Drama Book Shop to Present OPEN, A Conversation With Award-Winning Playwright Crystal Skillman

Celebrate pride with the team of “Open” the play. On June 25th, 7:30-8:30 PM, the Drama Book Shop will present, in association with Jay Michaels Global Communications, “OPEN” a conversation with award-winning playwright Crystal Skillman. This author's event will feature a talkback, book signing, and live podcast recording.

Selections from the Dramatists Play Service edition of this moving solo play will be read by Megan Hill (“Potus”, Arena Stage, “Do Your Feel Anger”?, Vineyard Theatre) who premiered as The Magician at the Tank in 2019, and Lily-Ali Oshatz (“She Said”) who premiered in the tour with OnStage! Festival throughout Italy in 2022. Signing and Q&A with the creative team, including director Jessi D. Hill (Robert Montano's “Small”, Chisa Hutchinson's “Surely Goodness”) to follow. 

The Drama Book Shop is located at 266 West 39th Street New York, NY 10018. 

For more information/to RSVP for the event here: 

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/open-a-conversation-with-crystal-skillman-tickets-867964474107

About the play 

In “Open” a woman called The Magician seems to pantomime a myriad of tricks, but her act reveals she is attempting the impossible—to save the life of her lover, Jenny.

The play was originally produced at The Tank in 2019 with All for One with actress Megan Hill. Elisabeth Vincentelli of the New York Times noted in her critics' pick review of the play: “Kristen, the narrator and sole character of Crystal Skillman's new play ‘Open', at the Tank, executes magic tricks because she is the one who needs to believe. The miracle this lovely show pulls out is that by the end, she does — and so do we.” 

In 2022 the Tank in partnership with The Flying Carpet Theatre Company presented a special production of “Open” featuring the direction of Jessi D. Hill and Lily Ali-Oshatz as Kristen with Onstage! in four locations in Italy: Cagliari (Lucido Festival), Teatro del Lidoo (Ostria), Pescata at Florian Espace and finally ending the tour in Rome. 

With a message of resilience for the LGBTQIA+ community, “Open” has been taught at numerous schools and universities. OPEN's awards include a 2021 Offie Nomination for the Edinburgh Fringe, APAP Up Next! selection, and a grant from Mid-Atlantic Arts.  After its premiere and tour, “Open” was published by Dramatists Play Service (Broadway Licensing). Since Open's publication, second productions have continued across the country gaining critical acclaim. 

About the Team 

Crystal Skillman An internationally award-winning playwright, fictional podcast writer, and comic book author, Crystal has written for Stories Podcast (Wondery Kids), Girl Tales, Adventure Time comics, and Marvel comics. New Plays include THE ROCKET MEN and RAIN AND ZOE SAVE THE WORLD which premiered in the UK in 2022. She is the author of the NYTimes Critics' Pick plays GEEK, CUT, and KING KIRBY which you can listen to on Broadway Podcast Network. Her new play THE ROCKET MEN is currently in the planning stages for an upcoming  National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere starting with Phoenix Theatre (Indianapolis). She is the book writer of MARY AND MAX the musical (Composer/Lyricist: Bobby Cronin) in the pipeline for Broadway with Drew & Dane Productions. www.crystalskillman.com 

Megan Hill is a Brooklyn-based actor and writer. Most recently Megan was nominated for a Helen Hayes award for POTUS at Arena Stage. Her play The Last Class: A Jazzercize Play has enjoyed runs in New York, DC, and Seattle. As an actor, she's originated roles in the world premieres of Ramiz Monsef's The Ants; Leah Nanako Winkler's The Brightest Thing in the World and Kentucky; Crystal Skillman's Open and Cut; Amy Staats' Eddie and Dave; Mara Nelson Greenberg's Do You Feel Anger?; Rob Askins' Hand to God; and Joshua Conkel and Matt Marks' The House of Von Macramé. Megan was nominated for a Drama Desk Award and was named one of the Best Comedic Performances of the Year by The New York Times for her portrayal of David Lee Roth in Eddie and Dave. BFA Acting/Original Works: Cornish College of the Arts. MFA: ART/MXAT IATT at Harvard. www.meganhill.net Instagram: @meganhillwhat

Lily Ali-Oshatz is a nonbinary Brooklyn-based theatre writer, composer, and performer with a focus on community building and art as activism. She is an active member of Ring of Keys, an advocacy group for queer folks in musical theatre, and a founding member of the radical, anti-capitalist Musical Theatre Factory  As a founding producer of the 2020 philanthropic national campaign, THE LESBIAN BAR PROJECT, Lily helped created the language and culture of inclusion that made the project intersectional. The TV series that blossomed from her work is now a recipient of a GLAAD Media Award and a New York Emmy. Her first musical, THE EXTRAORDINARY FALL OF THE FOUR-LEGGED WOMAN, played Off-Broadway as part of NYCFringe Encore. Lily's commission with Mark Galinovsky, PROSPECT HILL, explores the queer history of Park Slope, Brooklyn and played free and outdoors for a multi-generational audience in summer 2021. As a lyricist, she collaborates with Tidtaya Sinutoke and Naomi Matlow on DEAR MR. C, a bilingual (Thai/English) musical about immigration. In 2022, Lily toured Italy performing Crystal Skillman's queer solo play, OPEN and worked again with Crystal on THE ROCKET MEN last April. Her solo Me Too play with music, SHE SAID, is a project 10 years in the making. BFA NYU Tisch. https://www.lilyalioshatz.com/

Jessi D. Hill (She/her) New York Theatre includes: New York Theatre Workshop, Public Theater/Joe's Pub, Playwrights Horizons, Primary Stages, LAByrinth Theater Company, The Women's Project, 59E59 Theaters, P73, The New Group, Keen Company, Clubbed Thumb, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Musical Theatre Factory, The Acting Company, The Barrow Group, New Dramatists, Playwrights Realm, New Georges. Regional Theatre includes: A.R.T, People's Light, Contemporary American Theatre Festival, George Street Playhouse, Diversionary, TheatreSquared, Florida Studio Theatre. Her work has been seen internationally in Edinburgh, London, New Zealand, Berlin, Hamburg, Brussels, Ukraine and Rome. She teaches directing at Fordham University, Barnard/Columbia and National Theatre Institute. MFA Directing: Yale. Website: www.jessidhill.com