The WORKSHOP THEATER To Present Benefit Reading For New Sanctuary Coalition

As part of its new Words Matter initiative, The Workshop Theater will be presenting four newly-commissioned one-act plays by Sylvia Khoury, Charly Evon Simpson, Matthew Paul Olmos, and Lisa Ramirez on behalf of New Sanctuary Coalition. The plays will be presented as a Zoom reading at 7pm on October 1, and then will be available until October 5 on The Workshop's YouTube channel. All proceeds will benefit NSC, and reservations can be made at www.workshoptheater.org.

All four plays were inspired by the prompt word "sanctuary", and were specifically commissioned to be presented as a benefit reading for New Sanctuary Coalition. NSC is a multi-faith immigrant-led organization that creates support systems for and empowers those navigating the immigration system.

The plays feature: Jessica Pimentel (Orange Is the New Black), Teresa Yenque (B'way: A Streetcar Named Desire), Zabryna Guevara (ABC's Emergence), Keren Lugo (New Amsterdam), Laura Gomez (Orange Is the New Black), Jess Barbagallo (Bway: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child), and Omid Abtahi (Homeland, 24). Emma Mueller will read stage directions.

DETAILS

WHERE AND WHEN:

October 1, 2020, 7pm

Zoom reading

Presented by The Workshop Theater (Thomas Coté, Artistic Director;

Philip Callen, General Manager)

Reservations are pay-what-you-can at www.workshoptheater.org

and will benefit New Sanctuary Coalition

Running time: 90 minutes.

Sylvia Khoury is a New York-born writer of French and Lebanese descent. She is currently under commission from Lincoln Center, Williamstown Theater Festival and Noor Theatre/Pop Culture Collab. Awards include the L. Arnold Weissberger Award and Jay Harris Commission and a Citation of Excellence from the Laurents/Hatcher Awards. Her plays have been developed at Playwrights Horizons, Williamstown Theater Festival, Eugene O'Neill Playwrights' Conference, Roundabout Theater Underground, Lark Playwrights' Week, EST/Youngblood, and WP Theater. She holds a BA from Columbia University and an MFA from the New School for Drama.

Charly Evon Simpson's plays include Jump, Behind the Sheet, form of a girl unknown, it's not a trip it's a journey, and more. Charly was named the 2019-20 recipient of the Paula Vogel Playwriting Award from the Vineyard Theatre, co-recipient of the Dramatists Guild's Lanford Wilson Award, was nominated for the Outer Critics Circle's John Gassner Award, and had two of her plays on the 2019 Kilroys List. Her work has been seen and/or developed with The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, Vineyard Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Lark, Page 73, Ars Nova, Chautauqua Theater Company, PlayMakers Repertory Company, Salt Lake Acting Company, The Fire This Time Festival, National New Play Network through its NNPN/Kennedy Center MFA Playwrights Workshop and National Showcase of New Plays, and others.

Matthew Paul Olmos: Three-time Sundance Institute Fellowship/Residency recipient, New Dramatists Resident, Center Theatre Group LA Playwright, Geffen Playhouse Writers Room Playwright, Oregon Shakespeare Festival BLACK SWAN Playwright, Princess Award, selected by Taylor Mac for Cherry Grace Awardee, National Latinx Playwright Lane's Mentor Project, and La MaMa's Ellen Stewart Emerging Playwright as selected by Sam Shepard. His work is produced internationally and nationally, and is published by Samuel French and NoPassport.

Lisa Ramirez's EXIT CUCKOO (nanny in motherland) was first presented Off Broadway by the Working Theater (Colman Domingo-director), subsequently toured in various theaters throughout the U.S. and Ireland. Other writing credits: ART OF MEMORY, a dance theatre piece, commissioned by Company SoGoNo presented at the Ontological-Hysteric Theater and 3-Legged Dog in New York, (Conceived/directed by Tanya Calamoneri); INVISIBLE WOMEN-RISE, a collaboration with Foundry Theatre and Domestic Workers United; TO THE BONE, first a Working Theater commission, and a finalist for the 2011 Smith Prize, the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference and the Ellen Stewart Award, and ALL FALL DOWN, conceived/written in 2012 at INTAR during the Maria Irene Fornés Hispanic Playwrights in Residency Lab.

ABOUT THE WORKSHOP THEATER

Now under the direction of Thomas Coté (Artistic Director) and Philip Callen (General Manager), The Workshop Theater has a long history fulfilling its mission of the rigorous development and production of new American plays and musicals that transport, challenge and surprise both artists and audiences. Notable successes include extensively developing A Peregrine Falls by Leegrid Stevens ("a richly dark and rending drama" The New Yorker), The Man Who Was Peter Pan by Allan Knee (debuted at The Workshop and became the basis for the Academy Award nominated film "Finding Neverland" and the Broadway musical of the same name) and The Navigator by Eddie Antar (recipient of two Drama Desk nominations).