Free Readings of Two New Plays Come to Theatricum Botanicum

Botanicum Seedlings: A Development Series for Playwrights - This summer, Seedlings augments the Theatricum Botanicum summer season with free readings of two new plays. Both Stop-Motion by Liz Kerin (on Sunday, Aug. 20) and The Orange Garden by Joanna Garner (on Sunday, Aug. 27) explore how choices compelled by extraordinary circumstances can lead us into unknown territory. Admission is free.

• Sunday, Aug. 20 at 11 a.m.
Stop-Motion by Liz Kerin - After a decade of living in her childhood home caring for her disabled mother, a reclusive animator is forced to look at the fractured pieces of her youth - and the risks of moving forward in life - in the aftermath of a tragic accident.

• Sunday, Aug. 27 at 11 a.m.
The Orange Garden by Joanna Garner - It's 1972 and a young Peace Corps volunteer in Iran finds himself caught up in a cultural whirlwind of danger and forbidden passion. But upon returning to America, he becomes lost between two very different worlds.

Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum
1419 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd.
Topanga, CA 90290
(midway between Pacific Coast Highway and the Ventura freeway)

Information: (310) 455-3723 or www.theatricum.com/seedlings
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Liz Kerin is a graduate of the Dramatic Writing Department at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, and has a background in film and TV as well as theater. This past year, Liz was featured on the Tracking Board's Young and Hungry List as one of the top up-and-coming screenwriters in Hollywood, and her feature screenplay Pyongyang Home Video made the 2016 Hit List. Her plays have been featured at the NY Fringe Festival, the Producer's Club and 440 Studios in New York; at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (Regional Finalist); and with the Athena Cats in Los Angeles.

Joanna Garner is a playwright based in Austin, by way of Seattle. Her work has been developed nationally and internationally, including at the Banff Centre Playwrights Colony, On the Boards, Kitchen Dog Theater, Great Plains Theatre Conference and with the Rude Mechs, and has been presented at the New York and Hollywood Fringe Festivals. Joanna is also an accomplished musician; her country musical, 100 Heartbreaks, was workshopped in Seattle Rep's New Play Program and presented at Bumbershoot arts festival. The Orange Garden was a winner of the 2016 Keene Prize for Literature and included on the 2016 Kilroys List.