Fresh From the Umbria Oven: La MaMa Umbria 2023 Playwrights Reading Series
La MaMa Artistic Director: Mia Yoo
La MaMa Umbria Program Directors: David Diamond and Adriana Garbagnati
2023 Playwright Retreat Master Artist: Chay Yew
Reading Series Coordinators: Marianna Staroselsky and Annaporva Green
Discover 10 new plays served piping hot from the glorious Umbria oven! The playwrights of the 2023 La MaMa Umbria Playwright Retreat will present their creations as staged readings at 47 Great Jones St., Floor 6. Come out to nourish your spirit and stay for creative feedback sessions and merrymaking.
There will be a 20-minute break between readings to seat each new audience. All readings will be on Floor 6. Some readings are followed by feedback sessions - their locations and times are noted in the schedule.
Friday, June 21st, 2024 Reading Schedule
OriGen Story
By Nina Ki
Reading Time: 5pm
Reading Location: La MaMa 47 Great Jones Street, Floor 6
Feedback Session Time: 7:20pm (after a 20 minute transition break)
Feedback Location: La MaMa 47 Great Jones Street, Floor 5
Directed by: Chris Yejin
Dramaturgy by: Amrita Ramanan
Performed by: Paul Juhn, Zoë Kim, Teresa Langford, Sarah Shin, Laura Sohn, Jae Woo, Michi Zaya
Tipi Tales from the Stoop
Written & Performed By: Murielle Borst-Tarrant
Reading Time: 7:20pm
Reading Location: La MaMa 47 Great Jones Street, Floor 6
Feedback Session Time: 8:50pm (after a 20 minute transition break)
Feedback Location: La MaMa 47 Great Jones Street, Floor 5
RSVP for Tipi Tales from the Stoop
The Cosmonauts
Written and Directed by: Cayden Learey
Reading Time: 8:20pm
Reading Location: La MaMa 47 Great Jones Street, Floor 6
Feedback Time: 8:50pm (immediately following reading)
Feedback Location: La MaMa 47 Great Jones Street, Floor 6
Saturday, June 22nd, 2024 Readings Schedule
Will You Watch It Burn?
Written by: Annaporva Green
Directed by: Kenneth Keng
Reading Time: 11:00 AM
Reading Location: La MaMa 47 Great Jones Street, Floor 6
Performed by: Chisom Awachie, Goran Popović, Zee Hanna, Laurie King, Chloe Schwinghammer
Everyone in Brunswicktowne knows there’s something unsettling about 827 United Street. Dawn Hansen volunteers to clean the Victorian mansion because working in the local run-down Elvis Diner only brings in so much money. She realizes there’s more to the house than she ever expected.
RSVP for Will You Watch It Burn?
Thoroughly Used
Written by: Tanya Everett
Directed by: Katherine Wilkinson
Reading Time: 2:00 PM
Reading Location: La MaMa 47 Great Jones Street, Floor 6
Feedback Time: 3:00PM (after a 10 minute break)
Feedback Location: La MaMa 47 Great Jones Street, Floor 5
Performed by: Tanya Everett & more to be announced
Thoroughly Used is an in progress memoir play about Tanya’s relationship with her mother, her father, and her grandmother, and how she found a way through their lives and their deaths. How she learned that they were imperfect, but also how she fought to love them anyway. How she survived their lengthy illnesses and how she surfaced as Thoroughly Used: half a human, but also more deeply compassionate.
Blue Eyed Day
Written and Directed by: Bianca Sams
Reading Time: 4:50 PM
Reading Location: La MaMa 47 Great Jones Street, Floor 6
Feedback Time: 7:20PM ( after a 10 minute break)
Feedback Location: La MaMa 47 Great Jones Street, Floor 6
Performed by: Chandra Thomas, Txai Frota, Tanya Everett, Thomas Daniels, Sarah Storm, Melvin Abston and Bryce Foley
Sunday, June 23rd, 2024 Readings Schedule
Polyphagia
Written and directed by: Rachel Bykowski
Reading Time: 11:00 AM
Reading Location: La MaMa 47 Great Jones Street, Floor 6
* Will include a QR code for feedback afterwards.
Performed by:
Jeff Gorcyca reading as Sacks, Guests
Kihresha Redmond reading as Anise
Liat Graf reading as Ama, Guests
Luli Gomez Teruel reading as Cassia
Thomas Daniels reading as Alpha
Tyler Tanner reading as Butch
Redemption
Written & Directed by: Jessica Carmona
Reading Time: 1:00PM
Reading Location: La MaMa 47 Great Jones Street, Floor 6
Feedback Time: 1:25 PM (immediately following reading)
Feedback Location: La MaMa 47 Great Jones Street, Floor 6
Faced with his looming death and a son on the wrong path, a middle aged Puerto Rican man reaches out to an old friend to help save his son before he dies.
American Puzzle-esque: a playful auto-burlesque
Written by: Marianna Staroselsky
Dramaturgy and Production Support: Josh Sobel, Futurehome Productions
Reading Time: 2:20 PM
Reading Location: La MaMa 47 Great Jones Street, Floor 6
Feedback Time: 4:20 PM ( after a 20 minute transition break)
Feedback Session Time & Location: Floor 5
Performed by: Becca Blackwell, Dejen Tesfagiorgis, Gabrielle Huggins
Refugee is trying so hard to find a place in this dreamy yet confusing America place. Missy Nella Lalaloo and Leon Master Headliner (mis)guide them while the playwright meddles more than most in this clownish autobiographical burlesque which openly holds multitudes of voices. Maybe even yours?
RSVP for American Puzzlesque: a playful auto-burlesque
Ashes
Written & Directed by: Georgia McGill
Reading Time: 4:20 PM
Reading Location: La MaMa 47 Great Jones Street, Floor 6
Feedback Time: 4:50 PM (immediately following reading)
Feedback Location La MaMa 47 Great Jones Street, Floor 6
Performed by: Arthur Adair, Abbe Gail Gross, Luis Trinidad
Maive, a newly widowed woman, searches for the secrets of her late partner and knocks on Hal’s door hoping to find peace. This interactive work invites the audience to decide if and how she finds the peace she seeks.
La MaMa Umbria International
La MaMa Umbria International provides artists from around the world with residency programs and intensive workshops. For over 25, La MaMa Umbria has fostered cross-cultural and international exchanges and creative collaborations. Hundreds of artists have found Umbria to be a space that is beautiful, spiritually enriching, welcoming, and open to bold artistic experiments.