Joanna Pickering's New Play LARA'S JOURNEY Will Be Directed By Karen Carpenter
The show will have its debut performance in The Spark Theater Festival, on March 6th, at 7pm, at the Chain Theater.
By: A.A. Cristi Feb. 04, 2025
Joanna Pickering's new one-act play, Lara's Journey, will have its debut performance in The Spark Theater Festival, on March 6th, at 7pm, at venue of the Chain Theater (312 W 36th Street, New York City).
Lara's Journey is the story of a young woman displaced in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. When Lara is rescued into a new home, by the kindness of strangers, she resolves to salvage her future, but unexpected challenges arise.
Lara's Journey is a powerful one-woman play touching upon themes of immigration, isolation, and displacement in the aftermath of losing a home.
Critically-acclaimed director Karen Carpenter, (The New Yorker, The New York Times) will bring Lara's Journey to the stage for this special evening. Carpenter's work includes many premieres, including the worldwide smash-hit by Delia and Nora Ephron, Love, Loss, and What I Wore.
In this presentation of Lara's Journey, Pickering will perform in her own work as a development staged-reading. The presentation will be followed by an audience talk-back with the playwright and director. A special guest moderator will be announced.
Pickering informs us that the play was written the day after the 2024 U.S. presidential election. "I had experienced displacement in the pandemic as an immigrant in the U.S.. This work reflects my own experiences, as well as my observations from my other projects with The Ukrainian Institute of America, interviewing Ukrainian residents, and living with Ukrainian friends, to shine a light on important issues for refugees and all those displaced from wars and crises worldwide, while keeping a focus on Ukraine."
Carpenter says, "Pickering's writing is muscular, taut, and searing. Her play enables us to identify so strongly with Lara that we feel the impact of each twist, and we are led to discover our own truths from her journey." Pickering agrees, "It's easy to blame politics or other people, but our capacity to show dignity and respect comes from our own actions, based on our own understanding of another person's situation, to be in the shoes of others. Lara's Journey is simply this journey shared."
The Spark Festival is produced by Emerging Artists Theater, an award-winning theater company known as an incubator for the newest voices, diverse playwrights, and new works. During a 30-year history, Emerging Artists has premiered over 2,000 new works and garnered a Drama Desk Nomination, received the American Theater Wing Grant for Consistent Commitment to Excellence in Theater.
Tickets for Lara’s Journey available at
https://www.tickettailor.com/events/sparktheatrefestival/1551195
Venue Address: 312 West 36th Street, Floor 4, New York, NY 10018
Date: March 6th at 7p.m..
Running time 40 mins.
Talk back: 20 mins.
For more information and updates on all other production dates for Joanna Pickering, visit www.joannapickering.com.
For more information and updates on all other productions dates for Karen Carpenter, visit www.kcdirector.com
Joanna Pickering (Playwright, Actress) is a multi-award-winning British playwright, screenwriter and actress. Her plays have sold out in New York City, London and Paris. They are available at The Drama Book Shop in New York City. In 2025, “Cease and Desist” will open at Theatre 555, and develop at The Tank in through spring. In 2023, "Don't Harm the Animals" premiered at The Chain Theater, NYC, with Pickering performing in her debut one woman show. In 2022/23, "Bad Victims" sold out two runs at The Courtyard Theater, in London, starring Pickering and Richard Emerson (West End's Chess, ENO Coliseum), directed by Erica Gould (Neil LaBute, Theresa Rebeck). In 2023, "Cat and Mouse" was performed at The Drama Book Shop with Pickering and Dan Lauria (The Wonder Years). In 2022, "The Endgame" debuted off-off-Broadway at New Perspectives Theater Company, directed by award-winning Illana Stein, before moving to Paris with The Big Funk Company. In 2021, "Truth, Lies and Deceptions" played to sold-out audiences at Le Pave D'Orsay, Paris. In 2020, "Sylvie and Sly" was performed by Caroline Aaron (Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) and Mauricio Bustamante, directed by Lorca Peress (Multistages) with the The League of Professional Theater Women. As of 2025, Pickering is one of the playwrights selected to work with The Ukrainian Institute of