Colt Coeur & WP Theater Announce 5th Annual PARITY PLAYS FESTIVAL

Colt Coeur and WP Theater announce the programming for the annual Parity Plays Festival reading series, which celebrates the work of female and trans playwrights and directors. The festival will consist of four plays by Kate Cortesi, Obehi Janice, Lily Padilla, and WP Lab alum Sylvia Khoury. Parity Plays will take place from February 1-9, 2019 at HERE Arts Center, 145 6th Avenue. Tickets are free, and can be reserved at: https://wptheater.org/show/parity-plays-festival/

The festival was founded by Colt Coeur in 2014, inspired by advocacy groups like #MakeItFair, The Kilroys, and The Lilly Awards. WP Theater and Colt Coeur are committed to the promotion of gender parity in programming, staffing, and representation within theatrical narratives. This is the second year WP & Colt Coeur have teamed up for this initiative. Below are the four plays that will be presented:

LOVE BY KATE CORTESI
DIRECTED BY Jenna Worsham

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1 at 4:00PM

Five former employees. One great love. Thorny, uncomfortable, funny and surprising (and... sexy?) Love asks what accountability looks like when an abuser of power is one of our favorite men of all time and dares us to get to the other side of accountability and hashtags together.

OLE WHITE SUGAH DADDY BY Obehi Janice
DIRECTED BY Caitlin Sullivan

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 2 at 4:00PM

A young Black female coder wrestles with love, identity and the tension between striving and thriving as she tries to get her startup off the ground. How can you fully be yourself in spaces where no one can see all the sides of you?

(W)HOLENESS BY Lily Padilla

DIRECTED BY ORION S. JOHNSTONE

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 8 at 4:00PM

A diverse support group for sex and love addicts meets weekly to heal in community. Every Monday at group, they breathe in, breathe out, and try to love in a world that's taught them hate especially the kind turned inward. But is communal healing possible when each person carries different wounds, legacies and privileges?

THE PLACE WOMEN GO BY Sylvia Khoury

DIRECTED BY MAGGIE BURROWS

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9 at 4:00PM

Late at night in a Texas immigration detention center, three Guatemalan mothers keep watchful eyes on their sleeping children. Tomorrow, they must face the immigration judges, who will grant or deny them asylum in America. In The Place Women Go, these mothers quietly rehearse the stories of their trauma to make them palatable and convincing, while encountering new, daily traumas within the detention center itself.

In addition to their work together on the 5th annual Festival, Colt Coeur and WP Theater are also thrilled to partner this spring on the world premiere of Rehana Lew Mirza's HATEFUCK, a selection from the 2017-8 Parity Plays Festival & The Kilroys List. The play will run at WP Theater (2162 Broadway) from March 3-March 31, 2019.