The Parsnip Ship Announces Season Six Programming
The Parsnip Ship is a play development company that amplifies bold stories and storytellers. Their theatrical experiences are eclectic, intentional and personal.
By: A.A. Cristi Jan. 18, 2023
The Parsnip Ship (Artistic Director + Host, Iyvon E.) has announced their 2023 programming with live play recording dates for Season Six featuring queer playwrights and for the Radio Roots Writers' Group.
The Parsnip Ship is a play development company that amplifies bold stories and storytellers. Their theatrical experiences are eclectic, intentional and personal. The Parsnip Ship serves writers and the artistic community by producing and promoting transformative, accessible work created by marginalized voices. Their podcast episodes are recorded in front of a live audience every month at the Mark O'Donnell Theater at the Entertainment Community Fund Arts Center in Brooklyn and co-produced by Business Lunch Productions. The Parsnip Ship is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Broadway Podcast Network, and Stitcher.
SEASON SIX of The Parsnip Ship features an exciting offering of one-night only live podcast recordings of new plays by a dynamic group of queer playwrights. In addition to featuring new plays on the platform, The Parsnip Ship features interviews with the playwrights as well as live music from independent musicians, culminating in a uniquely curated theatrical event. Musical guests and casting will be announced closer to the episode's live recording date.
The RADIO ROOTS WRITERS' GROUP was created in 2019 to support dynamic playwrights interested in re-engaging with playwriting through audio-focused storytelling. Much like all programming on The Parsnip Ship's platform, Radio Roots seeks to cultivate distinct new theater artists by providing resources for the development of innovative and accessible stories for radio drama. After three years of development and pandemic delays, The Parsnip Ship presents the commissions of the inaugural cohort.
American Spies
Monday, January 30, 2023 , 7:30 PM
Sam Hamashima is a Queer Japanese-American Writer mixing poetry, magical realism, and anime into pieces that explore their identities and the country in which they live. With an emphasis on oral history and archival research, Hamashima loves to blend the real with the surreal and the pain with the joy. IG @shygodzilla, BFA in Musical Theatre, The University of Michigan
News travels across the Pacific on Dec. 7 resulting in foolhardy claims of Japanese sympathizers. As calls for war perpetrate a nation, The Ishii Family undertakes radical assimilation to calm the local police and fearful neighbors. Mixing family testimony and cartoon studio-ghibli charm, AMERICAN SPIES is a Queer Japanese American grandson's interpretation of the Japanese Americans' response to national disaster and their struggle to prove their patriotism.
And the answer is...
By Gina Femia
Monday, February 13, 2023, 8:00 PM
Gina Femia's work has been seen/developed at Goodman Theatre, MCC Theater, Playwrights Horizons, Ensemble Studio Theater, Northern Stage, Page73, and New Georges, among others. Selected honors include The Kilroys List, Leah Ryan Prize, Doric Wilson Award, Otis Guernsey New Voices Award and the Neukom Award in Playwriting. Gina's work has been nominated for a Drama League Award and a New York Innovative Theater Award. Gina is a current Core Writer with The Playwrights' Center, and an alum of EST Youngblood, Page73's Interstate 73, Pipeline Theatre's PlayLab, New Georges' Audrey Residency, the Ingram New Play Lab and Parsnip Ship's Radio Roots Writers' Group. Gina is a New Georges Affiliated Artist and has received residencies with Page73, Powerhouse, NTI at the O'Neill, SPACE on Ryder Farm, and Fresh Ground Pepper. MFA, Sarah Lawrence College (Lipkin Prize in Playwriting).
Alex and Julie are best friends making a podcast (before podcasts were cool), answering their college's weirdest questions. But life itself is weird and when love enters the equation, they have to decide what they really mean to each other. From Chipotle dates that aren't dates to the early frontier of Twitter, they fall together and apart and back again.
AND THE ANSWER IS... is a Radio Roots Writers' Group radio play commission.
Are You There Truman? It's Me, Just Another Guy Who Grew Up Secretly Worshiping Your Chiseled Porn Star Body Online, And Now I Think I Love You
By Garrett Kim (he/him/his)
Monday, February 27, 2023, 7:30 PM
Garrett David Kim is a theater-maker, citizen artist, and educator based in New York City. His plays include: Are You There Truman? (Pride Plays/Rattlestick, Piper Theatre Co.), No Man's Land (Sprout Works), Kim's Fine Food (Finalist, Blue Ink Playwriting Award), and several short plays written for young performers at The 52nd Street Project, where he works as their Program Director. B.A. Fordham University. Member of Dramatists Guild of America.
How's a gay, Asian, hopelessly romantic twenty-something from Ohio supposed to get off when the porn--*ahem*adult film--star he's fallen for has gotten out of the biz? Guy looks for love online & IRL, in the past & in the present, but all roads lead back to the rugged, All-American (white) stud Truman. Are You There Truman? follows one queer person making sense of his relationships, his colonized desires, and his own consciousness to tear down the walls around his heart.
