Tonya Pinkins Joins Soap Stars for Online Reading of One-Act Plays Presented by The National Arts Club

The National Arts Club will present an online reading of one-act plays by Scott C. Sickles, best known for his award-winning work as a writer on the daytime dramas General Hospital and One Life to Live, and performed by renowned soap opera stars. Sickles' two plays, The Greater and Lesser Edmunds of the World and Persephone, are read by Melissa Claire Egan (All My Children, The Young and the Restless), Christian Jules Le Blanc (The Young and the Restless), Beth Maitland (The Young and the Restless), Karla Mosley (Guiding Light, The Bold and the Beautiful), Tonya Pinkins (All My Children), and Darnell Williams (All My Children); directed by Fritz Brekeller. The performance takes place on Thursday, July 16 at 3:00 PM (EST) via Zoom. The performance is free to attend with registration at nationalartsclub.eventbrite.com.

As a television writer, Sickles has received five consecutive Writers Guild of America Awards for the daytime drama General Hospital, as well as seven Emmy Award nominations for that series and One Life to Live. His plays have been performed across the United States as well as internationally, and his work recognized with numerous awards including the New York Innovative Theater Award and the Beverly Hills Theater Guild/Julie Harris Playwriting Award.

Director Brekeller has worked extensively in the soap opera world on both coasts, winning multiple Daytime Emmy Awards, most recently in May 2019 as part of the directing team at CBS's The Young and the Restless. He received a 2016 New York Innovative Theater award for Outstanding Direction of Sickles' Composure at the Workshop Theater.

The Plays:

The Greater and Lesser Edmunds

Gideon is meeting his half-brother Augie. They have met only once before, at their father's funeral...a father who kept two families at the same time. Gideon thinks he knows what Augie wants. Gideon is wrong.

Persephone

Helena gave up her daughter Persephone at birth. Today, they meet for the first time. It is going really well. Or at least it was...