January 17, 18, & 19, 2025, Ego Actus has organized a play reading series of new works from attendees of the 2024 La MaMa Umbria Playwriting Retreat. The readings are FREE at La MaMa, 47 Great Jones St.
These plays were created under the guidance of workshop leaders Ken Prestininzi (Connecticut College) and Martyna Majok (2018 Pulitzer Prize Cost of Living)
Special thanks to La MaMa leaders MIa Yoo, David DIamond, and Adriana Garbagnati for administering the retreat and taking great care of us.
Friday, January 17
Noon Playwright: Monet Hurst-Mendoza, Title: breathe•tulum, Director: Katherine M. Carter, Cast:
Valeria Avina, Alana Raquel Bowers, Jacqueline Guillén, Olivia Jampol, Cristina Pitter, and Julia Sirna-Frest, Description: A meditation on the transformation of Tulum from a tranquil paradise to a commercialized tourist hub, exploring themes of cultural preservation, environmental damage, and spiritual searching.
1:00pm Playwright: Bruce A! Kraemer, Title: Symposium, Director: Joan Kane,
Cast: J. Dolan Byrnes, Terry Lee King, Rebecca Goldfarb, Mike Roche, Holly O’Brien, and James Fitzpatrick, stage directions reader Joan Kane, Description: What if the playwrights at a playwriting symposium had to act out each others plays? This is a tongue-in-cheek depiction of what did not happen in Umbria. It is multi layer meta theater that just won’t quit. Be sure to hang in there for the second epilogue.
2:00pm Playwright: Tomomi Suzuki, Title: Mama and Us, Director: Tomomi Suzuki, Cast: tbd, Description: Mama and us is about a mother and children who live in a mysterious house. It starts with a daughter, Liza, looking at a shrinking flower in a yard on a first day of snow.
4:00pm Playwright: Maura Pelczynski, Title: Moon Glow-Hearth Heat, Director: tbd, Cast: tbd, Description: Felix is wealthy and Felix is dying. Daisy Beth has nothing to her name but herself. The Great Mad Scientist Willwick Woddentoff is so full of wonderful ideas.
6:00pm Playwright: Stephen Helper, Title: Up and Down, Director: Stephen Helper, Cast: Mary Bacon, Robert Creighton, and Jessica Litwak, stage directions reader Asha Etchison, Description: Earl, a neurotic, upbeat, father strives to restore the love of his life, Marjoram, to consciousness. Deeply wise Nurse Narella helps Earl navigate his careening feelings while Marjoram flows with life in overlapping dimensions all around them. A story of love, hope and reaching out.
Saturday, January 18
Noon Playwright: Leah Plante-Wiener, Title: CANKERSORE PARADISE, Director: Ben Viertel, Cast: Rachel Moe and D.B. Miliken, Description: A love story
2:00pm Playwright: Breanne Oryschak, Title: Wifellini, Director: Dillon Orr, Cast: Theresa Stork, Description: On the night of their 50th wedding anniversary, while Fellini lays in a coma after choking on mozzarella, Giulietta Masina reckons with their marriage and artistic collaboration to stage a true final act: her own martyrdom. We gratefully acknowledge support from the Canada Council for the Arts.
4:00pm Playwright: Abby Holland, Title: Untitled Babysitters Project, Director: Abby Holland, Cast: Apoorva Gundeti, Henry Lynch, Jodie Markell, J.D. Mollison, Rooster Monaghan, Olivia Nikkanen, Trevor Salter, and Kate Pittard, Description: Three aspiring actresses are hired to babysit a child of affluent producers during their vacation in the Outer Banks. The young women’s hopes of fame must sustain the week that turns increasingly bizarre.
6:00pm Playwright: Tatiana Kouguell-Hoell, Title: Fuck Me, I’m Grieving, Director: Tatiana Kouguell-Hoell, Cast, tbd, Description: Fuck Me, I’m Grieving follows a particularly horny bereavement group and the counselor who may or may not have a grief fetish; starting an affair with a new member in order to piece together why there’s a sudden gap in her memory.
Sunday, January 19
Noon Playwright: K. Stanger, Title: Oracle, Director: Sarah Kimberly Becker, Cast: tbd, Description: Oracle is the myth of Perseus, as seen through the eyes of his mother, Danae. Danae’s story is muddled by her father’s values and her son’s quest from the gods. Medusa and her sisters sing us through the tragedy, where folly loops back to the ever illusive Oracle of Delphi.
2:00pm Playwright: Rose-Marie Brandwein, Title: About Face, Director: Eric Diamond Cast: Vivien Landau, Brigid Moynahan, Jerry Ferris and Eric Diamond, Description: Shelley is struggling to cope with middle-age, unemployment and her increasing invisibility until a disturbing image of her dead sister Patty, appears in her wooden floor. Is it a message from beyond or a message from her psyche? After a series of events, Shelley struggles to understand what is happening but meets with apathy from her abusive boyfriend and a strange proposition from her elderly neighbor. What comes next surprises everyone.
4:00pm Playwright: Tyler “T” Lang, Title: Brotherly Bonds, Director: Mies Quatrino, Cast Christian Bean as Noa, Miles Hanna as Tommy, Alexis Braxton as Juanita, Claudia Tapler as Taliyah, Regina Ivy as Sidney, Kasyiah Dunham as Deja, stage directions reader Niarra Phillips , Description: Two brothers, Noa and Tommy, are in foster care struggling with the scars of their past, they cling to each other as their only source of stability. Their foster parent, Ms. Juanita, proves to be manipulative and emotionally and physically abusive, exploiting their vulnerabilities to drive a wedge between them. As tensions rise, the brothers must fight to preserve their bond, confronting their fears, their loyalty, and the painful question of whether they can break free from the cycle of abuse and each other.
6:00pm Playwright: Yide Cai, Title: The Triumvirates, Director: Gregory Keng Strasser, Cast: Jordanna Hernandez as Blue, Jo Ellen Pellman as Silver, Leo Delgado as Black, Miles Blue as Red, Description: A dark comedy one-act play set in a remote Institute during a snowstorm, where three powerful figures—Silver, Black, and Red—arrive seeking treatment for Silver. As they navigate the strange Institute, they interact with Blue, a detached receptionist, and unravel a series of bizarre and unsettling events. It’s a play that explores the symptoms of “North American Autocratic Savior Complex”, i.e. what is to be saved, and who is to save whom.
7:00pm Playwright: Joan Kane, Title: Cooking Spaghetti with Judges, Director: Joan Kane, Cast: Mary Goggin, J. Dolan Byrnes, Joan Kane, stage directions reader Bruce A! Kraemer, Description: A woman cooking dinner for her boyfriend is confronted by voices from her past. A story of self love.
the flyer
the Tower at the La MaMa campus in Umbria, Italy
food is important in Italy
This is cooking in a 500 year old oven.