About the Play:

The Batting Cage has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Female Monologues.

The Batting Cage is a comedic dramatic comedy by Joan Ackermann. Two sisters – thrown together in a Holiday Inn in Florida on a mission to scatter the ashes of their third sibling – find themselves in a last ditch effort to connect to the human race…and each other. The Batting Cage is an unusual and very moving story about resolving broken relationships and healing broken hearts.

The Batting Cage is about two sisters who find themselves in the same hotel room trying to deal their ongoing pain from the death of their other sister. All are holed up together in a Holiday Inn for a weekend in romantic St. Augustine, Florida, two estranged sisters – one divorced and lonely, the other silent and athletic – travel unlikely journeys as they struggle to regain their bearings after the loss of their much-loved third sister two years earlier from diabetes. One talks, the other doesn't. One confronts her loneliness by spending her time sightseeing, the other confronts her own feelings of loss by hitting an endless stream of mechanical pitches at a batting cage near the motel. Their efforts at redefining themselves and their relationship are both poignant and humorous. A mysterious and dashing Conquistador in an historical re-enactment, a lost suitcase, a bellhop who suffers from having a barnacle growing inside his ear are but a few of the many surprising turns. 

The Batting Cage premiered in 1996 at the famed Actors Theatre of Louisville as part of the annual Festival of New American Plays. It was a big success and transferred to a well received run Off-Broadway at The Vineyard Theatre in New York in 1997. The play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops and has been mounted in regional and college theatre productions.

Cast: 3 female, 1 male

What people say:

"...an unforgettable play. Delightful and magical...." — The Wall Street Journal

"...a screwball comedy with some amusing touches, mostly in the lampooning of American kitsch." — New York Times

"Joan Ackermann shows the comedy in the heart of depression, as the characters learn they have to step up to the plate." — Jon Jory of Actors Theatre of Louisville

"The Batting Cage is a very charming and moving piece of writing ... Ackermann is an honest and unpretentious writer with an ear for authenticity and an ability to avoid the cliches of her genre." — Chicago Tribune

About the Playwright:

Joan Ackermann is an American playwright, journalist, and screenwriter. Over a dozen of her plays have been published and produced around the United States, and her adaptation of her play Off the Map was released as a feature film directed by Campbell Scott. She is the co-founder and Artistic Director of Mixed Company, the 55-seat theatre established over 30 years ago in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. A Special Contributor to Sports Illustrated for seven years, she has freelanced for many magazines, including Time, The Atlantic Monthly, and Esquire.