Atlantic Theater Company will showcase new plays by Eboni Booth, Nathan Alan Davis, Gracie Gardner, Adi Hanash, and Patrick Vassel as part of its 2018–2019 Amplified Reading Series. Each new work will receive an expanded rehearsal process ahead of a staged reading in Atlantic's Linda Gross Theater that is free and open to the public.
Kicking off the series October 22 at 2 PM will be Davis' The Wind and the Breeze, winner of the Lorraine Hansberry Award. The play explores the politics of place, the unspoken expectations of friendship, and what happens when we choose to stand our ground on shifting sands. Davis is a 2018 Whiting Award winner. His plays include Nat Turner in Jerusalem, seen at New York Theatre Workshop, and Dontrell Who Kissed the Sea.
Next up in the series is Hanash and Vassel's Nothing Left to Burn, to be presented November 5 at 2 PM. The play follows the love story that ignited the wave of revolution in the Middle East known as the Arab Spring. At the center of the story is an indefatigable fruit seller named Mohamed and the apple of his eye, Fadia.
On January 14, 2019, at 2 PM, the series will present I'm Revolting by Relentless Award winner Gardner (Pussy Sludge, Athena), directed by Bernhardt/Hamlet's Moritz von Stuelpnagel. In Gardner's new work, a group of people are waiting to be called into a room one by one. Some of them have skin cancer, some of them are there to give support; it's a play described as being "about doctors and medicine and the space in between the two."
Last up in the series will be A Small World by actor and playwright Booth. In Booth's newest work, a 13-year-old girl living with her father and their dog in a small town finds herself confronting the violence of adolescence and understanding the necessity of friendship. The reading will take place March 25 at 2 PM.
Amplified is curated by Atlantic's director of new play development, Abigail Katz. Click here to RSVP for any of the readings.
Atlantic also announced that it has offered commissions to writers Kelley Nicole Girod and Sanaz Toossi, as well an additional commission to musical writers Sukari Jones and Troy Anthony.
