Barbour Playwright Award Hosts Rading of STRADDLING THE EDGE

The Barbour Playwrights Award continues on Wednesday, March 21 at 7pm with a reading of Sandra A. Daley-Sharif's Straddling the Edge. Too many losses and not enough "hellos" launch Sophia on a kaleidoscopic dreamscape quest for her identity as wife, mother, and Caribbean daughter. Can she maintain her balancing act to find firm ground? Or will the search itself send her over the edge?

Directed by Mary E. Hodges. Cast includes Althea Alexis, Chuck Burks, Jonathan Dewberry, Jacq Gregg, Justin Jorrell, Travis Raeburn, M. Drue Williams, and C. Kelly Wright.

Doors open at 6:40 pm. Reading will be followed by a wine and cheese reception.

Now in its eleventh year, the Barbour Playwrights Award was created to celebrate new work for the theatre. Every March, the Episcopal Actors' Guild (EAG) partners with a local theatre company or playwriting program to present staged readings of new work, with one playwright being awarded a prize of $500. This year's partner is New Perspectives Theatre Company and their Women's Work Project. Daley-Sharif is one of three finalists for the 2018 Barbour Playwrights Award.

Sandra A. Daley-Sharif is pursuing her MFA in Playwriting at Hunter College under the mentorship of Master-Artists-in-Residence Annie Baker and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, plus Distinguished Lecturer BRIGHDE MULLINS. Not one, but two of her plays made it to the Kilroys List 2017. She is an OBIE Award winning producer, award winning playwright, director, actress, and dramaturg. She is a 2015 recipient of the LPTW Josephine Abady Award and was named a NYFA Fellowship Finalist for Playwriting. Sandra's play Les Fréres is a 2017 Eugene O'Neill semi-finalist and she received a SPACE on Ryder Farm Creative Residency, where she began her new play The Island Bull's Wife. Other credits include: honorable mention for Katrina and Sandy, EstroGenius Festival;. Man in the Moon (short play, developed and presented by The Exquisite Corpse Company) Shirley and Iris (Going to the River Festival 2016,EST), Jake NPTC WW Short Play Fest and Silver Spring Stage). Her choreo-poem Genesis was presented May 2017 at 50in50: Writing Women Into Existence, curated by Dominique Morisseau. Los Samaritanos about life at the Mexican border is being considered for development at the Arizona Theatre and being reviewed in the semifinal round, for a week-long development at Women in Arizona Theatre. Sandra is a member of Beehive Dramaturgy Studio, founded to make skilled dramaturgy accessible to any playwright, director, composer, producer, or other theater practitioner. www.sandradaley.com

New Perspectives Theatre Company was founded in 1991 as a multi-racial ensemble dedicated to using theatre as an agent for positive social change. Their mission is to develop and present new plays and playwrights, particularly women and people of color; present classic plays in a style that sheds new light on our lives and work; and present theatre to under-served audiences- especially young people and communities in need- to build life skills and promote participation in our society. www.newperspectivestheatre.org

The Episcopal Actors' Guild was established in 1923 and is a charitable organization offering emergency assistance and career support to professional performers "of all faiths, and none." EAG also hosts a full calendar of events and fundraisers including concerts, variety shows, play readings, and professional workshops. Learn more at www.actorsguild.org.