Joanna Pickering's Play MISTY AND ROVER Debuts at Spark Festival

Joanna Pickering's play Misty and Rover has been selected for The Spark Theater Festival, with a special performance on Sunday, September 21st at 5:00 PM at the Chain Theater in New York City.

Misty and Rover is a dark tragicomic one-act play about two ill-fated lovers, as their plan for eternal love unravels, one late night on a New York fire escape. The play's themes center around spiraling cycles of toxic love, addiction and infidelity.

The cast features Penelope Deen (ANTI-GONE, Meanwhile Elsewhere), Connor Chase Stewart (Soup In The Second Act, Lyle Kessler's Brothers), Lou Martini Jr. (Verity, Friends and Neighbors, The Sopranos), Multi-Emmy nominated and Broadway actress Ilene Kristen (Broadway: Grease, TV: Ryan's Hope, One Life to Live, The Black Donnelly's, Show Me a Hero, The Sopranos, and General Hospital.) and Matt Giroveanu (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Boardwalk Empire, The Deuce).

Karen Carpenter, the critically acclaimed director of Delia and Nora Ephron's Love, Loss, and What I Wore and Pickering's Lara's Journey, will direct the debut as a staged reading.

Carpenter describes the play as a hilarious urban tale that features heightened lyricism and is set on a fire-escape reminiscent of an intimate Shakespearean balcony scene. "It's a modern-day dysfunctional Romeo and Juliet meets Bonnie and Clyde. Pickering balances Pinter-like menace with McDonagh's absurdist bite."

Pickering wrote the play, in 2021, for New Jersey Repertory Company, answering a call requesting plays to stage on their fire escape in the height of the pandemic. Once the vaccines arrived, the Fire Escape plays were no longer needed. Carpenter now re-imagines the play for a theatrical stage, commencing with this reading and providing a special opportunity to hear some of Pickering's earliest work.

Pickering states: "It's a lost and found play. The piece was completely forgotten by myself, and others, except by one producer and actress, Penny Deen, who was cast to play the lead role of Misty."

Deen agrees, "I loved the script from the first read and I waited for a chance to play this explosive, dynamic role. Misty is a feisty and funny character, while the writing has an off-beat rhythm reminiscent of Mamet-speak, but distinctly its own. We're grateful to Spark Festival for nurturing new work so this play starts its production journey."

Pickering considers her early work as owning some of her favorite characters, "they're dysfunctional and volatile. The writing is raw and messy, but it works because the intuitive energy, the danger, is the essence of their themes. I'm grateful to others asking to stage it, and I am excited to see the performance for the first time with the audience and these incredible actors."

The Spark Festival is produced by Emerging Artists Theater, an award-winning theater company known as an incubator for the newest works, or voices, diverse playwrights, or established playwrights who are exploring new works. During its 30-year history, Emerging Artists has premiered over 2,000 new works, been recognized with a Drama Desk Nomination, and received the American Theatre Wing Grant Award for Consistent Commitment to Excellence in Theatre.

As testament to the Festival's success for launching new work, Pickering's play, Lara's Journey, began at Spark Festival in spring 2025, also under Carpenter's direction, and went on to stream to more than 1M social media-viewers from a sold-out 200 seat theater, with major activists and celebrities (Gloria Gaynor, Kathy Sledge, Natalia Kholodenko). However, Misty and Rover is unique from Pickering's other plays, as unlike her other work, it leans heavily into comedy; that said, it's also very much a tragedy.

Joanna Pickering (Playwright, Actress) is a multi-award-winning British writer and actress whose plays have sold out in New York City, London, and Paris. Her work is stocked at The Drama Book Shop and Books Are Magic in New York. Her solo shows, Crash Landing debuts this winter at The Tank, and Cease and Desist opens at Theater 555 in 2026. In 2025, Lara's Journey streamed to over 1 million viewers live from Theater 555, alongside collaborations for Ukrainian refugees with Natalia Kholodenko, Gloria Gaynor, and Kathy Sledge. It was subsequently presented to acclaim at the off-Avignon Theatre Festival. In 2023, Don't Harm the Animals premiered at Chain Theater. In 2022/23, Bad Victims sold out two London runs, co-starring Pickering, 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 (Multi-Stages) for The League of Professional Theater Women. In 2025, she was commissioned by The Ukrainian Institute of America, NY, Ensemble Studio Theater, and Town Square Productions to interview Ukrainian residents for her play Till Death Do Us Part. As an actress, she's won Best Actress six times, including at the NY International Women Festival, The Actors Awards, L.A. Film Awards, as well as received Outstanding Performance awards for her work on Diva (2023). As an activist, she collaborated with U.N. 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, League of Professional Theater Women and SAG. Joanna is represented by 3 Arts Entertainment, MAA and Talented in Paris. www.joannapickering.com IG: @joannapickering

