David Fried Oppenheim Photo

Sixteen-year-old Allie and her 11-year-old brother Cal have run away from their abusive father. They hole up in an Appalachian shack, where Allie does her best to be his mother too, and Cal feeds them both with fish from the mountain stream. The Catch explores "the vulnerable space between what we're running from and what we're running to," according to writer-director Mark J. Vecchio. The one-act drama plays this weekend at PACE, the Pioneer Art Center of Easthampton.

The piece grew out of a playwriting exercise Vecchio did with his students at Simon's Rock in Great Barrington. The assignment was to write a short play that begins with a dream and ends with a curse, or vice versa. Vecchio's play is about young people striving to escape inherited patterns despite a "poverty of neglect" that limits their outlook and options. Carissa Dagenais and M.E. Palma play Allie and Cal, with Jason Rose-Langston as their "Pa."

Aug. 14, 8 p.m., Aug. 15, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., $8-$25/sliding scale, at PACE, 41 Union St., Easthampton, (413) 527-3700, www.pioneerarts.org.