Carolyn Gage Teams Up With Counterclaim to Present Online Reading of FEMALE NUDE SEATED

Carolyn Gage, an award-winning lesbian-feminist playwright and activist, teams up with counterclaim (c-c), a Brooklyn-based production company, to host an online reading of her latest work: Female Nude Seated, a one-act play about Irish painters Mainie Jellet and Evie Hone. The reading will take place at 7:30 p.m. Eastern on Saturday, May 16, 2020 on Zoom. To receive Zoom details visit www.counterclaimart.com or simply click here. c-c will also host a talkback after the reading during which the audience may submit questions for Carolyn Gage and all other collaborators.

In the wake of World War I, Mainie and Evie meet in art school when Evie interrupts Mainie's attempt to drink a jar of paint thinner. Over a bottle of brandy, the two get to know one another as artists and as women who are struggling to make art in a field dominated by men. A story of female sexuality, trauma, and the demands of artistic ideals, Female Nude Seated shows two young women at a personal crossroads in a time of extraordinary change. They might be able to save one another, however, as they decide to take control of their freedom while shattering the status quo in 1917 London.

According to feminist philosopher, activist, and author Andrea Dworkin, "The culture of women we have never had is invented in Carolyn Gage's brilliant and beautiful plays." Gage, "one of the best lesbian playwrights in America" according to Lambda Book Report, Los Angeles, is best known for touring the United States, Canada, and Europe with her award-winning, one-woman play, The Second Coming of Joan of Arc, for which she received the Lambda Literary Award in Drama for best LGBT book in the U.S. She was also nominated for the Steinberg Award by the American Theatre Critics Association for Ugly Ducklings and won the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Festival for Harriet Tubman Visits a Therapist.

c-c has also announced its collaboration with Emma Rosa Went as director for the reading, Harrison Densmore as assistant director, Abbey Joan Burgess as assistant producer/dramaturg, Olivia Rose Barresi as Mainie, and Morgaine Gooding-Silverwood as Evie. Hillary E. Miller, theatre historian, writer, and professor at CUNY, will moderate the talkback.

c-c, founded by NYC attorneys Sarah E. and Greg Swanson, produces art that counters normative and traditional forms. Keeping to its mission, c-c is eager to produce and support the work of artists, albeit virtually, and notwithstanding the COVID-19 pandemic.

The reading is of no cost. Visit www.counterclaimart.com/upcoming or simply click here to receive Zoom details. Running time is 40 minutes, with a 20-30 minute talkback after the production, during which audience participation is strongly encouraged.

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