America, NY Ensemble Studio, and Town Square Productions, debuting new plays in March 2025. As an actress, Joanna performs in her own work and has gained national press. In 2023/24, she won Best Actress six times, including at New York International Women Festival, 7th Annual Los Angeles Film Awards, Austin Film Festival, The Actors Awards, as well as Outstanding Performance awards and numerous nominations for best actress, for her work on the film “Diva." She is a member of The Actor's Studio Playwright Directors Unit, The Actors Gym, International Center of Women Playwrights, League of Professional Female Playwrights and SAG. Pickering is represented by 3 Arts Entertainment, MAA Agency, and Talented in Paris. www.joannapickering.com @joannapickering
Karen Carpenter (Director) is the director of many critically-acclaimed off-Broadway premieres, such as Pay the Writer, Harry Townsend’s Last Stand, Handle With Care, Bulldozer: the Ballad of Robert Moses, and Witnessed by the World, but is best known for the original production of Delia and Nora Ephron’s Love, Loss, and What I Wore, which won the Drama Desk Award for Best Unique Theatrical Production, was named Broadway World’s Audience Favorite, and has since played all over the world. Her work with writers is at the fore of everything she makes. As Artistic Director of the William Inge Festival, Karen founded an annual New Play Lab – her legacy there, now in its 10th year, has presented new works by over 100 playwrights to date. She is keenly invested in works with societal impact, and has directed, produced, and dramaturged many: Period Piece, monologues on menstruation by a diverse array of 36 commissioned writers; October 7, based on verbatim firsthand accounts of the Hamas attacks in Israel; Deliver Now, the U.N. launch of a global campaign for the W.H.O. to eradicate infant and maternal mortality worldwide, among them. For World International Theater Day on March 27th, she will direct the premiere of the Uncovered Scenes from Ukraine project. Upcoming: the premiere of Baggage from BaghDAD, by Valerie David, at The Tank. kcdirector.com
Emerging Artists Theatre (EAT) is an award-winning theater company known as an incubator for new voices from the page to the stage. EAT was founded 30 years ago to provide a dynamic home for playwrights and artists to explore their work and guide it through development to full artistic realization through our bi-annual Spark Theatre Festival, NYC. Emerging Artists provides vital resources and support to theatrical artists of all kinds, and is proud to have presented the work of more than 5,000 artists since its inception. We are an ongoing donor and advocate for Black Lives Matter. In our 30-year history, Emerging Artists Theatre has provided a place for Black artists to develop and premiere their work, and we will always be a home for unique, creative, and expressive Black voices. In celebration of Emerging Artists Theatre’s 30th anniversary, we presented three new World Premiere Off-Broadway plays in repertory in Fall 2023 at the 28th Street Theatre (also known as TADA!). The two-month engagement featured Anne Being Frank by Ron Elisha, Doris Day: My Secret Love by Paul Adams, and Sex Work/Sex Play by Caytha Jentis. Each of these three plays was developed at EAT’s Spark Theatre Festival, NYC.
The Spark Theatre Festival, NYC, gives artists the rare opportunity to present their work-in-progress before an audience, afterward engaging in a meaningful talkback session with the director, cast, and curator. Your participation in this unique talkback with the artists provides the insight they need to move their work forward. The resulting insights are invaluable to the process, providing the playwright with the tools necessary to take the work to the next level. Emerging Artists has always been about new works, emerging talent, and diverse voices. That’s never been more evident than now. And you, the audience, are the vital ingredient to making this a success. During our 30-year history, Emerging Artists has premiered over 2,000 new works and also garnered a Drama Desk Nomination, received the American Theatre Wing Grant Award for Consistent Commitment to Excellence in Theatre, and named Best Off-Off Broadway Theatre Company in NYC for Actors to Work With by Backstage Magazine. In the last five years alone, Emerging Artists has provided opportunities for over 4,500 diverse artists to see their work developed and premiered at no cost to the artists to submit or participate.
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