Richard Kern

BREAK ROOM is a single-location ensemble comedy set entirely within the break room of SMA, Inc., a generic American corporation. The piece unfolds in real time across one frenetic morning, as a rotating cast of coworkers cycles through the room — grabbing coffee, heating lunches, arguing, commiserating, philosophizing, and repeatedly losing money to a broken vending machine.

A routine ride-sharing driver's late-night trip deep into rural New York becomes a harrowing, all-night ordeal when his electric car's battery runs dangerously low — forcing him to confront real danger, creeping dread, and his own limits, before discovering that the worst night of his life may have also saved it.