Synopsis: Josh’s life is a mess. He’s come home to Denver from NYU to get his life together but can’t manage to stay sober. Struggling with fogginess, memory loss, shame, and regret, he finds unlikely allies in his four loveable grandparents.

Desperate for camaraderie, Josh resolves to bring his grandparents along with him on the road to recovery. He pressures them into playing memory games. He drags them to Jazzercise class. He forces them to eat spinach by the handful. Eventually, he slams up against the limits of his quest. When he can no longer help his grandparents, they begin to help him.

Artistic Statement: The Reservoir is a multi-generational play by new playwright Jake Brasch in which a young person who is lost finds his way through his elderly grandparents. The tactics he deploys to try to engage his grandparents are hilarious, and the grandparents all subvert our expectations of what a grandparent is supposed to sound like. It’s a beautiful juxtaposition of drama with laugh-out-loud comedy and has a surprising emotional sophistication, especially for a play from somebody so early in his career.

This will be Jake’s first professional production and after its run in Denver, it will go onto the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta and the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles. This three-city world premiere and professional debut is an extraordinary example of the importance of investing in new works and fresh voices for the American theatre.