Desi Moreno-Penson's BODEGA CAT To Receive A Staged Reading At Houghton Hall

There will be a workshop reading for BODEGA CAT, a new, full-length play written by Latina playwright Desi Moreno-Penson. The reading will be directed by SDC Director KM Jones and will feature the acting talents of Cynthia Fernandez De La Cruz, Alyssa K. Simon, and Laura E. Johnston (Staged Directions).

The reading will take place on Tuesday, April 16th at 6pm in The Edwin Booth Room at Houghton Hall, 22 East 30th Street, NYC 10016. This reading is presented in part by The League of Professional Theatre Women through their JRR Reading Series (Julia's Reading Room). For more information on this program visit: https://www.theatrewomen.org.

Set in an East Village bodega, a white woman artistic director and a woman playwright of color engage in a flamboyant, heated dialogue on such polarizing issues as gentrification, wokeisms, white privilege, and racism. Their discourse is interrupted by the plaintive yet demanding caterwauls of a resident bodega cat named after Latinx poet/playwright Miguel Pinero.

Director KM Jones says, "Although this play's a bit of a departure for Desi, with it's strange juxtaposing of absurdist comedy and social commentary, I think BODEGA CAT remains very much a Desi Moreno-Penson play in it's dark, romantic tones and unconventional humor. And the cat's funny, too."

Desi Moreno-Penson (Playwright) (she/her) is a playwright, actor, dramaturgy, and independent theatre ptoducer based in NYC. She has an MFA in Dramaturgy and Theatre Criticism from Brooklyn College. Her plays have been developed/produced at The Flea, Ensemble Studio Theatre (EST), INTAR, MultiStages, Perishable Theatre as part of the 14th Annual Int'l Women's Playwriting Festival (Providence, RI ), Henry Street Settlement, SPF-Summer Play Festival, terraNOVA Collective, Downtown Urban Theatre Festival (DUTF) @the Cherry Lane, Urban Theatre Company (Chicago), The Chain Theatre, Teatro Coribantes (San Juan, PR), among others. She has performed her written work at La Mama Experimental Theatre Club as part of their Poetry Electric Initiative, Solo Artists: Solo Words, curated by William Electric Black. Her play, EL BACALAO: The Catfish Man, a Latinx retelling of The Bacchae by Euripides, is a finalist for the Jane Chambers Excellence in Feminist Playwriting Award; a semifinalist for the O'Neill National Plsywrights Conference, was part of the 2021 Fall Intensive Writers Group with Workshop Theatre, and received 2 workshop readings at The Flea, directed by KM Jones. Another play, SIN AGUA (Without Water) was part of the 2023 Fighting Words New Script Development Program with Babes With Blades Theatre Company in Chicago. Her play, BEIGE received a staged reading as part of the playwrights/directors unit (PDU) at The Actors Studio. In addition, BEIGE is the winner of the 2016 National Latinx Playwriting Award sponsored by the Arizona Theatre Company; and is a finalist for both the O'Neill and Bay Area Playwrights Festival. She has twice won the MultiStages New Works Contest sponsored by MultiStagex Theatre Company for her plays, OMINOUS MEN and COMIDA DE PUTA (F%&king Lousy Food); she has twice been a semifinalist for the Princess Grace Award, and her work has received Honorable Mention on The Kilroy's List. Her plays are published by Broadway Play Publishing; her short play, RECONCILE, BITCH is included in the short plays anthology "Best Ten-Minute Plays of 2020", published by Applause Theatre and Cinema Books; a ten-minute play, SPIRIT SEX: A PARANORMAL ROMANCE, was selected for the short plays anthology, "Best Ten-Minute of 2010", and a scene from her play, COMIDA DE PUTA (F%&king Lousy Food) is included in an anthology featuring plays written by Latinx playwrights, "Scenes for Latinx Actors: Voices of the New American Theatre", both published by Smith and Kraus. Desi lives in The Bronx with her wonderful partner, Anthony, and their cat, Choo-Choo.

The Reading is free, but Rerservations are required. Please RSVP at: kjtheatregal@gmail.com