Karen Carpenter (Director) is the director of many premieres, 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, 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, comprised of 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 to eradicate infant and maternal mortality worldwide, among them. Lara's Journey by Joanna Pickering streamed to over 1 million viewers when presented by internet star Natalia Kholodenko at Theater 555, alongside collaborations with Gloria Gaynor and Kathy Sledge for Ukrianian refugees. Upcoming: the new musical Facing the Music for Off-Broadway. kcdirector.com and on IG: @kcdirector

PENELOPE DEEN (Actress, Producer) is an award-nominated actor, producer, and choreographer whose work has spanned international stages from New York City to Edinburgh, U.K., Bogotá, Columbia and Ahmedabad, India. Recent roles include Ismene in Anti-Gone (NYC Fringe Festival, Best Tragedy 2025), Dionysus in Back-Eye (Battery Park, NY), and Susan Kether in The Climate Fables (Edinburgh Fringe, 2024), for which she earned a Broadway World Award nomination. She also appeared in the Off-Broadway debut of the internet-famous feminist musical Oceanborn, and played the title role in Gregory Moser's Hamlet. Penelope also performed in the acclaimed Indian national tour of Marco Polo at the 45th Vikram Sarabhai International Arts Festival. Penny was a special recognition graduate of Hunter College, before training with the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Patrick Page Studio, and New Perspectives Theatre Company. As a producer, Penny is the Associate Program Manager at New Perspectives Theatre Company, as well as producing independent theater off-Broadway. She is regarded for her activism work, spearheading the Women Stage the World March for the League of Professional Theatre Women.

CONNOR CHASE STEWART (Actor) is a NYC-based actor. He made his Off-Broadway debut in Bettingers Luggage. Other off-Broadway credits include; A White Man's Guide to Rikers Island, Soup in the Second Act and Lyle Kessler's Brothers. He appeared in "Man's Fate" at the 48 Hour Film Project. In 2020, he founded Bloomingdale Theater Company. Connor trained at The London Academy of Music & Dramatic Arts, Stella Adler, The Neighborhood Playhouse and HB Studio. He is a member of Lyle Kessler's Master Class and the Academy Award-winning Bobby Moresco's Actors Gym.

LOU MARTINI, JR. (Actor) has been working as an actor since 1964. He has amassed hundreds of credits in theater, film, and television. He is best known for his numerous recurring television roles, such as The Sopranos, Manifest, and currently as counselor Ron Freddo on NBC's Law & Order: SVU. Lou's latest film work includes Verity, opposite Anne Hathaway, and My Friends And Neighbors, opposite Jon Hamm. Lou won Best Lead Actor at the prestigious Houston World Fest for the black comedy, Suicide Notes. Lou's extensive theater credits include the original production of Tony 'N Tina's Wedding Off-Broadway, New York and Regional productions of Wild Children (the life story of Vincent Pastore), Centennial Casting, and Richard Vetere's Gangster Apparel.

Ilene Kristen (Actor) Born in Brooklyn, Ilene has appeared on Broadway in the original companies of Henry, Sweet, Henry; Grease, and Mayor. TV sightings include Family, Third Watch, several Law and Orders, The Black Donnelly's, Deception, Unforgettable, HBO's Show Me a Hero, The Sopranos, Another World, Loving, and General Hospital. She is best known for Delia on Ryan's Hope, and Roxy on One Life to Live, for which she received two Emmy Nominations. Most recently seen at the Triad in Kip and Sylvia: Tonight on D-Deck (directed by Karen Carpenter) she is a long-time member of Ensemble Studio Theatre. Ilene has shared her adventures in Grease: Tell Me More...Tell Me More, and wrote the forward for the book Ryan's Hope: An Oral History. Her album of self-penned songs, I'm Not Done With U Yet, is available on Amazon and iTunes.

Matt Giroveanu (Actor, Assistant Director) is an actor, director, musical improviser & award-winning voiceover artist originally from Astoria, NY. Matt majored in TV Production and double-minored in Theatre Studies & Performance at Seton Hall University. For over 10 years, Matt has toured the world improvising musicals with Baby Wants Candy, Your Love, Our Musical, Broadway's Next Hit Musical, Blank! The Musical and VERN. Television credits include Amazon's The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, CBS' God Friended Me, NBC's Law & Order: SVU, HBO's Boardwalk Empire, The Deuce, Netflix's Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt & SyFy's Happy!