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Bike America

Full-Length Play, Drama  /  3w, 4m

Michael Lew

Bike America is a wildly theatrical picaresque journey that crams the entire continent onto one stage. The play takes the audience on a cross-country bike trip from Boston to California, with stops in big cities and small towns along the way. Our feckless heroine Penny is looking to bring more meaning into her life, to find a lifestyle that suits her and a town that feels like a home...

Bike America

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  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    3w, 4m
  • Duration
    Duration
    90 minutes
  • SubGenre
    Subgenre
    Not Applicable
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Adult, Teen (Age 14-18)
Accolades
Accolades
  • WINNER - 2012-2013 Alliance/Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Award

Details

Summary
Award-winning playwright, Mike Lew's Bike America is a wildly theatrical picaresque journey that crams the entire continent onto one stage.

The play peddles the audience along a cross-country bike trip from Boston to California, with stops in big cities and small towns along the way. Our feckless heroine Penny is looking to bring more meaning into her life, to find a lifestyle that suits her and a town that feels like a home... so she drops her clingy boyfriend in Beantown and takes off for Santa Barbara! Along the way she befriends a colorful crew of bikers: Ryan, the health nut biking instructor; Tim Billy, the innocent wanderer; Annabel and Rorie, the badass activists seeking to get gay-married in every state they hit on the trip; and the mysterious Man with the Van who carries their stuff. Featuring a flexible and diverse cast, Bike America is a multi-state, multi-generational odyssey to discover our obsession with happiness.
History
Bike America was originally produced on February 6, 2013, by Alliance Theatre, Atlanta, GA, Susan V. Booth, Artistic Director.

Bike America received its New York premiere on October 1, 2013, by Ma-Yi Theater Company, Ralph B. Peña, Artistic Director, Jorge Z. Ortoll, Executive Director.

Keywords
Performing Groups
PENNY - (F, 20s, any ethnicity) - our heroine 
TODD - (M, 20s, any ethnicity) - her clingy long-distance boyfriend 
RYAN - (M, 30s, any ethnicity)- a crunchy granola biking instructor 
TIM BILLY - (M, 20s, Black) - a cross-country bicyclist 
ANNABEL (F, 30s-40s, Asian or Hispanic) - a cross-country bicyclist/Rorie’s wife 
PATTY - a Brooklyn artisanal cheese maker
MOM - Todd’s mom, an Allentown she-bear
RORIE - (F, 30s-40s, Black) - a cross-country bicyclist/Annabel’s wife 
MARILYN - a Connecticut homeowner
LAURALIE – a Kentucky bartender
MAN WITH THE VAN - (M, 40s, any ethnicity) - a grizzled shamanistic porter
GENE - a Brooklyn artisanal cheese maker
STUART - an Ohio YMCA director
CARLO – an Arizona county clerk

Performed by a cast of 7 actors (3F, 4M). 

  • Time Period Contemporary, Present Day, New Millennium/21st Century
  • Features Contemporary Costumes/Street Clothes
  • Additional Features No Intermission
  • Duration 90 minutes
  • Cautions
    • Mild Adult Themes

Media

REVIEWS
“Bike America is a trip full of verve... It’s easily one of the better new plays by a young American writer I’ve seen in a long time” - Village Voice, Read More

“Lew adroitly captures the cross-country genre in his own uniquely cartoonish way, elevating the United States to a mythical land full of magic and monsters.” - Theater Mania, Read More

ON BREAKING CHARACTER

Scene Study and Classroom Reading: Plays for Colleges and Universities
by Becca Schlossberg
August 23, 2019

BIKE AMERICA: The Story of A Generation
by Ryan McLeod
April 2, 2015

Videos

  • Promo - BIKE FOR BIKE AMERICA (Mike Lew youtube thumbnail

    Promo - BIKE FOR BIKE AMERICA (Mike Lew

  • Maxamoo Interview: Mike Lew, Bike America youtube thumbnail

    Maxamoo Interview: Mike Lew, Bike America

  • Maxamoo Interview with Mike Lew youtube thumbnail

    Maxamoo Interview with Mike Lew

Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: $110 per performance

Scripts

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Authors

Michael Lew

Michael Lew
Mike Lew’s plays include Teenage Dick (Public Studio, O’Neill, St. Louis Rep, Florida Studio Theater, and Playwrights Foundation workshops; Vineyard reading), Tiger Style! (Huntington, La Jolla Playhouse, and Alliance productions; O’Neill, CTG, and Juilliard workshops), micro ...
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