Primary Stages Presents Inaugural Reading of New Play Development Initiative LIFF LAB

PRIMARY STAGES' inaugural reading of its new play development initiative Liff Lab took place Friday, January 10, 2025, at A.R.T./NY’s Haimes Studio. Primary Stages welcomed playwright Alex Lin as the inaugural Liff Lab recipient and presented a reading of Alex’s play Laowang, directed by Joshua Kahan Brody.
 
Don't mess with a Chinese grandma. When a high-rise developer threatens to buy out A-Poh’s successful Chinatown restaurant, the martyr-complex matriarch gathers her three precious grandchildren from all corners of the country to plan their next mode of attack. There’s just one problem – A-Poh’s memory is rapidly fading. What follows is a chaotic journey through reality, myth, and magic as A-Poh travels through now and the great beyond as a last-ditch effort to preserve what’s left of her family, legacy, and sanity. Laowang is a caustic and imaginative spin on King Lear in response to the gentrification of America’s Chinatowns.
 
Alex Lin is a Lila Acheson Wallace Playwriting Fellow at Juilliard and has had work developed at Roundabout, Second Stage, NYTW, Ma-Yi, Two River, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and Manhattan Theatre Club, among others.
 
The cast of the reading featured Pun Bandu, Wai Ching Ho, Cindy Im, Brittany Liu, and Jon Norman Scheider. Avery Trunko was the Stage Manager. Laura Riveros-Sefair was the Einhorn School of Performing Arts (ESPA) Directing Observer and Claire Crowley was the ESPA Playwriting Observer.
 
The Liff Lab is an innovative new play development program named by The Sulzberger Rolfe Foundation in memory of Samuel “Biff” Liff, a legendary theater agent who helped hundreds of artists in their careers, including Julie Andrews, Angela Lansbury, Jerry Herman, and Chita Rivera, to name a few. This annual program will provide an exceptional early to mid-career playwright with a 29-hour developmental workshop of an unproduced new work. 
 
The Liff Lab combines Primary Stages’ Artistic and Educational Initiatives by inviting two of their ESPA students to participate in the workshop by observing rehearsals and assisting creative personnel. The students will gain meaningful professional experience and build industry relationships that can’t be found in a typical classroom setting. The workshop concludes with a private reading of the play for invited guests and the larger ESPA community.
 
This new program is a testament to the power of friendship and mentorship. Primary Stages’ founding board members Marvin and Anne Einhorn first met Biff Liff when they were all theater majors at Carnegie Mellon University in the 1930s, and their deep friendship lasted the rest of their lives. An experienced stage manager, producer, and theater agent, Biff was a vital member of Primary Stages’ Artistic Advisory Board when the company was first getting off the ground and was someone the staff turned to time and time again for sound advice throughout the years. Biff was an incredible mentor for people coming up in the theater industry, including theater agent Mickey Rolfe.
 
“Biff was, and remains, my hero,” says Rolfe. “This multi-year gift from The Sulzberger Rolfe Foundation is my way of giving thanks and honoring the man who literally changed my life. For me, The Liff Lab captures Biff’s love of nurturing emerging talent and celebrates years of intertwined creative relationships. Biff was far more than a personal representative, mentor, voice of reason, and man of great taste; he was a devotee of the developmental process of the theater.”