ROUGHLY SPEAKING to Premiere at TADA This Fall
Following a very well-received staged reading at the Manhattan Theatre Club on June 20, The Platform Group is pleased to announce that Shara Ashley Zeiger's gritty work Roughly Speaking, based on over 200 interviews with New York City's homeless at Xavier Mission Welcome Table Soup Kitchen, will be presented at Tada Theater, located at 15 West 28 Street, from October 29 - November 20, 2016.
Roughly Speaking takes place during the course of one meal service, showing people stuck in a Waiting for Godot-like existence. The play navigates homelessness through the eyes of Lightning Bolt, a rapper bound only by his wheelchair, and a cast of diverse characters typical to New York, but not so typical to the stage. For the well-heeled regulars that wander in, this is just one more stop in a never ending journey, on their quest for food, shelter and a bit of companionship. For the newcomers, it's a shattering reminder of how their lives have changed. Affecting both those being helped and the people who try to help them, Roughly Speaking is a play about being trapped in a system which exists more to maintain the status quo, rather than offer a way out.
The cast for the staged reading included Kelly McCreary (Grey's Anatomy) Peter Gregus (Jersey Boys and Contact on Broadway), Spencer S. Barros (The Tempest on Broadway with Patrick Stewart), Debra Toscano (Big Gay Italian Wedding/Funeral), Davis Hall, Justin RG Holcomb, Troy Valjean Rucker, Reginald Wilson and Shara Ashley Zeiger. The reading was directed by Jillian Carucci, who will also helm the upcoming Tada production.
Among the production team for the reading were Allen MacLeod (Assistant Director, Stage Manager, Producing Assistant), Nancy Kelly (Dramaturg), Kimberly Olsen (Producing Assistant), The Platform Group, Mike Rissi (Producers), Emily Flaherty, Carolyn Lamphier, Suzy Sampson, Joanne Schwartzberg (Associate Producers).
Shara Ashley Zeiger is the founder and Artistic Director of The Platform Group, where she acted in and produced Savage in Limbo, and The Ladder Series. Her play The Dark Place was part of the 2014 Emerging Artist Theater's New Works Festival. As a devised work teaching artist she has developed 10 new plays with The Queens Theatre. Shara's theatre acting credits include the National Tour of Moliere's Imaginary Invalid and appearances at La Mama E.T.C., PS 122, Theater for the New City, Kitchen Theatre, Bristol Riverside Theatre and Buck's County Playhouse. She is on the reader selection committee for The O'Neill Center's National Playwrights Conference and sits on the board for NY's Educational Theater Association.
Jillian Carucci is a director, devisor, teacher, and producing artist focused on developing work that celebrates unique voices and stories on stage. She recently directed Tony award-winner Alice Ripley's All Sondheim concert at Feinstein's/54 Below and the NJ One Minute Play Festival at Luna Stage. She is a frequent teaching artist at McCarter Theatre Center where she teaches scene study, devises classes, adapts material, and directs educational plays and musicals. She also works as the Industry Practicum Program Director at CAP21 Conservatory & Theatre Company. Jillian is a co-founder of Tunnel Theatre Company, an SDC Associate, member of The League of Independent Theater and graduate of Westminster College of the Arts of Rider University.
The Platform Group was formed in early 2010 as a call to action by Artistic Director Shara Ashley Zeiger. Their mission is to create work that challenges, inspires and provides a place to stand on. They seek to elevate both their audiences and creators. In early 2011 they produced a sold-out Off-Broadway run of John Patrick Shanley's Savage in Limbo. In 2012 they produced The Ladder Series, a staged reading series of 9 new full length plays, working with over 80 theatre artists, which lead to further development, world premieres, and publishing of some of the works. www.ThePlatformGroup.org.
Funding for Roughly Speaking is made possible through a very successful Kickstarter campaign and a grant from The Puffin Foundation. The production team is currently fielding various funding sources and hopes to take the play to a future life once the Tada run is finished.
