Above: Cast of Mac Wellman's 1965UU

Amelia Breathes Deeply
By Alina Nelega (Romania)
Directed by Tea Alagic
A one-woman narrative of modern Romanian history, through and beyond Ceausescu’s Communist regime, told from the perspective of Amelia, ages 15 to 65, with candor, incisiveness, irony and affection. Featuring Raïna von Waldenburg.
Amelia Breathes Deeply : post-reading conversation with the playwright moderated by Saviana Stanescu
Saturday, February 2nd at 4:00pm
Curated by Catherine Coray for Experimental Theater Wing

Above: Räina von Waldenburg as Amelia

The Architecture of Fear and Danger
By Josh Malmuth (USA)
Directed by Laura Savia
During one powerful evening, a group of people confront their tenuous connections to their world and each other. Featuring John Gallagher, Rafael Goldstein, Elizabth Olsen, Vincent Piazza, and Joanna Simmons.
Sunday, February 3rd at 4:00pm
Curated by Laura Savia for Atlantic Theater Acting School

Best Possible World
By Tee O'Neill (Australia)
Directed by Kerry Whigham
Australian expatriates Bride and Orla run a former hostel in Ireland, which houses asylum seekers from all around the war torn world. In a city where tensions run high and citizenship can be bought, sold, or snatched away, the two young women try desperately to keep their residents safe. When Bride’s lover is murdered in the street, she must decide how to create a new life, even at the cost of sacrificing her own identity forever. Featuring Katherine Alexander, Jacquelyn Landgraf, Celia Montgomery and Maduka Steady.
Best Possible World : post-reading conversation with the playwright moderated by Mac Wellman
Saturday, February 2nd at 4:00pm
Curated by Laura Savia for Atlantic Theater Acting School

Boomerang
By Bernard Da Costa (France), translation by Kathleen Huber
Directed by Michael Sexton
A second-rate actress, who teaches to make ends meet, reveals to one of her prize students that he lacks ability, charisma, and everything else he needs to "make it".  The tables turn when the student launches his own shocking and venomous attack.  Find out what happens when unleashed forces set off a Boomerang!  Featuring Brendan Bradley and Kathleen Chalfant.
Boomerang: post-reading conversation with the playwright moderated by Judith Miller
Saturday, February 2nd at 7:30pm
Curated by Lorca Peress for Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute

Above: Playwright Bernard da Costa and Translator Katheleen Huber

Dov and Ali
By Anna Ziegler (USA)
Directed by Josh Hecht
The story of an Orthodox Jewish high school teacher, his Muslim student, and the contentious friendship that forces both men to question their faith.
Sunday, February 3rd at 7:30pm
Curated by Dusty McKeelan for Stella Adler Conservatory

 

Left: Theo Stockman & Kevin Kuhlke, Right: Asst. Melissa Lusk, Director Terry Knickerbocker, Playwright Nic Billon

Here I Am
By Nikolai Khalezin (Belarus), translation by Yuriy Kaliada and Oleg Shafranov, final translation editing by Jenny Lee
Directed by Eve Hartmann
Guido arrives, naked, in an empty red room. "Here I am..." begins his dialogue with "Angel" and a journey through the stories of his life. He opens the doors to a rising spiral of colored rooms and a series of encounters with his mother, father, friend, and child. Written by Nikolai Khalezin, of the Free Theatre of Belarus. Formed in 2005, the Free Theatre's mission is to perform until the situation in Belarus changes from a dictatorial regime to a democracy.
Sunday, January 27th at 7:30pm
Curated by Eve Hartmann for Classical Studio

Above: Nate Flower and Greg Seel in Icarus of Ohio

Icarus of Ohio
By Rob Ackerman (USA)
Directed by Fritz Ertl
A small town boy from Ohio discovers the secret of flight -- not motor-powered flight as discovered a century earlier by the Wright brothers, but flying under ones own power, flapping ones arms, like a bird. ICARUS OF OHIO is a play about adolescence. As such it is a play about doubt and daring, pain and persistence, failure and success. Featuring Seth Bridges, Danny Crawford, Nathan Flower, Billy Griffin, Jonathan Sasha Hinman, Katie Ruben, Greg Seel, and Jane Lincoln Taylor.
Saturday, January 26th at 4:00pm
Curated by Fritz Ertl for the Meisner Studio

