Gingold Theatrical Group Announces Phase 1, Plays-In-Progress Readings from Speaker's Corner Writers Group

Gingold Theatrical Group, now in its 16th Season, will continue its new play development with the Phase 1 Plays-In-Progress virtual table readings of this year's SPEAKER'S CORNER Writers Group. This season, writers Kate Douglas, Aeneas Sagar Hemphill, Divya Mangwani, Seth McNeill, Sophie Sagan-Gutherz, and Marcus Scott are developing works in response to Shaw's Arms and the Man. To learn more about these closed developmental table reads, and to register in advance to join, please visit gingoldgroup.org.

This year's readings will be:

The Apiary

by Kate Douglas, directed by Colette Robert
June 5th at 2:30 PM ET

Karma Sutra Chai Tea Latte

by Aeneas Sagar Hemphill, directed by Arpita Mukherjee
June 8th at 7 PM ET

the scold's bridle

by Sophie Sagan-Gutherz, directed by Jaye Hunt
June 10th at 7 PM ET

Untitled Conspiracy Play

by Seth McNeill, directed by Lico Whitfield
June 12th at 7 PM ET

Vigil-Aunties

by Divya Mangwani, directed by Aneesha Kudtarkar
June 15th at 7 PM ET

There Goes the Neighborhood

by Marcus Scott, directed by Christopher Burris
June 17th at 7 PM ET

Named after the corner of London's Hyde Park where George Bernard Shaw and other political speakers have delivered speeches since 1855, GTG's SPEAKERS' CORNER brings together six to ten writers each year who will spend the year exploring a specific Shaw play and writing individual new plays in response to that text and Shaw's forward thinking humanitarian ideals.

The group is led by GTG Associate Director Ilana Becker, a producer and director specializing in new play and musical development, community-driven projects, and arts education. In addition to serving as Gingold Theatrical Group's Associate Director, Ilana is The Civilians' R&D Program Director. She has served on the staff of All for One Theater, Lincoln Center Education, and Bret Adams Ltd, and spent a year as the Associate Artistic Director and Interim Artistic Director of Sun Valley Center for the Arts' Company of Fools. Ilana is a proud member of the WP Theater 2018-2020 Producers Lab, an alum of the Civilians' R&D Group, Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, DirectorsLabChicago, Fresh Ground Pepper PlayGroup, The Orchard Project's Liveness Lab, as well as a Playwrights Horizons Robert Moss Directing Fellow and an Emerging Leader of NY Arts Fellow. She is the creator of Argument Sessions, an ongoing series of immersive variety-theater events that weave SCOTUS argument transcripts and decisions with ensemble-driven, collaboratively developed original material, and is a member of Producing Blue.

"It has been a joy to witness and participate in the from-scratch development of these six ferociously funny, wildly intelligent, and genuinely ambitious plays. While they're all unique pieces in tone and exploration, they're also all distinctly emerging from this moment of vast friction and change. This cohort supported one another's development over the past season, and we look forward to inviting our community into the next stage of their processes," said Ms. Becker.

Speakers' Corner members meet virtually, bi-monthly, and GTG will host showings of the works that Speakers' Corner develops at the end of the season. The group's members were identified through an open application process under the guidance of Becker, GTG Artistic Director David Staller, and this season's Speakers' Corner Readers and Advisory Committee: é boylan, Stephanie Rolland, Dina Vovsi, along with Speakers' Corner alumni Hank Kim, Mallory Jane Weiss, and Lorenzo Roberts.

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