The Playwrights Realm kicks off its annual INK’D Festival of New Plays, a four-day festival of staged readings of new works by playwriting fellows Isabella D’Esposito, Sarah B. Mantell, Christina Quintana, and Celine Song.
The festival runs through April 16–19 with two readings of each play at 3 PM and 7 PM daily. Readings will take place at The Loft at Theatre 511.
INK’D is a culmination of The Realm’s Writing Fellowship, a year-long residency in which early career playwrights receive a stipend, creative and professional development, and both in-house and public workshop opportunities.
Former Realm fellows include Amy Herzog, Ethan Lipton, Christopher Oscar Peña, Mfoniso Udofia, and Donja R. Love.
See the complete lineup for the 2018 INK’D Festival of New Plays:
Azul by Christina Quintana
Directed by Logan Vaughn
April 16, 3 PM & 7 PM
At age nine, Yadra left Castro’s Cuba. Now, as Alzheimer’s sets in, her mind returns to that time and place, and family secrets are unearthed for her American-born daughter, Zelia. With her wife, Zelia embarks on a journey to try to understand the love that led her mother’s beloved tia-abuela to stay behind—and to better understand herself. Spanning two countries and three generations, Azul fuses music and memory to ask: what is the true language of love?
Endlings by Celine Song
Directed by Sammi Cannold
April 17, 3 PM & 7 PM
On the Korean island of Man-Jae, the world’s last three haenyeos (“sea-women”) spend their dying days carrying out the tradition of diving for seafood with nothing but regret and rusty knives. Meanwhile, in New York City, Ha Young is suffering, too, trying to write a play about the haenyeos that White Theatres will actually produce! Wildly theatrical, this play within a play in a world all its own offers a warning: don’t give your life to an island… unless it’s the island of Manhattan.
Everything That Never Happened by Sarah B. Mantell
Directed by Desdemona Chiang
April 18, 3 PM & 7 PM
Jessica wants to be with Lorenzo, and Lorenzo wants to be with Jessica. The only thing standing in their way is her father, Shylock, a complicated relationship with her servant Gobbo, and thousands of years of Jewish culture and history... With as many twists and surprises as the narrow streets of Venice, Everything That Never Happened turns Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice inside out, and reminds us that stories are as much about what we leave out as what gets left in.
Albert County Public Library System; Lakeside Branch by Isabella D’Esposito
Directed by Jessi D. Hill
April 19, 3 PM & 7 PM
The spectres of death and disaster loom over the Lakeside Branch—and not just in its popular vampire romance novels. Octogenarian volunteer coordinator Agatha wants things to run like they always have, but her elderly team is quickly shrinking, her fractious relationship with grief-stricken teen Madison is testing library loyalties, and to top it all off, someone is drawing men’s you know whats in all the books! You’re never too old (or young) to learn that in libraries, as in grieving, sometimes things have to fall apart for better things to come together.
“These four plays show an exciting range of style and theme,” says artistic director Katherine Kovner, “from a cast of three to a cast of nine, with stories of identity, community and hope lost and found, in locales from Cuba to Korea to Washington Heights. But what they all share is breathtaking ambition, astonishing intelligence, and tremendous heart.”
For more information and to reserve seats visit PlaywrightsRealm.org.
