SPACE on Ryder Farm Announces Lineup for 2017 Working Farm Reading Series

SPACE on Ryder Farm, a non-profit artist residency program located on Ryder Farm, an idyllic 221 year-old working organic farm in Brewster, NY, announces its lineup for the 2017 Working Farm Reading Series to be held at Playwrights Horizons in New York City April 3-7, 2017. All readings are free, and farm-fresh bites inspired by the plays and prepared by SPACE chefs will be served at each reading.

The Working Farm, SPACE's resident playwrights group, offers eight playwrights five fully-subsidized residency weeks on Ryder Farm during the course of the summer season. While in residence, playwrights each focus on developing a single new work. The Working Farm culminates in The Roving Dinner, which takes place on The Farm during the final week of the group's residency and showcases excerpts of the eight developed plays, paired with an eight-course farm-fresh meal at eight historic locations around Ryder Farm. Following the summer residency, the playwrights are invited to present their full-length plays in the Working Farm Reading Series.

The 2017 Working Farm Reading Series includes Bonnie's Last Flight by Eliza Bent, directed by Kareem Fahmy (April 3), East of West Town by Cusi Cram, directed by David Mendizábal (April 4), Scotland by Daisy Foote (April 5), Talkin' to This Chick Sippin' Magic Potion by James Anthony Tyler, directed by Leah C. Gardiner (April 6) and Sometimes It's Dirt, Sometimes It's Bones by Ryan King, directed by Jenna Worsham (April 7).

Plays developed through the The Working Farm residency have been subsequently produced by LCT3, New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, The Public Theater and elsewhere. Past members of The Working Farm include Rob Askins, Jeff Augustin, Clare Barron, Adam Bock, Rachel Bonds, Sarah Burgess, Madeleine George, Samuel D. Hunter, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Dan LeFranc, Max Posner, Jen Silverman and Mfoniso Udofia.

2017 WORKING FARM READING SERIES
All readings are free and being held at Playwrights Horizons, 416 West 42nd Street, 4th Floor, New York, NY. Seating is limited. Reservations are required and may be made at www.spaceonryderfarm.org/workingfarm.

Bonnie's Last Flight | Monday, April 3 at 7pm
By Eliza Bent
Directed by Kareem Fahmy

Set on a tarmac, up in the sky, and on the brink of descent, Bonnie's Last Flight is Eliza Bent's exploration into flight attendants, air travel, regret and retirement. Expect pretzels, fizzy beverages and Mark Twain. A Bentertainment set in the friendly skies.

Eliza Bent is a playwright and performer based in Brooklyn, NY. Bent is a 2017 New Georges Audrey Resident with Annie Tippe, a 2016 SPACE on Ryder Farm Working Farm resident writer a 2016 Target Margin Institute Fellow, a MacDowell Colony fellow, a Bay Area Playwrights Finalist and an alum of Project Y Playwright's Group and TerraNova's Groundbreakers group. Bent is a former senior editor at American Theatre magazine, where she still writes, a frequent performer with the Obie-award winning company Half Straddle and an adjunct lecturer at Brooklyn College where she received an MFA in playwriting. Plays: On a Clear Day I Can See to Elba (New Ohio's ICE Factory), The Beyonce (Breaking String Theatre, 2014 Payne Award for Outstanding Theatrical Event), Blue Wizard / Black Wizard (Incubator Arts Project / Other Forces 2014 festival), The Hotel Colors (Bushwick Starr, L magazine's 25 best stage shows of 2013), Performance pieces: Real Talk / Kip Talk (Abrons Arts Center), Toilet Fire (runs at Abrons Arts Center, the Brick and JACK, TimeOut New York Critics' Pick), Karma Kharms (or yarns by Kharms) (Target Margin Lab at Bushwick Starr) and Pen Pals Meet (Iranian Theatre Festival at the Brick).

East of West Town | Tuesday, April 4 at 7pm
By Cusi Cram
Directed by David Mendizábal

A steamy romance on a Greek Island. A mysterious Airbnb guest in Chicago. People and countries collide in unexpected and precarious ways in Cusi Cram's comedic thriller East of West Town, where seemingly innocent actions could wind up being deadly.

Cusi Cram's plays include A Lifetime Burning (Primary Stages), Dusty and the Big Bad World (Denver Theater Center), Lucy and the Conquest (Williamstown Theater Festival), All the Bad Things and Radiance (LAByrinth), Fuente (Barrington Stage), The End of it All (South Coast Rep) and Fuente Ovejuna: A Disloyal Adaptation (Lewis Center for the Arts). Her musical collaboration with Lisa Loeb, Camp Kappawanna was a New York Times Critics' Pick during its run at the Atlantic Theater Company. Her theater work has been supported with fellowships and residencies from the Ford Foundation, the Herrick Theater Foundation, The Bogliasco Foundation, The Camargo Foundation, The Stillpoint Fund, New Georges' Audrey Residency and SPACE on Ryder Farm. She has been commissioned by South Coast Repertory, The Atlantic Theater Company, The Actors Theater of Louisville, New Georges, and LAByrinth Theater. Her work has received developmental support from The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, The Lark, INTAR, The New Group, The Public Theater and the Fornes Institute. She's also written many teleplays and pilots for kids and adults and worked as a writer on Showtime's, The Big C, starring Laura Linney. She is a long-time writer on WGBH's children's program Arthur, for which she has received three Emmy nominations. Cusi recently directed her first film, Wild and Precious, through AFI's Directing Workshop for Women where it won The Adrienne Shelly and Nancy Mallone Awards and played at over twenty festivals nationwide. She currently teaches playwriting and screenwriting in the Dramatic Writing Program at NYU and at Primary Stages/Fordham's MFA Playwriting Program. Cusi is a member of LAByrinth Theater Company and sits on New Georges' Kitchen Cabinet and on the boards of The Leah Ryan Prize and the Lilly Awards Foundation.

