Apr 11, 2007 : Kelly DuMar's full-length drama, Weekend at the Dreaming Cloud, will have a staged reading on April 16, 2007, 7:30 p.m., in the Hunt Memorial Building, 6 Main Street, Nashua, NH.

This free public reading, directed by Leah Belanger, is sponsored by Yellow Taxi Productions, who selected Weekend at the Dreaming Cloud as one of four finalists for the Susan Mcyntyre Play Festival. The finalists will have staged readings and one will be selected for full production in 2008 by Yellow Taxi Productions based in Nashua. Playwrights' Platform member Jerry Bisantz is also a finalist for his play, The Straight Line, which will have a staged reading in Nashua on Sept. 17, 2007.

This is the third time Weekend at the Dreaming Cloud has been selected as a finalist in a play festival and the current version is a revision based on the staged reading sponsored by the Boston Actor's Theatre exactly one year ago.

"I've been developing this play since 2001, and it has been through countless re-writes and four developmental readings. Leah Belanger, the director of the Nashua reading, has invited me to her full-day rehearsal with the cast and this is a phenomenal opportunity for me to show up, collaborate with talented people, and really make the script production ready," DuMar said.

Set at a bed and breakfast in coastal Maine, Weekend at the Dreaming Cloud is "about first love, loss, addiction, grief, remorse, and recovering and healing from trauma,” DuMar said. The characters are “facing the impact of a tragedy in order to transform it. The journey of the play is how the ghost of a teenage boy who tragically died haunts the characters into adulthood and ultimately steers them toward redemption," DuMar said. "Does that sound dark? I hope not, because it's also tender, funny, sexy at times, and hopeful!"

This is Yellow Taxi’s third play contest in its five-year existence, and this is the second time Kelly has had a play selected. Her 15-minute play, Away Message, was given a staged reading as part of the New American Playwrights' Festival sponsored by Yellow Taxi Productions in 2003.