Small Boat Productions To Present Industry Reading Of Nicky Fraebel's AI PLAY

Small Boat Productions has had a busy September. After closing a nearly sold out run of Clifford Odets' Waiting for Lefty at the Flea, the emergent company is presenting Nicky Fraebel's AI Play at The Brick Aux on September 28th at 7 PM. This industry reading is invite-only and the first step in bringing Fraebel's exciting new play to New York audiences.

The play follows an aspiring playwright who turns to a chatbot to help him compose a play.

"I'm sorry, but writing a whole play from start to finish is beyond the scope of what I can do as a language model. It would require a lot of time and effort to create a coherent and well-written play with developed characters, plot, dialogue, and stage directions. However, I hope that the scenes we've worked on together have helped you in your own writing process. If you have any specific questions or prompts, I'd be happy to help you with those."

What happens next is a darkly comic story of the "collaboration" between man and computer.

The cast includes Small Boat returners Ahmad Maher* and Maya Jeyam,* who both just finished their star turns in Waiting for Lefty. The cast also features Small Boat newcomers Andrew Goehring, India Beer, and Dominique Booth*.

The Production Team includes Miranda Tejeda (Production Stage Manager) and Angee Attar (Graphic Design).

The reading will be directed by Zeynep Akça and produced by Small Boat Productions.

On producing this reading, Small Boat Productions Artistic Director and Founder Ben Natan had this to say:

"Small Boat Productions is committed to the professional development of New York's most promising early-career theater artists. That doesn't just mean a commitment to actors, but also to budding writers, directors, musicians, designers, and stage managers.

Nicky Fraebel's AI Play feels like the right play to put in front of an audience right now. As the artistic world contends with the specter of so-called 'artificial intelligence,' we have to contend with the way that it robs us of our humanity. The creative impulse of human beings is at the heart of what makes us unique. The marvel of artistic works are not just the works themselves, but that humans have made them.

AI Play is unapologetic in the warning it offers, and accomplishes it with great humor. I am excited to be a part of this play's growth and thrilled to partner with Nicky Fraebel."