Cockfight
By Peter Gil-Sheridan (he/him/his)
Monday, March 27, 2023, 7:30 PM
Peter's work has been developed and/or produced by Soho Rep's Writer/Director Lab, The New Harmony Project, PlayPenn, InterAct Theatre, The Guthrie, The Cherry Lane Mentor Project, Borderlands, Sundance, Ars Nova, The Millay Colony, Ucross Foundation, P73, and The Playwrights Center (Jerome Fellowship.) Topsy Turvy Mouse was the winner of The Smith Prize awarded by the National New Play Network for political work. Peter is on the faculty at Vassar College. MFA: Iowa, BA: Fordham.
Juanie is a painter. His canvas: a giant egg, big enough to hold a full grown adult man. Inside that egg is Juanie's father's dream: a prizewinning rooster that he hopes will become a star on the cockfighting circuit. When the egg hatches, the bird's nature collides with Big Juan's vision for him. He embarks on a campaign to toughen the bird, to turn the bird into a warrior. When Juanie learns that most roosters that fight in cockfights die, Juanie searches for ways to save his family and his bird from total oblivion.
The Wild Boar of Chernobyl
By Francesca Pazniokas (she/her/hers)
Monday, April 24, 2023, 7:30 PM
Francesca Pazniokas is a Brooklyn-based playwright and filmmaker whose work explores memory and fable, trauma and identity, obsession and the occult. Her plays have been produced in London, Toronto and Melbourne, as well as across the United States, and she was recently awarded Clubbed Thumb's 2020 Biennial Commission. Francesca holds a B.A. from Georgetown University in Art History and a Master's in Playwriting from Royal Holloway (University of London). francescapazniokas.com
In the wake of a devastating nuclear war, Americans have been forced to rebuild their lives underground. Scientists insist it's impossible for citizens to return to the surface, due to deadly radiation. But a fast-growing cult, led by a preacher and his mysterious family, believe otherwise. They're determined to reach the surface, no matter the cost. THE WILD BOAR OF CHERNOBYL is a futuristic fable about the struggle of faith vs. fact, and fanaticism vs. science.
Happy Birthday Angel Dearest
By Javier Rivera DeBruin (they/them/theirs)
Javier Rivera DeBruin is a queer-ass playwright and impact producer whose work explores gender, other-worldly bffs, family, and heritage. Their play LUCIÉRNAGAS was a NY Times Critic's Pick during its World Premiere with National Queer Theater at the 14th St Y in 2021 and was a semi-finalist for the 2019 New Dramatists Princess Grace Award. Javi is a co-writer on a six-part podcast play THIS IS WHERE WE GO (MCC Theater/The Parsnip Ship) and a member of the Parsnip Ship's inaugural Radio Roots Writers Group where their play HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANGEL DEAREST will stream soon. As an Impact Producer, they have developed audience engagement strategies with acclaimed documentaries including DISCLOSURE (Netflix), PHILLY D.A. (PBS/Topic), BEDLAM (PBS), and ROLL RED ROLL (Netflix).
It's Angel's 33rd birthday and it's time to celebrate! As the party unfolds Angel and her sibling Girlie find themselves tangled in a mixed-tape of nostalgia, gender-euphoria, psychosis, and reality. Lured into the family basement by a time traveling pirate and a walkman, Angel and Girlie must confront their darkest and most secret memories. Will Angel and Girl free themselves from a time-knot and find the connection and liberation they seek?
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANGEL DEAREST is a Radio Roots Writers' Group radio play commission.
Sadboy Hours (this is a coping mechanism)
By Mary Harriman (she/her/hers, they/them/theirs)
Mary Harriman is a playwright based in Rochester, NY. Her favorite past credits include Ollie/Bassoon in Julia May Jonas' We Used to Wear Bonnets and get High All The Time, and as Nana the Dog and the Crocodile in Dake Jr. High's production of Peter Pan. She graduated from Skidmore College in 2020.
Sadboy Hours (this is a coping mechanism) is a series of funny, honest, and tender vignettes about queerness, weight, and moms, because Mary couldn't seem to write about anything else. This is an experiment in the "Theater of Self Care," where writing prompts are more like wellness exercises, and performers are encouraged to write their own sadboy hours and follow the prompts! (Or not! That's ok too <3)
MLM is for Murder (Or, Your Side Hustle is Killing Us)
By John Bavoso (he/him/his)
Monday, June 26, 2023, 7:30 PM
John Bavoso (he/him/his) is a Washington, DC-based playwright, book and theatre reviewer, marketer, and aspiring wrangler of unicorns. He mostly writes plays about women and queer people who are awkwardly attempting (and generally failing) to engage with serious subject matter using only dry wit and impeccably timed combative taunts. John is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, a Pinky Swear Productions company member, a 2019 Lambda Literary Fellow. More info at John-Bavoso.com.