Scotland | Wednesday, April 5 at 7pm
By Daisy Foote

Julia just wants to leave. She wants to start her new life in Scotland, in her house by the sea. But there's her dead husband. There's her neighbor who wants advice. There's her nephew who is asking impossible and dangerous questions. And the priest. And her old lover. Leaving is never easy. Scotland.

Daisy Foote's screenplay Church of the Dead Girls (adapted from the novel by Stephen Dobyns) will be filmed this fall, directed by Tom Kalin. In October, her play Pearl was part of the NY Stage and Films' Reading Series at Barnard College. Foote's play Him premièred in October of 2012 at Primary Stages to critical acclaim from The New York Times and The New Yorker. Her play Bhutan was featured on the main stage at New York Stage and Film's Powerhouse festival before its New York premier at the Cherry Lane Theater (Outer Critics Circle Award nomination). When They Speak of Rita was produced in an extended run by Primary Stages. Her other productions include God's Pictures at Indiana Repertory Theatre and Farley and Betsey at Women's Project. She was honored with the Roger L. Stevens Incentive Award in association with the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays in cooperation with the President's Committee for the Arts for her play Living with Mary. Her residencies and festivals include the O'Neill Playwrights Conference, Hartford Stage's Brand New Festival, The Icicle Creek Festival and the Lake George Theater Festival. Bhutan and Him are published by Dramatist Play Service. DPS included a monologue from Bhutan in Outstanding Women's Monologues, Volume Two. A monologue from When They Speak of Rita is published in Smith and Kraus' Best Men's Monologues of 2000 and a full scene from When They Speak of Rita is published in Smith and Kraus' The Best Stage Scenes of 2000.

Talkin' to This Chick Sippin' Magic Potion | Thursday, April 6 at 7pm
By James Anthony Tyler
Directed by Leah C. Gardiner

Jornay is a professional cuddler who learns that her new client Ruben needs more than her touch. Through Ruben, Jornay also learns that she must do what she can to repair her relationship with Tiffany, her 17-year-old daughter. Old wounds are reopened when Jornay attempts to get a ticket to Tiffany's high school graduation. James Anthony Tyler's Talkin' to This Chick Sippin' Magic Potion explores love, resentment and the journey to becoming the best version of oneself.

James Anthony Tyler has a MFA in Film from Howard University and a MFA in Dramatic Writing from New York University, where his concentration was Playwriting. Selected honors include the Paul Robeson Award and John Golden Award for Excellence in Playwriting. His plays have been developed at La MaMa and Berkshire Playwrights Lab (Some Old Black Man), Classical Theatre of Harlem (The Drop Off), Rattlestick Playwrights Theater (Talkin' To This Chick Sippin' Magic Potion), Asolo Rep and The Drama League (hop tha A), Finborough Theatre in London and LAByrinth Theater Company (Dolphins and Sharks). He's a member of Harlem's Emerging Black Playwrights Group, a 2014-2015 Dramatists Guild Fellow, a 2015-2016 The Playwrights Center's Many Voices Fellow, a 2016-2017 Ars Nova Play Group Resident, a 2016 Working Farm Playwrights Group Resident at SPACE on Ryder Farm, a 2016 Theatre Masters Visionary Playwrights Award recipient and is currently a Playwriting Fellow at The Juilliard School. Upcoming Productions include Dolphins and Sharks at LAByrinth Theater Company and Some Old Black Man at Berkshire Playwrights Lab, starring Tony Award winner Roger Robinson and Peter Jay Fernandez.

Sometimes It's Dirt, Sometimes It's Bones | Friday, April 7 at 7pm
By Ryan King
Directed by Jenna Worsham

Granny Vipperman just passed away at age 117. She lies in a coffin downstairs. Lawmen are coming to repossess the house, but Shade isn't having it. She's gotten rid of one, but they just keep coming. When her long lost sister comes back just to pay her respects, she ends up getting pulled into the bloody story. Shotguns are involved.

Ryan King grew up in Austin, TX, and now lives in Brooklyn, NY. His plays include Burying Augustus, Gigantic F***ing Worms, Later Hour, Loveshack in '87, Always On and Some Things Were Missed, Here. He's a current member of the Ars Nova Playgroup, Primary Stages Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group and the 2016 Working Farm at SPACE on Ryder Farm. He's also a former member of the 2014-2015 Clubbed Thumb Early Career Writers Group. His plays have been developed by Cape Cod Theatre Project (twice), Naked Angels, Rattlestick Theatre, Clubbed Thumb, Colt Coeur, Primary Stages, SPACE on Ryder Farm, Theater of NOTE and Ground Up Productions. His short play Antares Returning will be produced this upcoming year as part of Fit Club's 2017 Spring Fling festival. As an actor, he has appeared regionally and Off-Broadway at theaters including the Atlantic Theater Company, Second Stage, PS 122, HERE Arts Center, Barrington Stage, Hartford Stage, Studio Theater and the Huntington Theater. Education: Yale School of Drama and the University of Texas at Austin.

SPACE ON RYDER FARM
SPACE on Ryder Farm is a non-profit artist residency program located an hour north of New York City on the grounds of Ryder Farm in Brewster, New York. SPACE creates an environment singular in its ability to invigorate artists and innovators and their work, and contributes to the sustainability and resourceful preservation of one of the oldest organic family farms on the East Coast. For more information about SPACE on Ryder Farm, its programs and events open to the public, visit www.spaceonryderfarm.org.

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