Santa Monica Rep Presents Festival of Play Readings #hysteria

Santa Monica Repertory Theater presents #hysteria, a weekend festival of play readings, written and directed by women, including a post-show conversation with the director, cast, and audience after each reading, June 7 - 9, 2019. Titles include The Taming by Lauren Gunderson, 7 Conversations About Slavery by Tanya White, By the Way, Meet Vera Stark by Lynn Nottage, Nickel and Dimed by Joan Holden, based on the book by Barbara Ehrenreich and Native Gardens by Karen Zacarías. The selected plays feature diverse stories that explore race relations in Hollywood's Golden Age, put us shoulder to shoulder with the working poor, and take us to a beauty pageant that just might be the start of a revolution. While comedic, the selected plays dive deep into themes on the forefront of everyone's minds today: gender politics, white supremacy and racism, immigration, and earning a living wage.

Lauren Gunderson was the most-produced playwright in American in 2017 and her play The Taming is the 3rdplay in her Shakespeare Cycle, a series of contemporary comedies based on Shakespeare's plays. KQED said of The Taming, "So many hysterical lines in the play that you'd hardly finish laughing at one before the next hit you."

Tanya White's 7 Conversations about Slavery explores a path forward and a healing process from the psychic trauma of slavery that begins with acknowledging the weight of white supremacy fueled by greed.

Lynn Nottage's By the Way, Meet Vera Stark takes the audience on a seventy-year journey through Vera's life and the cultural climate that shaped who she becomes. The play was a New York Times Critic's Pick - "So clever, so playful, so keen to shapeshift and timeslip and whiz through half a dozen separate genres."

Nickel and Dimed is based on Barbara Ehrenreich's bestselling journey into the world of the working poor, "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America." The Los Angeles Times said of Joan Holden's theatrical adaptation, "Daring...attacks the privileges of 90% of the people who will see it...Ehrenreich's irrepressible sense of humor admirably translated from page to stage."

Mexican-American playwright Karen Zacarías said of her play, Native Gardens, "It's a big-hearted comedy with a lot of sharp little teeth. By focusing on the disarming nature of gardening, I hope we can laugh and examine many thorny issues taking root in our culture." Ben Demers in DC Theatre Scene.com said, "A laugh-a-minute comedy that has arrived at exactly the right time - true breath of fresh comic air. Beyond snappy one-liners and garden hose fights, the play challenges audiences to look beyond petty differences and rediscover our shared decency."

Tanya White, Co-Artistic Director of Santa Monica Repertory Theater said of the festival, "We're all screaming our opinions into the void of social media creating meaningless conflict that's getting us nowhere. In a time when we're more invested in being right than doing the right thing, is there an antidote to the crazy? We think so. That is why we've curated this festival, to create meaningful conversations in our community, centered around these important works by women."

"The festival also marks an important moment for Santa Monica Rep," out-going founding Artistic Director Eric Bloom adds. "It's been a labor of love guiding this amazing ensemble company for the last 9+ years. Transitioning from a founding director can be fraught, but I'm so excited that Tanya White will be taking over that role and she has the full support of the entire organization. She is an immensely talented and curious artist and an incredible leader who believes wholeheartedly in the power of art to impact lives. Santa Monica Rep will do great big things under her leadership."

For tickets and more information, visit www.santamonicarep.org.

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