creation of “Broth,” playwright Bromley describes how “the characters just arrived.” She had just completed a production at Landmark College where she teaches acting and is director of student plays. A winter break stretched before her and by the time it was over, Nevada had completed the first draft.
The Apron Theater produced the work as a part of their New Works Series, a program devoted to contemporary writing and the voices of local playwrights. “Creating a place for the development of new work is vital to the art form and an essential part of creating theater,” says Apron co-founder Karla Baldwin. “Hearing one’s work before others in the voices of actors is a powerful part of the creative process,” adds Hallie Flower, another of the theater company’s founders.
