Canceled THE ANTELOPE PARTY Gets Virtual Benefit Reading

When the COVID-19 pandemic shut down New York theaters, Dutch Kills Theater Company (Temping, The Sister, The Providence of Neighboring Bodies) was finishing up tech rehearsals at The Wild Project for the New York Premiere of 2018 Weissberger Award for Playwrighting nominee THE ANTELOPE PARTY by Eric John Meyer.

On Monday October 26th at 6:30pm, Dutch Kills will present a special reading of THE ANTELOPE PARTY, directed by Jess Chayes featuring the March 2020 cast. The recorded reading will continue to be accessible through October 29th. Simply gift a donation of any amount to Dutch Kills Theater Company between now and October 29th to receive a link to view the virtual reading of this comic drama about the rise of facism. Once the artists have been paid, the remaining funds will be split 50/50 between Dutch Kills and organizations fighting for voting rights. To make a donation and watch THE ANTELOPE PARTY, visit dutchkillstheater.com.

In THE ANTELOPE PARTY, five friends gather weekly to revel in their love of the children's cartoon My Little Pony. But they soon find themselves caught between their innocent Brony role playing game and an increasingly dangerous outside world that keeps changing the rules. Eric John Meyer's comic drama wrestles with the importance of community and the dangers of our need to belong.

Directed by 2017 Lucille Lortel Award winner Jess Chayes (HOME/SICK, Half Moon Bay) with dramaturgy by Sarah Lunnie (What the Constitution Means to Me, Grand Horizons, Hillary and Clinton, A Doll's House Part 2), THE ANTELOPE PARTY stars Kieron Anthony (Scraps at The Flea), Will Dagger (NYT Critic's Pick Among the Dead with Ma-Yi), Reyna de Courcy (Samuel Hunter's The Whale at Playwrights Horizons), Quinn Franzen (Threesome at 59E59), Lindsley Howard (Ed Iskander's They Mysteries at The Flea), and Libby King (the TEAM, Elvis in RoosevElvis, Mission Drift).

The special presentation will feature backgrounds by Yu-Hsuan Chen (Our Dear Dead Drug Lord, Nomad Motel), sound by Asa Wember (Seagullmachine), and costumes by Kate Fry (Burn This on Broadway). The original production also featured lighting by Cha See and props by Brian Bernhard. Lucy Jackson is Associate Producer.

THE ANTELOPE PARTY is now available from Broadway Play Publishing and selections from the play are featured in the 2019 editions of both The Best Women's Monologues and The Best Men's Monologues from Applause.

Jess Chayes is the BOLD Associate Artistic Director at Northern Stage as well as a founding co-artistic director of The Assembly, with whom she has co-created and directed ten original productions. Recent directing includes: Intelligence (Dutch Kills), Latter Days and The Providence of Neighboring Bodies (Dutch Kills), Half Moon Bay (Lesser America), I Will Look Forward to this Later (The Assembly), Primal Play (New Georges), The Bachelors (Williamstown Theater Festival), The Sister (Dutch Kills), The Netflix Plays (Ars Nova), and HOME/SICK (The Assembly, NY Times Critic's Pick). Jess is a New York Theater Workshop Usual Suspect, a co-founder of New Georges Jam artists' lab, and alum of the New Georges Audrey Residency, The Civilians R&D Group and the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab. Associate Directing credits: Peter and the Starcatcher (Broadway and New World Stages) and Misery. Jess is the recipient of the 2017 Lucille Lortel Award from the League of Professional Theatre Women and the 2019 Collaboration Award from the Women in the Arts & Media Coalition.

Eric John Meyer's plays have been developed or presented by Playwrights Horizons, Theater Wit, The Lark, Clubbed Thumb, Vineyard Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Flea, Dutch Kills Theater Company, and The Edinburgh Fringe Festival, among others. His play The Antelope Party was nominated for the 2018 Weissberger Award and is available from Broadway Play Publishing. Eric was recently in Moscow and Saint Petersburg developing a Russian translation of The Antelope Party as part of The Lark's Russia/U.S. Playwright Exchange. His new play The Wheel of Fortune (a theory of change), a Playwright Horizons commission, was recently developed at PH in a workshop directed by Carolyn Cantor. Eric has been a resident at SPACE on Ryder Farm, Drop, Forge and Tool, and Lark Playwrights Week. With Jean Ann Douglass, Eric is co-founder of Human Head Performance Group, known for performing original works inside Budget rental trucks.

Since 2011, Dutch Kills (Alley Scott, Artistic Director and Allison Raynes, Managing Director) has been committed to developing and producing new plays by the most exciting emerging theater artists in New York and beyond. Dutch Kills full productions include Selkie by Krista Knight at The Wild Project, Intelligence at Next Door at NYTW, The Sister by Eric John Meyer at the 4th Street Theater and later at Paradise in Edinburgh, In Quietness by Anna Moench at Walkerspace, and Adventure Quest by Richard Lovejoy at Just the Tonic in Edinburgh. In 2017 the company produced two plays developed by Dutch Kills: Latter Days by Ben Beckley and The Providence of Neighboring Bodies by Jean Ann Douglass, both directed by Jess Chayes as an Ars Nova Fling. Providence... was also produced in August 2018 at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The company has produced dozens of developmental workshops and readings including works by Kate Benson, Alexandra Silber, and Erin Mallon. Dutch Kills is currently presenting Wolf359's Temping at The Wild Project through November 22. For more info visit www.dutchkillstheater.com.