Playwrights' Week 2019

Join us for these five readings of new plays-in-progress selected through The Lark's Open Access program. Now in it's 26th year, Playwrights' Week is an annual festival of new plays designed to foster community and discovery for the writers, collaborators, and audiences. This year's plays were chosen from a record-breaking 1,320 submissions! Each new play will receive twelve hours of rehearsal in advance of a public staged reading, focused on the writer's self-stated goals. RSVP to be part of the process!

Schedule:

Monday, November 4th @ 8pm​

A Dramatists Play Service, Inc. Sponsored Event

MEET THE WRITERS

Our Playwrights’ Week 2019 Kick-Off event! Before you hear their plays all week long, this evening features a panel conversation with the writers of Playwrights’ Week 2019, with excerpts from each play, read by the playwrights themselves. Come hear about how these stories came to be, then stay afterwards for some snacks and bubbly to celebrate and mingle with the writers!

Tuesday, November 5th @2pm

WE BUILT OUR HOMES NEAR KINGDOMS OF ANIMALS AND MAGIC

by Omar Vélez Meléndez 

directed by David Mendizábal

Welcome to Florida! Amidst the vast nothingness of the Sunshine State, Eric doesn't really do anything in regards to his imposter syndrome as a first-generation Puerto Rican while Kira, his daughter, desperately needs to deepen the relationship with her past.  Little do they know that a catastrophic natural disaster will whip Puerto Rican born mother/son duo, Luisa and Jan, right to their doorstep. All together, they will try to figure out what exactly is Puerto Rico...even if they have to rebuild all of it....exactly the way it was...in Florida.

Tuesday, November 5th @8pm

SOMETHING IN THE BALETE TREE

by Ren Dara Santiago

directed by Jesca Prudencio

Nicholas takes a one-way ticket from Harlem to Manila, PH in order to find his mother and meet his pen-pal, Miyuki. What he doesn’t know is both women are members of an underground rebellion for the people. In the spirit realm of Kulam, Prince and Eve Angel are trying to figure out what this underworld is all about. A play about monsters, heroes, and what choices make a revolution.

Wednesday, November 6th @8pm

PARK-E LALEH​

by Shayan Lotfi 

directed by Colette Robert

Park-e Laleh follows Amir – a gay Iranian asylum seeker – from his arrival in London in 2014 through subsequent years in his attempt to ‘settle’.

Friday, November 8th @2pm

BERNARDA'S DAUGHTERS

by Diane Exavier​

directed by Dominique Rider

It’s summer in Flatbush and the Abellard sisters are in the heat of mourning their father, their neighborhood, their lives. Flames in the forms of desire, longing, and family secrets slowly burn in their mother’s house, where it seems there is no one to cool it in this play inspired by Federico García Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba with poetic and literary cues from Kamau Brathwaite, Louise Glück, Mary Ruefle, Toni Morrison, and more.

Friday, November 8th @8pm

THE CUCUY WILL FIND YOU

by Jaymes Sanchez

directed by Lou Moreno

The Cucuy, in Mexican-American folklore, eats bad children. But what does it mean to be a good child? For a successful 30-something, like REY/REYNA, who has a fraught family history and lives far away from home, the answer is complicated. When the Cucuy shows up and disrupts Rey's life, and the very fabric of reality, Rey must prove that they are a good child. But even if they succeed, the ordeal might still consume them.