For Minerva, the way to escape the doldrums of her graphic design job is to write and narrate her own feminist true crime podcast. Meanwhile, across the country, Felicity, a Mormon stay-at-home wife and mother-and Minerva's high school nemesis-has just started selling leggings for the multi-level marketing company Linen & Fate. But when mild-mannered Felicity suddenly snaps and realizes the only way to get ahead in a rigged pyramid scheme is to literally start killing off the competition, both women suddenly experience the kind of overnight success they've been so desperately craving.
Bird of Pray
By Darrel Alejandro Holnes (he/him/his)
Monday, September 25, 2023, 7:30 PM
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
Holnes is a playwright and screenwriter. His plays have received productions or readings at the Kennedy Center for the Arts American College Theater Festival (KCACTF), The Brick Theater, Kitchen Theater Company, Pregones Theater/PRTT, Primary Stages, and elsewhere. He is a member of the Lincoln Center Director's Lab, Civilians R&D Group, Page 73's Interstate 73 Writers Workshop, and other groups. His plays include Black Feminist Video Game, Bayano, Franklin Ave, The Burning Room, and others.
Shaquille's attempt at suicide is disrupted when Jem, the ghost of a fellow soldier killed for being gay, suddenly appears and makes a proposition: Shaq must share his body with Jem's soul instead of sacrificing it to the vultures in exchange for absolution. With an impending hurricane forcing his hand, Shaquille must quickly choose between saving a fellow soldier he failed to save at war or escaping his worldly problems by starting over in the afterlife.
Horror Night with Radio Roots
By Javier Rivera DeBruin (they/them/theirs) and Nina Ki (xe/she/they)
Monday, October 30, 2023, 8:00 PM
Javier Rivera DeBruin is a queer-ass playwright and impact producer whose work explores gender, other-worldly bffs, family, and heritage. Their play LUCIÉRNAGAS was a NY Times Critic's Pick during its World Premiere with National Queer Theater at the 14th St Y in 2021 and was a semi-finalist for the 2019 New Dramatists Princess Grace Award. Javi is a co-writer on a six-part podcast play THIS IS WHERE WE GO (MCC Theater/The Parsnip Ship) and a member of the Parsnip Ship's inaugural Radio Roots Writers Group where their play HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANGEL DEAREST will stream soon. As an Impact Producer they have developed audience engagement strategies with acclaimed documentaries including DISCLOSURE (Netflix), PHILLY D.A. (PBS/Topic), BEDLAM (PBS), and ROLL RED ROLL (Netflix).
Nina Ki is a Queerean (Queer + Korean) American playwright who was born and raised in Los Angeles, but currently lives in Brooklyn. Xe graduated from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in 2008 with a BFA in Dramatic Writing, and xer plays have been read, recorded, and presented nationwide, including with Via Brooklyn, Yale Summer Cabaret, Queens Theatre, and The Parsnip Ship. Xer play "Moon Bear" was given special consideration for the Relentless Award, and xer play "Taemong (Birth Dream)" was a finalist for the Van Lier Fellowship. Xe was also an inaugural member of The Parsnip Ship's Radio Roots Writer's Group. To contact xer or learn more about xer work, please visit xer website at www.nina-ki.com
The Parsnip Ship presents a special night of horror to get you spooked and ready for Halloween with short horror audio plays by Javier Rivera DeBruin and Nina Ki, commissions of the Radio Roots Writers' Group.
UNSTUCK: A One Woman Show About Growing Up With OCD
By Olivia Levine (she/her/hers)
Monday, November 13, 2023, 7:30 PM
Olivia Levine is a queer actor, comedian and writer based in NYC. Originally from San Francisco, she moved to NYC for college, and received her B.A. in Theatre from Barnard College. Other training includes The Studio/NYC, UCB, and RADA. Other recent theatre credits include SF Playhouse's The Daughters (dir. Jessica Holt) and the world premiere of Honors Students at Wild Project (dir. Leta Tremblay).
UNSTUCK explores the evolution of my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and how it has engaged particularly with my sexuality and identity as a queer woman. Using elements of standup, storytelling, and movement work, the show explores the impact of my OCD on my romantic, platonic and familial relationships.
Trenzas
By Jei Lawrence (they/them/theirs)
Monday, December 11, 2023, 7:30 PM
Janelle // Jei is an interdisciplinary artist that investigates communal and individual strength with stories. They have had their works at various Theaters in the NYC area such as Club Cumming, Teatro La Tea, and Joe's Pub. They are the Co-Moderator of Musical Theatre Factory's Women/Trans/Gender Non-Conforming Roundtable and a 2020 Recipient of NBT's Soul Series Lab - Playwriting Micro-Development Session. www.janellelawrence.com
Assimilation can be difficult. So can growing up in an Afro-Latinx home with a mother who is holding on to her distorted nationalist Dominican past. Alisha and Carmela both have to learn to navigate their color-influenced worlds with the knowledge and outlook their mother has given them. Assimilation is based on societal influence, but what do we call the expectations passed down by our culture? And what do we do with those messages?
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