Into the Numbers
By Christopher Chen (USA)
Directed by Linsay Firman
Exploitation and destruction take on new meanings as Iris Chang, author of The Rape of Nanking, psychologically relives the victims’ horrors each time she discusses her work with the hungry media.
Saturday, January 26th at 7:30pm
Curated by Eve Hartmann for Classical Studio

Above: Director Josh Hecht and cast of The Laying on of Hands

The Laying on of Hands
By Bill Cain (USA)
Directed by Josh Hecht
Preparing to celebrate his first Mass, a new priest's faith is challenged as he forces himself to look for God in the memories of his own painful past.
Saturday, February 2nd at 7:30
Curated by Dusty McKeelan for Stella Adler Conservatory

Maria/Stuart
By Jason Grote (USA)
Directed by Brooke O'Harra
Family secrets won't stay buried in this semi-symbolist drama in which written confessions, a shape-shifting messenger, and a bust of Schiller collide. Featuring Rosemary Quinn and Rebecca Nelson.
Monday, January 28th at 7:30pm
Curated by Eve Hartmann for Classical Studio

My Dog Trash Can
A Screenplay By Pietz Peterson (USA)
Directed by Anthony J. Cox
Clyde Mitchell, local karaoke god and reluctant role model to his two sons, considers himself a poor choice to babysit his socially awkward ten year old son Jack. But when his ex-wife is forced to run her psychological practice out of her house, he is called into duty and as he struggles to negotiate superficial fatherhood into his groovy life, he finds he must be something else entirely: honest.
Monday, January 28th at 7:30pm
Curated by Misha Zubarev for Stonestreet Studios Screen Acting Workshop

Noble Savage, Savage Noble
By Bob Armstrong (Canada)
Directed by Dusty McKeelan
Is each of us endowed from birth with a capacity for reason? Do bonds of feeling unite the human race as one family? Are superstition and greed the root all of evil? How do you cook a beaver? Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Francois-Marie Arouet (a.k.a. Voltaire) bicker their way into the wildest reaches of New France to answer these questions and more.
Noble Savage/Savage Noble : post reading conversation with the playwright moderated by Dusty McKeelan
Sunday, January 27th at 4:00pm
Curated by Dusty McKeelan for Stella Adler Conservatory

Rich Women
By Eduardo Machado (USA)
Directed by Billy Hopkins
A well off NYC patron of the arts and a celebrated short story writer come together to launch a new literary venture, but egos and personal desires intervene.
Sunday, January 27th at 7:30pm
Curated by Catherine Coray for Experimental Theater Wing

Above: Director Fritz Ertl

Rural
By Kenny Emson (United Kingdom)
Directed by Fritz Ertl
Set in a dystopian future where the country and the city are at war, RURAL is the story of three youths looking for meaning in a sick world. In a landscape where violence and cruelty are rewarded, is possible for people to be motivated by love. Featuring John Lavelle, Lauren Sowa, and Ryan Tresser.
Rural : post-reading conversation with the playwright moderated by Professor Una Chaudhuri
Saturday, February 2nd at 4:00pm
Curated by Fritz Ertl for the Meisner Studio

Scorched
By Wajdi Mouawad (Québec, Canada/Lebanon), translation by Linda Gaboriau
Directed by Isis Saratial Misdary
Scorched is the story of Janine and her twin brother Simon, and their arduous journey into the mystery of their mother, Nawal's, life. Like most children, they want to understand their origins. Witnesses of their bitter story assist in the investigation, and the discovery of the truth forces them to reconsider who and what they are. Featuring Lena Rizkallah, Jeanine Serralles, and Piter Marek.
Sunday, February 3rd at 7:30pm
Curated by Lorca Peress for Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute

The Sister of Zarathustra
By José Pliya (Guadaloupe), translation by Judith Miller
Directed by Sarah Cameron Sunde
A portrait of the life and initiatives of Elisabeth Nietzsche, the powerful sister of Friedrich: her attempt to establish a “Nueva Germania” in South America, her obsession with her brother, and her appropriation of his writing and his reputation to serve her own bias and ambition. By the director of Artchipel, the National Theater of Guadeloupe. Featuring Bill Buell, Lynn Cohen, Peter Davies, Pierre Diennet, Dan Ilian, Christopher McCann, Sebastian Calderon, and Janet Zarish.
Monday, January 28th at 7:30pm
Curated by Catherine Coray for Experimental Theater Wing

