RING AROUND THE PEONIES to Open at Gene Frankel Theatre Festival

Following a sold-out staged reading with the League of Professional Theatre Women JRR Reading Series, RING AROUND THE PEONIES, a new play by Karen Campion, comes to the historic Gene Frankel Theatre as part of the Gene Frankel Theatre Festival. The production runs as Block 6 with performances on Saturday, August 1 (7:30 PM), Saturday, August 8 (2:30 PM), and Friday, August 14 (6:00 PM).

Set in a cosmetology classroom inside a women's prison, RING AROUND THE PEONIES follows five women as a routine hairstyling lesson becomes a rare space of truth, humor, and fragile connection - led by instructor Avery, who blurs the line between teacher and accomplice. As lockdowns, blackouts, and officer harassment close in, an unexpected letter arrives, and the system responds in kind.

'There's something theatre does that nothing else can,' says Campion. 'It puts us in a room, up close, and asks us to sit with people we'd otherwise look past. That intimacy is where empathy starts. Most incarcerated women are nonviolent, most are mothers, and so many are survivors of trauma and abuse - yet they're thrust into a system built to monitor, not to heal. This play doesn't hand audiences the answer. It gives them the right question.'

The production is co-directed by Nick Luis and Sabrina Zara. 'The magic of co-directing is more than sharing a title - it's sharing courage, imagination, and the responsibility of bringing a vision to life together,' says Luis. 'Projects like RING AROUND THE PEONIES are why I love being a storyteller,' says Zara. 'I know this piece will prompt introspection and questions about our justice system, which is absolutely the writer's intent, and my honor to bring to the stage.' The cast of five features members of Actors' Equity Association: Melissa Denize, Mary Sheridan, Linda S. Nelson*, Nancy Gomez, and Kristen Tarragó* (*appearing courtesy of Actors' Equity Association).

Drawing on the intimate framework of Steel Magnolias but grounded in years of research, the play explores maternal separation, convicted survivors of domestic violence, mandatory minimum sentencing, and the barriers women face upon reentry. At a recent talkback following the sold-out reading, audiences responded not only to the play's humor and heartbreak but to its central provocation - arriving, on their own, at the quiet truth beneath the story.

PERFORMANCES:

Gene Frankel Theatre - 24 Bond Street, New York, NY
Block 6 of the Gene Frankel Theatre Festival
Saturday, August 1 - 7:30 PM
Saturday, August 8 - 2:30 PM
Friday, August 14 - 6:00 PM

About the Creative Team:

KAREN CAMPION (Playwright) is a member of The Dramatists Guild whose work has been produced at venues including EstroGenius Festival, Queens Short Play Festival, Voices of Women Theatre Festival, International Human Rights Art Festival, Chain Theatre One Festival, Jerry Orbach Theater, AMT Theater, and the Shawnee Playhouse Original Playwright Series, where RING AROUND THE PEONIES is a finalist.

SABRINA ZARA (Co-Director) is a New York-based director and actor, and a graduate of the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts. She began directing in 2017 with Quiara Alegría Hudes's Water by the Spoonful. Recent directing credits include Evening Out at the Chain Theatre and Flamengo Unicorn at The Secret Theatre, and Brothers of the Box at Under St. Marks.

NICK LUIS (Co-Director) is an NYC-based director, producer, and writer with a Master's in Arts Administration from CUNY Baruch College. Producing credits include the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Come From Away and Vamos A Reir Un Poco; he served as Assistant Company Manager for the Broadway musical SUFFS. He has held leadership positions at Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Pipeline Theatre, Page 73, and WP Theater. Directing credits include Trauma, Bonding, and Dominant Animals. His play Brothers of the Box was a finalist for the Frigid Theatre Festival.

MELISSA DENIZE is a native New Yorker and graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Television credits include Fatal Attraction, Mean Girl Murders, and VH1's Clock That Tea. Recent stage credits include Evening Out at the Chain Theatre.

Mary Sheridan has performed at the Triad, AMT Theater, Classic Stage Company, Urban Stages, the Laurie Beechman Theatre, and Theatre Row. Favorite roles include Alma in Summer and Smoke, Savage in Savage in Limbo, and Gertrude in Hamlet. A graduate of Yale University, she is represented by Adunni Rose Talent Agency.

Linda S. Nelson* is Resident Dramaturg for White Horse Theater Company, where she has appeared in Something Unspoken, Cavalier for Milady, Perfect Analysis Given by a Parrot, and Small Craft Warnings. Additional credits include Bakersfield Mist (NJRep), Dead People's Things (dir. Tonya Pinkins), The Fiascos (Off-Broadway), and Thank Emily, for which she won Best Actress at the American Globe Festival.

NANCY GOMEZ is a Colombian American performer from Queens, New York, whose work focuses on stories that authentically represent marginalized communities. Theatre credits include With Deepest Regrets and Lupe Vélez (INTAR), Dominant Animals (Teatro LATEA), Power 1996 (Chain Theatre), and Pansy Craze (Jamaica Center for the Arts). Film credits include Alfonze, Closure, and More Than a Woman. She is an arts educator for The Met, TDF, and Park Avenue Armory.

KRISTEN TARRAGÓ* is a Miami-born, New York-based actress. Credits include On Your Feet! (Second National Tour), In the Heights at Signature Theatre, and the world premiere of Alchemy of Sadness at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Television and film credits include FBI and Hidden Rage.

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