Landing Theatre Company Announces 2019 New American Voices Winners

The Landing Theatre Company's New American Voices Play Reading Series is an annual event showcasing four plays written by outstanding emerging playwrights from across the United States.

From an eminently competitive pool of submitted plays, the Winners are:

THE IMPOSSIBLE ESCAPE OF DON MISTERIOSO by Hal Borden (Philadelphia, PA)

Friday, March 15 @ 7 pm

Directed by Jonathan Gonzalez

In 1955, nine months after a CIA-backed coup, the warden of a Guatemalan prison agrees to an interview request from Maxine Whitman of Life magazine. When Max arrives at the prison, she

reveals that her true agenda is to interview Francisco, a prisoner whom she believes is the last living assistant of Harry Houdini. With the warden's grudging cooperation, Max urges Francisco to divulge Houdini's secrets before they're lost to history, but she ultimately becomes more interested in Francisco's own career as a magician. When he attempts a daring escape, Max plays an unexpected role in Francisco's final performance.

W FOR THE GILBSTER by David Spence (Las Cruces, NM)

Saturday, March 16 @ 1 pm

Directed by Eric Moore

Gilbert, the weird guy who sits outside all day watching the neighborhood, tells us his story. We pass through time but always stay in his neighborhood. From where he's sitting, the neighbors are everything. He has no family of his own. He has no job. He can't even drive a car. He's never had a girlfriend. Change is in the wind.

land of no mercy (en zvey aktn) by Rae Binstock (Brooklyn, NY)

Saturday, March 16 @ 7 pm

Directed by Stephen Miranda

The apartment sits on the corner of Monroe and Clinton, tucked away in Manhattan's Lower East Side. It's a cozy little place, just big enough for two-but which two? Yetta and Solomon, the Jewish immigrants from 1915, business owners fighting to get through each day and hold on to a world thousands of miles away, while they worry about starting a family in the Land of Opportunity? Or Maria and Alex, the millennial oddballs of the present who sweep into the

neighborhood on a tide of gentrification, struggling to keep their college relationship viable in the face of new stressors, new ambitions, and new neighbors? A century apart but close enough to touch, two couples inhabit the same cramped apartment. Their stories weave together, contrasted throughout history, a collage of youth, hope, and uncertainty in what Tony Kushner calls "the melting pot where nothing melted".

MS. EMMA MOLE by Cecile Pace (New York, NY)

Sunday, March 17 @ 2 pm

Directed by Jennifer Decker

In early 1950s Wyoming, three young women come together as Library volunteers, and their lives fall apart. Ellis' husband disappears. Sally's husband collapses along with his lumber company. Ms. Emma Mole, the ugly, bitter 6th grade teacher, is aborted while unconscious.

Told through interconnected monologues, three dissimilar women meet, become unlikely friends and cross barriers over the next twelve years.

** Talkbacks with the Playwright, Cast and Director follow each reading. **

Stages Repertory Theatre

3201 Allen Parkway, Suite 101

Houston, Texas 77019

ADMISSION

FREE (Donations suggested, to support new play development and production)

The Landing Theatre Company is dedicated to advancing American Theatre through the cultivation of extraordinary American playwriting and presenting American works that have significant artistic worth to our community, our culture and our history.

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