Above: Playwright José Pliya and friends

Song of Extinction
By E. M. Lewis (USA)
Directed by Laura Savia
Max, a musically gifted high school student, is falling off the edge of the world - and his biology teacher is the only one who's noticed. A play about the science of life and loss, the relationships between fathers and sons, Cambodian fields, Bolivian rainforests and grief. Featuring Tom Costello, Kathryn Erbe, Jade Hawk, Francis Jue and Frank Wood.
Saturday, January 26th at 7:30pm
Curated by Laura Savia for Atlantic Theater Acting School

Above: Director Tomi Tsunoda

The Tragedie of Bour IV
By Joshua William Gelb (USA)
Directed by Tomi Tsunoda
Inspired by the horrific, true story of Edison's electrocution of Topsy the elephant at Coney Island's Luna Park, The Tragedie of Bour IV illustrates mankind's desperate attempts to civilize, through technological advancement, a soul and spirit that will always be inherently primitive.
Sunday, January 27th at 7:30pm
Curated by Tomi Tsunoda for Playwrights Horizons Theater School

The Vigil or The Guided Cradle
By Crystal Skillman (USA)
Directed by Gerritt Turner
In The Vigil or the Guided Cradle, an American girl meets a translator on the streets of Prague--while in the 16th century, Ippolito invents a new form of torture that will affect the girl more than she knows.
Saturday, February 2nd at 7:30pm
Curated by Tomi Tsunoda for Playwrights Horizons Theater School

We Were Sitting On The Shores Of The World…
By José Pliya (Guadaloupe), translation by Philippa Wehle
Directed by Robert Lyons
 A chance meeting on an island beach leads to devastating circumstances.  Who "owns" the beach: the man who currently lives there, or the woman who has returned to her native land for a visit?  The man insists she leave because she is a stranger who has forfeited her right to stay.  Her protests do nothing but elevate the conflict on the shores of the world.
We Were Sitting on the Shores of the World...: post-reading conversation with the playwright moderated by Judith Miller
Sunday, January 27th at 4:00pm
Curated by Lorca Peress for Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute

White Baby
By Sofia Fredén (Sweden), translation by Edward Buffalo Bromberg
Directed by Edward Buffalo Bromberg

Eva Jonsson, the Swedish deputy prime minister, is admitted to the hospital for what shedescribes as gas pains, emerging some days later with something tiny, white and demanding. Not wishing to compromise her political career she immediately passes it on to her ex husband, Hans. When Hans’ present girlfriend fails to connect with the wee one she fobs it off on her ex boyfriend Lars, a convicted patricide. Lars sells the bundle to a lesbian couple in a bar. Vivi, jealous of Esmeralda’s affection for the newcomer, pries it from the arms of her sleeping lover and smuggles it out into the night. Last seen in a ladies toilet at Stockholm International Airport in the company of an Eritrean family of six, it seems to have been deported by the immigration police to Africa. By now the journalists have picked up the scent. Eva’s political survival depends on her finding her baby and bringing it home. White Baby is Sofia Fredén’s new political comedy about the place of children in our modern society. Featuring Elizabeth Hess.
White Baby: post-reading conversation with the playwright moderated by Tomi Tsunoda
Saturday, January 26th at 7:30pm
Curated by Tomi Tsunoda for Playwrights Horizons Theater School

WomanBomb/Sade
By Allan Graubard and Caroline McGee (USA)
Directed by Caroline McGee
A woman walks into a public place and detonates a bomb. But what of words, the words we use to describe the act for those who weren't there, including the writer? The bombing falls to the background, the description to the foreground - and the act becomes a shadow, stalking the words that describe it.  It is this shadow, this stalking, that we offer you here in the rise of murderous suicide as a political weapon.
WomanBomb/Sade: post-reading conversation with the playwrights moderated by Lorca Peress.
Saturday, January 26th at 4:00pm
Curated by Lorca Peress for Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute