Playwright Joanna Pickering Inks A Deal With Next Stage Press

Joanna Pickering will be joining the Next Stage Press catalogue. Next stage Press publish exciting, new playwrights, as well as a roster of award-winning and critically acclaimed playwrights, including Arlene Hutton, Don Nigro, Scott C. Sickles, Judy K. Tate, Lisa Langford, Caridad Svich. They recently added Susan Cinoman, Robin Rice, John Patrick Bray, Tony Award winner Mark Medof (Children of Lesser God was his last published work before his death) and Joanna Pickering.

Next Stage Press states their mission is to "publish brave new works that risk being overlooked by the larger publishing houses."

Helmed by Gene Kato, the company has published over 140 playwrights, and with an awareness for female voices, themes and narratives. They are committed to publish and license plays from BIPOC, LGBTQIA, Women's Voices, and Theatre for Youth. Next Stage press will also publish in collaboration with Honor Roll, which houses over 800 women writers.

Their latest addition, Pickering, is a British, actress and writer. She began writing for theatre in 2018, at Primitive Grace Theatre Ensemble, with artistic directors Paul Calderon and David Zayas, also co-founding members of New York LAByrinth Theatre. In 2020, Pickering was accepted as a member of The League of Professional Theatre Women, as well as The International Centre of Female Playwrights.

In October 2020, 'Pickering's Three Plays' were showcased for the League, adapted for zoom, and with Artistic Director Christine Cirker (The Barrow Theatre, FAB women). The plays included 'Beach Break', 'Cat and Mouse' and 'Sylvie and Sly.'

Award-winning one act play 'Beach Break" was directed by Amanda Moresco, with actors Whitney Andrews and Jamie Van Dyke. The play focuses on the break down in relations after sexual assault.

'Cat and Mouse' was performed by Broadway's Dan Lauria (The Wonder Years, Lombardi), Hailey Marmolejo, Kathleen Simmonds, Josh Crowe and directed by Susan Izatt (The Actors Studio). In this play, Pickering explores themes of swinging power dynamics in the grey area of date rape allegations.

'Sylvie and Sly' cast included Caroline Aaron as Sylvie (The Marvelous Mrs Maisel), Mauricio Bustamante (Little Men), Andrew Hsu, and directed by Lorca Peress (MultiStages). This comedic play centers on themes of sexism, ageism, and the impact of social media on self-esteem.

Next Stage Press will also release Pickering's full one act play "Misty and Rover" later in 2021.

In total, Next Stage Press has released 300 plays of regular and new contributing playwrights since it began publishing 2009.

Their catalogue of playwrights is on: Next Stage Press www.nextstagepress.net

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