PERIOD SISTERS, A New Play By Ali Viterbi Comes to HERE Arts Center

2018 O'Neill Finalist Period Sisters by Ali Viterbi opens at HERE (145 6th Avenue) on Friday, August 24 at 7pm, continuing on Saturday, August 25 at 2pm and 7pm, and Sunday at 2pm.

Written as the country transitioned from the election of 2016 to the #MeToo era, Period Sisters asks the question: what's next? Mixing comedy and catharsis, this fierce work tells a tale of pancake battles, Bachelor viewing parties, synced-up cycles, consent, and culpability.

After freshman Joni joins sorority Theta Beta, she learns that sisterhood means more than the colors you wear. Accompanied by her troubled best friend Kate, Joni spirals down a rabbit hole of bulimia dream ballets, Bachelor restoration comedies, and Dirty Disney ragers. Confronted with a world that confounds her expectations, Joni forces all the members of Theta Beta to ask: what do women owe other women? Period Sisters, a 2018 O'Neill finalist, creates a searing portrait of life as a young, 21st century woman. A fierce new voice in the American theater, playwright Ali Viterbi mixes fun with fury, creating the feminist theater you didn't know you needed.

Period Sisters is written by Ali Viterbi, directed by Gabrielle Hoyt, choreographed by Maya Carter, and produced by Emma Montoya Hills. It features lighting design by Kate August and sound design by Sadah Espii Proctor and supported by an all-female identifying production team. Period Sisters is performed by Maya Carter, Marianna Gailus, Skylar Gottlieb, Stefani Kuo, Brittany Annika Liu, Adriane Moreno, Jay Reed, Miranda Rizzolo, Jasmine Sharma, and Stephanie Tomiko.

This production is part of SubletSeries@HERE: Co-op, HERE's curated summer rental program, which provides artists with subsidized space and equipment as well as technical support.

Ali Viterbi is an MFA playwright at UC San Diego, television writer, and educator. Her plays have been produced across the globe, from New York City to Melbourne, Australia. Her play Period Sisters is a Finalist for the 2018 O'Neill National Playwrights Conference. She graduated from Yale in 2014 and received Yale's top playwriting prize. Ali's work has been developed, produced, or commissioned by Roundhouse Theatre, San Diego Repertory Theatre, The Drama League, Last Frontier Theatre Conference, The Barrow Group, The Owl and Cat Theatre, North Coast Repertory Theatre, Horizon Theater Company, TinyRhino, Wildacres Residency, Yale College, and The Centropa Institute. Ali also completed a graduate certificate in Television Writing from UCLA, and her pilot "44 Steps" was a quarterfinalist in the Sundance Episodic Storytelling Lab and the CineStory TV Fellowship. She is the associate producer of the annual Lipinsky San Diego Jewish Arts Festival, and she teaches undergraduate playwriting at UC San Diego.

An early-career director who focuses on new plays and women-driven creative processes, Gabrielle Hoyt works as a literary manager at Round House Theatre. There, she coordinates the Round House Equal Play commissioning program, which seeks to amplify underrepresented voices on the American stage, while also serving as Round House's resident dramaturg. A graduate of Yale University where she won the Susan J. Smith Prize for arts and the John Curtis senior essay prize, she recently directed a reading of Ali Viterbi's In Every Generation at the San Diego Jewish Arts Festival, and will soon direct another reading of that play at the Barrow Group. Her work has been seen at Rorschach Theater, the Cape Cod Theatre Project, 24 Hour Plays: Nationals, and Yale University. After Period Sisters, she returns to DC for Round House Theatre's production of Bess Wohl's Small Mouth Sounds.

Maya Carter is a choreographer, actor, teaching artist, and activist based out of Brooklyn. Focusing primarily on devised work, she is committed to exploring theatre which illuminates + dismantles oppressive power structures and amplifies the voices of the marginalized. This work allows her to view the world around her with an abiding hunger for equity. Recent developmental projects have included a residency at Manhattan Detention Complex, The Seven Ravens Project with the Soledad Ensemble at the New Victory's LabWorks Program, and the 24-Hour Plays Festival: Nationals. Performances include Hedda Gabler with Ophelia Theatre Group; Letters In The Dirt at The Brick; and Grounded at the Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, Genders, and Sexualities. She frequently collaborates with Poetic Theater Productions in the East Village. Maya attended Hofstra University, earning a BFA in Theater Performance, and currently teaches theater, creative writing, and stop-motion animation through Stages on the Sound.

Emma Montoya Hills is a Producer and General Manager based out of New York City. She is an alum of Yale University where she served on the board of the Yale Dramatic Association. In addition to her independent producing career, she currently works at HERE Arts Center as the Company Manager, overseeing front of house operations, spearheading artist management, and producing many of the theater's special events. Previously Emma was part of the group sales team at Jujamcyn Theatres, and lead Production Manager at Steeldeck NY Inc., where she spent three seasons managing multiple shows at New York's Fashion Week, including Tommy Hilfiger, Puma, Thom Brown, and Marc Jacobs.

For more information: http://here.org/shows/detail/2007/