Apr 29 & Apr 30
19th ANNUAL NEW PLAY READING FESTIVAL Program
People power plays. Plays power progress.
Boston Court’s New Play Reading Festival is an annual tradition begun in 2004, marking its 19th edition in 2023. The Festival is an important pipeline of new work for Boston Court, with 21 of the 37 world premiere plays produced in our history first programmed in the New Play Reading Festival before going on to full productions.
Your participation in the Festival is essential, as your reactions and feedback are critical to the playwrights, as well as to Boston Court as we think about future Mainstage programming. Thank you for being here!
Boston Court Pasadena is located on the unceded lands of the Tongva, Gabrielino, and Kizh peoples, specifically the lands of the Hahamog’na band of the Tongva tribe. We honor and uplift these still-enduring communities and we are grateful for their stewardship of these lands.
Kuuyam nahwá’a is a Tongva peoples concept that means guest exchange, a belief that when given a chance to affect history in a positive way that a human being would make the just move. One action people and institutions can take is to make a voluntary recurring contribution to support Tongva-led Land Back efforts, acknowledging both relationship and reciprocity to the lands and Native Peoples of Tovaangar, this place many of us now call home.
You can learn more about kuuyam nahwá’a and make your contribution on the Tongva Taraxat Paaxavxa Conservancy website: https://tongva.land/
DISCOVER THE PLAYS & THE PLAYWRIGHTS
TIRA PALMQUIST
THE BODY’S MIDNIGHT
Tira Palmquist (she/her) is known for plays that merge the personal, the political and the poetic. Her most produced play, Two Degrees, premiered at the Denver Center and is available through TRW Plays. Tira’s current projects include Memory of Winter (The Road Theater’s Under Construction 3) and The Body’s Midnight (Featured Playwright, 2021 Seven Devils New Play Conference, 2022 Boston Court Playwrights Group). King Margaret, an adaptation of the Henry VI cycle was featured in the 5 Directors, 5 Plays reading series with Oregon Shakespeare Festival, July 2021.The Way North, a 2019 Kilroys List Honorable Mention, was developed at the 2019 Ashland New Plays Festival and at the 2018 Seven Devils Playwrights Conference. The Way North was a finalist for the 2018 O’Neill NPC, the 2018 Bay Area Playwrights and the 2019 Blue Ink Playwriting Award.Commission Projects: The Worth of Water (Clutch Productions’ equity showcase, NYC) and Lower Depth Theater Ensemble’s Safe Harbor (2019). Other commissions include work for UCI MFA acting students (Hold Steady 2019, All We Ever Wanted Was Everything 2020, and The Last Time We Saw Madison 2021).
AUSTIN OWENS KELLY
OBSCURA
Austin Owens Kelly (they/them) is a multi-hyphenate performer and creator from LA currently based in NYC. They’ve been performing at various regional theaters across Southern California since the age of seven. In 2021, they received a BFA in Musical Theatre from Texas State University. They were recently a member of The Wallis Studio Ensemble at the Wallis Annenberg Center for Performing Arts; an experimental, collaborative theatre group focusing on devised work and physical theatre. This is their playwriting debut.
VASANTI SAXENA
HERE IS WHERE
Vasanti Saxena (she/her) is a Los Angeles-based playwright whose work explores the fissures of family and relationships, memory, and historical legacy. Her plays have been produced and/or developed at Boston Court, Chalk Rep, Chicago Dramatists, Company of Angels, East West Players, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Lower Depth Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, The Road Theatre, Silk Road Rising, and more. Plays include Footsteps, Sun Sisters (East West Players Pacific Century Playwriting Competition winner, O’Neill National Playwrights Conference and Princess Grace Award semi-finalist), Closing Time, and Weekend Getaway, among others. Sun Sisters is published in Contemporary Plays by Women of Color (Routledge, 2017). Fellowships and commissions include the Outfest Screenwriting Lab, Lower Depth Theatre’s “Cycle of Poverty” commission, NYTW Emerging Artist of Color Fellowship, and an EST/Sloan commission.
TIME | THE PRESENT, OR CLOSE ENOUGH
PLACE | THE BLUE HIGHWAYS BETWEEN CALIFORNIA AND PARTS EAST
CAST
ANNE | NIKE DOUKAS*
DAVID | BERNARD K. ADDISON*
CHORUS ONE | PIA SHAH
CHORUS TWO | RANDY THOMPSON
CHORUS THREE | EILEEN GALINDO*
STAGE DIRECTIONS | SEAN SPANN
CREATIVE TEAM
PLAYWRIGHT | TIRA PALMQUIST
DIRECTOR | JESSICA KUBZANSKY
STAGE MANAGER | ALYSSA ESCALANTE*
ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER | JASMINE LEUNG
*Denotes member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States.
SETTING
TIME | THE DAYS LEADING INTO AND FALLING OUT OF THANKSGIVING, AT VARIOUS NON-LINEAR POINTS. THE RECENT PAST.
