by D-Davis
Showtimes
Friday, April 25 @ 3:30 PM
Friday, April 25 @ 8 PM
Saturday, April 26 @ 3:30 PM
On the day of the 2024 solar eclipse, as Arizona reinstates the long-dormant 1864 abortion ban, Bette Singer—a fiercely dedicated head of a fetal medicine unit—finds her world upended. Caught between her patients, the law, and her family, she is forced to confront the limits of faith, duty, and the American Dream. As she struggles to hold onto hope and autonomy, Bette conjures a surreal quilting circle that collides with the sterile walls of the hospital and seeks reconciliation with her family. With wit and poignancy, A Meditation on Hope exposes how systems of power continue to find new ways to control women’s bodies and beliefs across centuries, begging the question: will hope be enough to sustain those left fighting for the future?
About the Playwright
D-Davis lives in NYC. Her plays have been developed or produced at the New Ohio Theatre, Primary Stages, New York Theatre Workshop, Howl Playwrights, AMIOS, HB Studios, Goddard College, and Columbia University. Diane’s most recent workshop productions were Broken Thread (Femme Collective), Night Becomes Morning (Chain Theatre), What’s What (Polaris Theater), Memorial Tree (Columbia University) and COMPLICITY (New Ohio) which also received an HB Studio Residency Award. Diane was also awarded an Honor Roll Intensive Residency at The Workshop Theater for Broken Thread and a Dramatic Question Theater Fellowship for Girls Play Bass. She studied acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, earned a BA in theater from Bennington College, and a MA in history from CUNY. D-Davis is part of the 2025 Playwriting Cohort at Columbia University, a playwright in residence at Theater East and HOWL playwrights, and is a member of the Actors Studio Playwright and Directors Unit and Dramatist Guild. She currently works with The Tent Theater Company as their Literary Associate.
About the New Plays Festival
Columbia University School of the Arts presents a festival of new plays written by the 2025 Columbia MFA Playwriting Cohort. The esteemed faculty who nurtured these students, including Tony©, Pulitzer, and Obie Award winners, such as Lynn Nottage, Rogelio Martinez, Blair Singer, Noelle Vinas, Charles L. Mee, Michael Korie, David Auburn, and David Henry Hwang invite everyone to experience these innovative new playwrights.
Organized by Leslie Ayvazian, Theatre.