New Eyes Festival at Playwrights' Center

Celebrate Asian American voices with the NEW EYES FESTIVAL! The play-reading series has been around since 1993 as an incubator for new works, and this year we leveled the playing field even more by accepting script submissions from across the country. After reading through 80+ scripts and holding many literary committee meetings, we're excited to present this trio of stories: MAYBE YOU COULD LOVE ME by Samah Meghjee, FIFTY BOXES OF EARTH by Ankita Raturi, and GRANDMOTHER/BATHTUB by Brian Dang.

The NEW EYES FESTIVAL is free to attend (RSVP encouraged), and audiences can expect a staged reading of each play. A reading is a form of theater without sets or full costumes, and actors read from scripts and incorporate minimal stage movement.

FESTIVAL SCHEDULE --------------------------------

>> Friday at 7 pm CT With Samah Meghjee’s MAYBE YOU COULD LOVE ME, two childhood friends must choose between arranged marriages or leaving their families’ Islamic culture, which is made even more complicated in light of their own growing love for each other.

>> Saturday at 7 pm CT Those who attend FIFTY BOXES OF EARTH will see the first look at our February world premiere! Ankita Raturi takes Bram Stoker’s Dracula and queers it into a tale following an immigrant trying to plant literal and figurative roots in a new land.

>> Sunday at 1:30 pm CT In GRANDMOTHER/BATHTUB, Brian Dang examines language loss as a “slow violence” through a grandmother who refuses to leave her bathtub despite its location above a fault line ready to explode.