2022 National Young Playwrights in Residence Virtual Public Readings
Feel Alive by Michael Mobley
directed by June Carryl
mentor: Matthew Paul Olmos
Friday, November 11th at 6PM (Pacific Time)
featuring NJ Ambonisye, Campbell Henley, Nigel Sudarkasa
It was supposed to be two best friends’ greatest year of college yet. A year of endless turn ups, finally graduating with their degrees, and fulfilling their potential. But when a mysterious stranger helps bring one of the friends back home one night after turning up too much, a romance ensues. This new coupling causes a rift in the friendship that was already on rocky ground. Eventually, the ground gives. The other friend unravels the mystery behind the stranger and it comes with fatal consequences.
An Angel from Manila by Aris Hines
directed by Giovanni Ortega
mentor: Dominic Finocchiaro
Friday, September 23rd at 6PM (Pacific Time)
featuring Adam Foster Ballard, Elaine Ackles, CJ Uy, Brandon English, Evie Abat, Belinda Panelo, Reuben Uy
‘An Angel from Manila’ revolves around an outsider who discovers that he must find his first love after she mysteriously vanishes. When he finds her diary at his door, he sets out for the Philippines to track her down. In the twilight of lyricism and the past, a detective and a lost soul help the outsider unravel the mystery. The resulting journey offers tantalizing questions about identity, happiness, love, and culture.
Address the Body! by Zachariah Ezer
directed by Dominique Rider
mentor: Herman Farrell
Friday, August 19th at 6PM (Pacific Time)
@ The NoHo Actor’s Studio- 5215 Lankershim Blvd. North Hollywood, CA 91601
featuring: NJ Ambonisye, Criston Love, Lorinda Hawkins Smith, Cooper Bates, Fern Lim, Riel Paley, Fareed Williams
The two Black members of The Presidential Committee on Slavery and Its Afterlife uncover a conspiracy at the heart of America’s most prestigious university.
About the Playwright
Zachariah Ezer is an M.F.A. Playwriting Candidate at the University of Texas at Austin whose work animates theoretical quandaries through dramaturgical forms. He is a James A. Michener Fellow, a Town Stages Creative Arts Fellow, a BUFU EYEDREAM Resident, a Wesleyan University Olin Fellow, and a member of The Tank’s LIT Council. He is also a dramaturg (for The National Black Theatre and The Workshop Theater, where he is currently in residence), an essayist (published by the University of Texas’ E3W, Gizmodo/io9, HuffPost, and elsewhere), and a performer (in alternative rock band Harper’s Landing).
Peking Apples by Ada A.
directed by Carol Ann Tan
mentor: Naveen Bahar Choudhury
Friday, July 8th at 6PM (Pacific Time)
featuring: Nancy Ma, Jenny Soo, Terry Li, Edward Hong, Adam Ballard
Amy, Rose and Stevie -three Chinese adoptees – anxiously come together for their annual reunion party, delayed two years due to Covid-19. In the period away from each other, Amy has married a black man, Stevie is affianced with a Chinese national and Rose. Rose is popular enough on Twitter to have a blue check. Now that each one is more secure with their life choices, they begin to butt head as they are no longer able to understand each other’s life direction. Sisterhood unravels into antagonism as ideas of family, belonging, and the trauma of being adopted become irreconcilable points of no return.
About the Playwright:
Ada A. is an early-career playwright and director who graduated from the University of Chicago with a B.A in anthropology. She was previously the assistant director for Sideshow’s The Ridiculous Darkness and Haven’s Titus Andronicus. As a playwright, her ten-minute play “United Separatism” had a professional reading at the 2020 Fade to Black Festival. Her one-act play The Reverend Dr. Paul(i) Murray had its world premiere at Valiant Theatre through its New Works Festival earlier this year.
my eyes are up here honey by Lily Gonzales
directed by Borna Barzin
mentor: Kira Obolensky
Monday, July 11th at 6PM (Pacific Time)
featuring: Jack Quitt, Rebecca Jimenez, Cat Rodriguez
Francis, Billie, and Yasmin look at screens all day for work. Francis is an online creator, Billie is a customer service rep for a start up, and Yasmin is a graduate student studying film. Immaterial, a new digital avatar company is making waves across the country and hungry to expand. When the company enters their lives and connects them to a new reality, each person is faced with the truth of what their physical bodies need.
my eyes are up here honey is an exploration of boundaries, open relationships, and queer commodification
About the Playwright
lily gonzales (they/them) is a writer from San Antonio, based in NYC. Their work has been developed or read at The John F. Kennedy Center, Teatro Vivo, Stages, San Diego REP, AlterTheater Ensemble, and Latinx Playwrights Circle. They have been nominated for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, runner-up for 3 Kennedy Center playwriting awards, and a finalist for the Leah Ryan FEWW Prize, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, and Miranda Family ‘Voces Latinx’ Competition. Currently, they are a National Young Playwright in Residence with Echo Theater Company and Colt Coeur Resident Artist. B.A UT Austin.
Feel Alive by Michael Mobley
directed by June Carryl
mentor
Saturday, August 6th 6PM (Pacific Time)
featuring: Angeleck Richardson, Gabrielle Rosser, Adam Ballard
It was supposed to be two best friends’ greatest year of college yet. A year of endless turn ups, finally graduating with their degrees, and fulfilling their potential. But when a mysterious stranger helps bring one of the friends back home one night after turning up too much, a romance ensues. This new coupling causes a rift in the friendship that was already on rocky ground. Eventually, the ground gives. The other friend unravels the mystery behind the stranger and it comes with fatal consequences.
About the Playwright
Michael Mobley writes about the intimate and private lives of Black Americans throughout America’s past, present, and future. Writing about the inner lives of Black Americans allows him to shatter stereotypes and reveal a part of America that has been historically ignored and cast aside. Two of his one-acts were Regional Finalists for the John Cauble Award for Outstanding Short Play. His full-length play, Modern-Day Saints, or the Sanctified Ones was workshopped at Frostburg State University. He was a Finalist for the Greenhouse Residency at SPACE on Ryder Farm and the Many Voices Fellowship at the Playwrights’ Center. His work has been supported by Atlantic Center for the Arts. Michael has also been the Assistant Director on two plays at the Kennedy Center, Theater for Young Audiences: She A Gem and “KIMMY”. He is excited to be a part of the National Young Playwrights in Residence Program at Echo Theater Company!