Joanna Pickering's LARA'S JOURNEY to Have Benefit Reading at The Center for West Park

Joanna Pickering's one-act play, Lara's Journey, will be performed in a benefit staged reading on World Refugee Day. The presentation will be held at the Center for West Park, June 20th at 8 p.m. 

Lara's Journey is a powerful one-woman play touching upon themes of immigration, isolation, and displacement in the aftermath of losing a home in wartime. It follows the story of a young woman displaced in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. When Lara is rescued into a new home by the kindness of strangers, she resolves to salvage her future, but unexpected challenges arise.

Director Karen Carpenter will return to bring Lara's Journey to the stage for this special evening honoring World Refugee Day. Carpenter's work includes many premieres, including the worldwide smash-hit by Delia and Nora Ephron, Love, Loss, and What I Wore.

Cast is set to announce. There will also be participation in a talk-back following the performance, with the cast, playwright, director and notable Ukrainian activists. A portion of each ticket sale will benefit Ukrainian refugees.

The reading is part of the latest public program in The Center's Love Our Landmarks that includes entertainment luminaries such as Matt Damon, Wendell Pierce, Scarlett Johansen, Kenneth Lonergan, Mark Ruffalo, as well as support from officials and local residents-who all share the mission to perform work in efforts to save The Center at West Park, a vital home for thousands of resident playwrights and performers.

Pickering informs that the play was written the day after the 2024 U.S. presidential election: "I had experienced displacement in the pandemic and I was able to shine a light on important issues for all who are displaced from crises worldwide." Carpenter says, "Pickering's writing is muscular, taut, and searing and allows us to discover Lara's truth and our own need to take action to support."

Lara's Journey was first performed at The Spark Festival in development with Pickering performing. This success led to Pickering's play being included in Natalia Kholodenko's (UkrianianTV star and psychologist) campaign alongside Gloria Gaynor and Kathy Sledge and their anthems “I Will Survive” and “I Am Family.” Lara’s Journey was presented at her sold-out seminar for displaced Ukrainian women. It streamed live to over one million people.

Joanna Pickering (Playwright, Actress) is a multi-award-winning British writer and actress. Her plays have sold out in New York City, London, and Paris. Her work is stocked at The Drama Book Shop and Books Are Magic, New York. Her full solo play Cease and Desist opens at Theater 555 this fall, after development at The Tank. Lara’s Journey streamed to over 1 million viewers when presented by internet star Natalia Kholodenko at Theater 555, alongside collaborations with Gloria Gaynor and Kathy Sledge. In 2023, Don’t Harm the Animals premiered at Chain Theater as her debut one-woman show. In 2022/23, Bad Victims sold out two London runs, co-starring Pickering and Richard Emerson (West End’s Chess) directed by Erica Gould (Neil LaBute, Theresa Rebeck). Other credits include Cat and Mouse (Drama Book Shop, with Dan Lauria of The Wonder Years), The Endgame (New Perspectives, then Big Funk Theater, Paris), Truth, Lies and Deceptions (Le Pavé d'Orsay, Paris). Sylvie and Sly was read by Caroline Aaron (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), directed by Lorca Peress (MultiStages) for The League of Professional Theater Women. In 2025, she was commissioned by The Ukrainian Institute of America, NY Ensemble Studio and Town Square Productions to interview Ukrainian residents for her play Till Death Do Us Part. As an actress, Pickering has won Best Actress six times, including at NY International Women Festival, The Actors Awards, LA Film Awards, as well as Outstanding Performance awards for Diva (2023). As an activist, she has collaborated with UN campaigns and gender rights initiatives. She holds a BSc in pure mathematics and is a member of The Actors Studio PDU, The Actors Gym, The International Center of Women Playwrights, and League of Professional Theater Women. She is represented by 3 Arts Entertainment, MAA Agency, Talented in Paris, and SAG. www.joannapickering.com

Karen Carpenter (Director) is the director of many critically acclaimed Off-Broadway premieres, such as Pay the Writer, Harry Townsend's Last Stand, Handle With Care, Bulldozer: The Ballad of Robert Moses, and Witnessed by the World, but is best known for the original production of Delia and Nora Ephron's Love, Loss, and What I Wore, which won the Drama Desk Award for Best Unique Theatrical Production, was named Broadway World's Audience Favorite, and has since played all over the world. Her work with writers is at the fore of everything she makes. As Artistic Director of the William Inge Festival, Karen founded an annual New Play Lab—her legacy there, now in its 10th year, has presented new works by over 100 playwrights to date. She is keenly invested in works with societal impact, and has directed, produced, and dramaturged many: Period Piece, monologues on menstruation by a diverse array of 36 commissioned writers; October 7, based on verbatim firsthand accounts of the Hamas attacks in Israel; Deliver Now, the U.N. launch of a global campaign for the W.H.O. to eradicate infant and maternal mortality worldwide, among them. Upcoming: the premiere of Baggage from BaghDAD by Valerie David at The Tank.