Playwright Tori Keenan-Zelt to Join Upcoming Event at The Drama Book Shop

The Drama Book Shop will host an exclusive, one-night-only presentation and script-signing event featuring award-winning playwright and screenwriter Tori Keenan-Zelt on Thursday, October 1, 2026, from 7:30 PM to 8:30 PM,

The evening marks the celebration and publication of Keenan-Zelt's acclaimed new play, The JonBenét Game-a gripping, darkly comic examination of female friendship, morbid curiosity, and unresolved trauma.

The curated program offers audiences an intimate glimpse into the text through a live staged reading of a select scene by acclaimed actors Keilly McQuail (Orange Is the New Black, Lincoln Center's Daphne and Her Requiem) and Molly Carden (Thunderbolts, Primary Stages), followed by a dynamic industry interview, audience Q&A, and book signing.

The conversation will be moderated by literary agent and dramaturg Katy Zapanta (Michael Moore Agency) alongside Andrew Kramer, Literary Director of American Lives Theatre. Following the formal presentation, attendees and company members are invited to gather for an informal post-event mixer next door at Gibney's.

About The JonBenét Game

When best friends Molly and Rae were twelve years old, they bonded over an obsessive, illicit sleepover game: reenacting the unsolved murder of JonBenét Ramsey. Twenty years later, Rae is an adult guidance counselor at their former middle school, having buried the uncomfortable rituals of her youth. But in the wake of Molly's untimely death, Molly's twelve-year-old daughter discovers their childhood playbook-resurfacing the secret ritual and pulling Rae back into a dizzying vortex of memory, grief, and shared obsession.

Biting, empathetic, and relentlessly sharp, The JonBenét Game dives straight into the cultural phenomenon of true-crime fascination, dissecting the complicated psychological release it provides young women confronting unspoken anxieties surrounding violence, mortality, and bodily autonomy.

Featured Artists & Participants

• Tori Keenan-Zelt (Playwright): An award-winning writer whose work spans stage and screen, exploring unconventional portraits of womanhood, dark comedies of survival, and theatrical subversion.
• Katy Zapanta (Moderator): A Filipina American dramaturg, producer, and literary agent with the Michael Moore Agency focusing on new work development. A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University with a BFA in Dramaturgy, she represents writers, composers, and designers across stage and media, and serves as President of the New York Drama Alumni Community.
• Andrew Kramer (Panelist): Literary Director of Indianapolis's American Lives Theatre and an established playwright/dramaturg dedicated to championing daring, contemporary American playwriting.
• Keilly McQuail (Actor): Renowned stage and screen performer with credits including The Dinosaurs (Playwrights Horizons), Daphne and Her Requiem (Lincoln Center/LCT3), Bodies They Ritual, Lunch Bunch, and Of Government (Clubbed Thumb Affiliated Artist), You Got Older (Page 73), and Half Moon Bay (Cherry Lane). Her screen credits include She Said, Monsterland, HBO's The Plot Against America, and Netflix's Orange is the New Black.
• Molly Carden (Actor): An accomplished New York stage veteran seen in Emotional Creature (Signature Theatre), Amerikin (Primary Stages), Matriarchs (TheaterLab), and Please Continue (EST). Regional credits include Berkeley Rep, Alley Theatre, Denver Center, and Studio Theatre. Screen appearances include Marvel's Thunderbolts and Motherland. She is an active company member of Colt Coeur and Ensemble Studio Theatre.