On September 7-18, free readings of plays will be presented by New Work Now! as part of the Public Theater’s play reading series at the Martinson Theater. The line-up includes Tony Award nominees Lisa Kron (Well, In the Wake) and Colman Domingo (Scottsboro Boys, A Boy and His Soul) as well as the following:
Zero (September 7 at 7 PM)
By Julian Sheppard
Directed by Leigh Silverman
Beginning at Ground Zero with a tourist and a kind of tour guide, Zero explores how we live with a hole in the center of our world through a panoramic perspective on post-9/11 New York City.
The Ver**zon Play (September 8 at 7 PM)
By Lisa Kron
Directed by Anne Kauffman
When Jenni called customer service, all she wanted was to fix a minor problem with her cell phone bill. Instead, she was sucked into a vortex of unimaginable horror.
The Bad Guys (September 9 at 7 PM)
By Alena Smith
Directed by Kip Fagan
It’s Indian summer and the boys are back home. They’re all set for a perfectly 'bromantic' afternoon. But politics, ambition, money –and murder– have a way of killing the buzz.
Hollow Roots (September 10 at 7 PM)
By Christina Anderson
Directed by Eric Ting
They say we live in post-racial times but who leads a post-racial life? A young Black American woman sets out on a quest to find one person leading a life unrestricted by race or gender.
The Convert (September 12 at 7 PM)
By Danai Gurira
Directed by Emily Mann
Set amid the scramble for sovereignty in southern Africa in 1895, a young girl escapes a forced marriage with the help of a stalwart Black African catechist. Indebted, she shuns her culture to become his protégé, but when an anti-colonial uprising erupts, she must decide where her heart truly belongs.
Mala Hierba (September 14 at 7 PM)
By Tanya Saracho
Directed by Jerry Ruiz
Mala Hierba focuses on the trophy wife of a border magnate who wavers between her wifely duty and the love of her life as she navigates the dangerous waters between desire and obligation.
Yellowjackets (September 15 at 7 PM)
By Itamar Moses
Welcome to Berkeley High School, 1994: the most diverse public high school in America. But when an on-campus brawl sets in motion a chain of events that effects newspaper nerds and gang members alike, a community that prides itself on always being ahead of the political curve will be forced to face how far it still has to go. And then there's P.E.
Starvings (September 16 at 7 PM)
By S.M. Shephard-Massat
Directed by Delroy Lindo
World War II is over, and Bettie and Meeker have moved from rural Florida to urban Atlanta to join a small but up-and-coming Black community. But as pressure mounts at Meeker’s workplace, Bettie’s expectations become bigger than both of them.
Wild With Happy (September 17 at 7 PM)
By Colman Domingo
Directed by Robert O’Hara
Colman Domingo explores the surreal, bizarre and outrageous comedy that can stem from loss via the story of Gil: a young man who plans to scatter his mother’s ashes in the place where she was most happy—Disney World.
Mangled Beams (September 18 at 7 PM)
By Dawn Jamieson
Directed by James Fall Shubinski
Iroquois ironworkers built New York's skyscrapers and on 9/11 many returned to the World Trade Center to remove the mangled beams raised up by those who came before them.
Additionally, The Public will stage a reading of Daniel Berrigan's 1970 play, The Trial of the Catonsville Nine, which will reunite original director Gordon Davidson with the piece, on September 13 at 7 PM. The play tells the story of Father Daniel Berrigan, his brother Father Philip Berrigan and seven other Catholic peace activists who seized 378 draft documents from Local Board No. 33 in Catonsville, Maryland and publicly burned them to protest the napalming of innocent people during the Vietnam War.
Public Theater members can now reserve seats. Non-members can make reservations beginning August 22 by calling (212) 967-7555 or visiting http://publictheater.org. The Public Theater is located at 425 Lafayette Street in Manhattan.
