O'Neill Theater Festival: "Big Bear" by Susan Lumenello

It’s not always pretty when an awful person tries to become a better one. In the comedy Big Bear, an arrogant, high-powered businesswoman decides that psychedelics will kickstart the transformation, but the trip takes her to surprising places – professionally, personally, and permanently.

Susan Lumenello’s Dreamsville premiered at the Cotuit Center for the Arts’ Black Box Theatre (2024) and produced again at the Academy of Performing Arts (2026); The Sherlock Problem at the Cape Cod Theatre Company (2022); the one-act A Period Piece at the Academy of Performing Arts (2023; radio play, WOMR, 2024). Short plays include Stacy & Tommy (Boston Theatre Marathon, 2025); Buzz (BTM, 2015); Meltdown (BTM, 2023); The Boulder (Cape Playhouse, 2023); Pink & Green (Artists Exchange, 2020). Staged readings: Kissing in Public, AMT Theater, NYC (2024); Easy to Love, Provincetown Theater (2010). She is a Dramatists Guild member.