CRACKED OPEN by Gail Kriegel Coming to Off-Broadway April, 2025

The Play: CRACKED OPEN

A loving family is broken apart with the onset of mental illness in their 17 year old daughter.  And the whole family enters the wilderness: the absurd, comical and nightmarish maze of doctors, psychiatrists, social workers, a super market variety of diagnoses and medications. As they grope through the darkness, the violent consequences of a poorly run state facility, and the fierce stigma of mental illness – the family finds a new way to come together again.

From The Playwright and Director: GAIL KRIEGEL

It was a cold, winter morning when I woke up about 4AM and instead of trying to go back to sleep, I got up and went to my desk. I was finally ready to begin to put on paper the play that was in my heart and mind for over 25 years. It lived on my back burner through my many years as Teacher, through the writing of ON THE HOME FRONT which won the prestigious Ruby Lloyd Apsey Award, a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship and is included in the Archives of Lincoln Center; through SEVEN which I wrote with 6 other women playwrights which has been translated and performed throughout the world and translated in over 35 languages. Through my residency at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center where I was able to develop RAINBOW JUNCTION, a musical for young audiences which I wrote with my mother, through SWEETEE, for which I wrote the book, lyrics and music and was directed by the legendary, Patricia Birch, produced pre-pandemic at the Signature Theatre and was recipient of an Audelco Award.  And most significantly, through my volunteer work for the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill where I brought Joyce Burland’s Family to Family class to the NYC office and through the 15 years I worked there in every capacity and honored with 2 awards. It took me that long to step back and understand my own experience and to put together the stories and situations I had gathered from other families and individuals. 

It took me about a week to write the first draft.  And then, like every play, there were the endless rewrites, discussions with colleagues, staged readings, iteration after iteration, the course of most plays as they get ready to be put out into the universe.

The Producer: DREAM BIG WORLD THEATRE, INC

A not-for-profit theatre production company that brings plays and works to places and people who lack access to such resources.

What Audiences Are Saying About the Work

An upsetting, absurdist and finally affirming view of a family’s dysfunction and resilience.

It is so good,so well written and interesting for the entire time, not a single moment that pushed away the audience’s attention, devastating at times and funny at others.

It is daring and passionate. My heart reached out to these characters and this family. I want to be part of the project of getting this play seen by more people and moving out into the world.

Strong, beautiful play!

This difficult situation is portrayed in such a moving and loving way, really plumbing emotional depth of the characters. It was gripping.

Impactive and not to be missed.