Rob and Eva meet for a catch-up, but the darkness in their chosen careers in tech is a bit more than burnout…
Night Market is a new darkly comic one-act play by Martha Hipley, debuting in October 2026 in WordOut un/reality: a selection of six new one acts from rising playwrights. Each work considers opposing views on a shared and often startling reality. Night Market stars Michael Doherty, Joyce Hills, Laura Walter, Ryanne Parker, and Anton Haugen as its inaugural cast.
WordOut Theater is an artists’ collective whose aim is to produce exciting work from new voices in the community. WordOut’s inaugural one-act fest in 2025 premiered four works over a sold-out weekend of performances.
CAST
Joyce Hills is an actress and filmmaker. She studies improv at Upright Citizens Brigade and Shakespeare at Barrow Group. She loves the extremity of being in the moment and making sense of what comes up that happens in improv as well as the timeless drama and shenanigans of the Bard. She recently discovered a love for clowning and is excited to return to classical and operatic singing through studies at Juilliard Extension. She most recently wrote, directed and performed in her forthcoming short film #comeandgetus and is in preproduction for several upcoming projects.
Michael J. Doherty is a Brooklyn-based actor working in Off-Off Broadway theater and independent film. His screen credits include Goodnight, Light (Amazon Prime Video) and Carry the Darkness, which premiered at the Soho International Film Festival in 2025. On stage, he has appeared in multiple productions of A Sketch of New York in Times Square and collaborated with Vince Goodman on Blue and Gold and Before the Flood at the New York Theater Festival. Most recently, he appeared as Murph in Carson McKenna’s First Date/Second Date Blues, directed by Casey Speers at Brooklyn Art Haus. Michael has trained extensively at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting.
Ryanne Parker is an actress and writer from Southern California. She graduated from the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, where she studied Musical Theatre. Most recently, she performed on stage at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where she assistant-directed and played Rope-a-Dope in the world premiere of Carner & Gregor’s Techies: A New Musical. Outside of acting, she likes writing screenplays and short stories, and editing for various YouTube channels. You can find her at her website, ryanneparker.com.
Laura Walter (she/they) is thrilled to be part of this wonderful festival! Previous theater credits include Satan in A Very Merry Immigrant Christmas at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, Lissa in The Room of Falsehood! and The Warden in Dirty Books.
Laura holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the New York Film Academy.
Anton Haugen is a writer from Silicon Valley. He has previously published work with Rhizome, the Asia Art Archive in America, Wendy’s Subway, Codette, and Arachne. He serves as an editor for the arts, politics, and culture journal the Reservoir, published by Woodbine and Autonomedia.