Kathryn Walat, Blair Singer, Alex Lewin and Ann Marie Healy will each receive a Monday night reading (all at 7 PM) at the Baruch Performing Arts Center, April 6-27.
MCC's Playwrights' Coalition, now in its ninth year, gives playwrights "resources and support to generate, develop and showcase new work," according to a release. "Through intensive work and roundtable readings, member playwrights develop dynamic and challenging new plays, and twice-a-year PlayLab readings put these plays in front of an audience, providing a showcase and celebration of the writers' work."
Here is the 2009 spring PlayLab Readings lineup:
"Temporarily homeless from an apartment fire, Cassie's crashing on a friend's couch with nothing but a puffy coat, her favorite sweater and a stalled dissertation on cheerful martyr Saint Perpetua," reads a show description. "Our urban heroine struggles to find her way, all while valiantly trying to make a living, be a good friend, endure her mother, right a faltering love life and care for her distraught pet turtle. A charming and wry look at how we build our lives and find ourselves in the city."
"Meg's three-year relationship is stale and stalled, and her puff-piece reporting for local news isn't quite rewarding… but the prospect of a new friendship is always exciting! Of course, when it’s with her best friend's new boyfriend… and he happens to be a sexy yoga teacher who works with at-risk youth… but Meg wants to be friends with a man! And especially in this age of Obama, bonus points if he's black."
"Monica makes her way through the Hollywood machine, transforming from ambitious body double to mega-watt star. But fame is not easy or free, and what Monica has to give up to get it is more than you might expect. In this funny and surprising new play, Hollywood satire meets a deep exploration of how we choose our identities and the price we sometimes have to pay."
"Margaret's life is a familiarly mundane bustle – a daughter fretting over college essays, a son who can’t find baking soda for his papier mache volcano, a husband greeting the family by rote over breakfast. And a mother whose memory is slipping out of grasp. But in this beautiful and disturbing fantasia, the known world shifts and shatters as Margaret is thrust out of the familiar world, adrift and unmoored. Can she find her way back?" Audience members are invited to mingle with the artists at post-performance receptions to be held each night. The series is free, but reservations are recommended.
To attend the readings at the Baruch Performing Arts Center, 25th St. (between Lexington and Third Avenue), call (212) 727-7722 ext. 244 or email [email protected]. For more information, visit mcctheater.org.