PLACE | A LARGE EMPTY MALLEABLE SPACE, THAT TAKES US TO:
- AN ART GALLERY
- THE FRONT STEPS OF A CHURCH
- THE LIVING ROOM AN OF UPPER- MIDDLE CLASS HOUSE
- A PSYCH-WARD WAITING ROOM
- AN AIRPORT HOTEL ROOM
- SOMEWHERE ELSE
- ALL WITHIN THE SUBURBS OF ELMHURST, ILLINOIS
CAST
FINCH | HAYDEN BISHOP
OSCAR | IAIN KOHN
ELLIE | KARLEE FOSTER
JULIA | ROMI DIAS
HOWARD | BO FOXWORTH*
VOICE/ALLEN/REDDEN | JUNE CARRYL*
STAGE DIRECTIONS | WILL BLOCK*
CREATIVE TEAM
PLAYWRIGHT | AUSTIN OWENS KELLY
DIRECTOR | MICHAEL MICHETTI
DRAMATURG | JER ADRIANNE LELLIOT
STAGE MANAGER | ALYSSA ESCALANTE*
ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER | JASMINE LEUNG
*Denotes member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States.
TIME & PLACE:
SEPTEMBER AND NOVEMBER 2001: NEW YORK – VIOLET’S APARTMENT, A TATTOO SHOP, A CAFE
DECEMBER 1937: NANJING – A CLASSROOM
AND TIMES AND PLACES IN BETWEEN
CAST
VIOLET | JENNY SOO
KIRA | ASHLEY DENISE ROBINSON*
LENA | JENAPHER ZHENG*
GLORIA | KAREN HUIE*
MEI ZHU | DESIREE MEE JUNG*
FRAN | VICTORIA HOFFMAN*
SIGH | REINA GUTHRIE*
STAGE DIRECTIONS | DAVID KEPNER
CREATIVE TEAM
PLAYWRIGHT | VASANTI SAXENA
DIRECTOR | KATHERINE CHOU
STAGE MANAGER | ALYSSA ESCALANTE*
ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER | JASMINE LEUNG
*Denotes member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States.
ABOUT BOSTON COURT
Boston Court creates and nurtures innovative, boundary-pushing art that invokes the power of collective imagination to illuminate our common humanity.
Expanding our capacity for empathy and change.
We’re passionate about the heightened, the lyrical, the never-seen-before, the boundary-breaking. We’re drawn to art that excavates the depth of human existence or dances in and out of ineffable wonder. We fall for the imaginative, the impossible, the incandescent. We love the absurd. We swoon for the cerebral. We bow down to heartbreak and humor, especially when we don’t see them coming. Show us the magic of what’s real and the tangibility of what’s ethereal.
DIRECTOR OF THE NEW PLAY READING FESTIVAL
Adrian Centeno is a dramaturg and arts educator based in Los Angeles. He’s developed new works at South Coast Repertory, San Diego Repertory Theatre, New York Stage & Film, Teatro Bravo, Childsplay Theatre Company, foolsFURY Theater Company, and Playwrights’ Arena, among others. A fierce advocate for new plays, Adrian has proudly served on new play development grant panels and selection committees for the National Endowment for the Arts, Page 73, and Signature Theatre. He is a member of the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas and has presented work in progress at their international conferences. He’s also an Affiliate Dramaturg with Beehive Dramaturgy Studio in New York City. Adrian is a graduate of UC Santa Cruz, where he recently received the 2021 Graduate Division Distinguished Alumni Award. He’s thrilled to join the outstanding team at Boston Court Pasadena.
STAFF
Will Block, Rentals Coordinator
Adrian Centeno, Literary Manager
Nicki Heskin, General Manager
Tarlisha Johnson-Lee, Development Manager
Jessica Kubzansky, Artistic Director
Stephanie Sherwood, ArtUpfront Coordinator
Jesse Soto, Technical Director & Facilities Manager
EmmaJo Spencer, General Management Fellow
Margaret Shigeko Starbuck, Associate Artistic Director
Hannah Trujillo, Patron Services & Administrative Associate
Paloma Arielle W., Marketing & Communications Manager
Ethan Haslam, Vivian Juarez, Reginald McKamie Jr., Maria Vasileva, Will Block, Adrian Zamora – 2023 Box Office & Front of House Staff
Kyle Clausen, Interim Leadership Consultant
Dana Bean/Amplify for Good, Fundraising Consultant
Fanshen Cox, Social Impact Consultant
Michael Michetti, Artistic Director Emeritus
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Edward Rada, Chair
Robert Leventer, Vice Chair
Kris Fujita, Secretary
Chris Werner, Treasurer
Liza Beres
Z. Clark Branson
Rodney Bolton
Walt Cochran-Bond
Jered Gold
Robin Green
Sandy Greenstein
Robbin Kelley
Damaris Montalvo
Michael Ruff
Tony Segall
Eileen T’Kaye
Nick Vasels
Joy Veluz