SheNYC Arts Sets 2023 SheLA Summer Theater Festival Lineup Of 5 New Plays By Women, Trans, & Non-Binary Writers

SheNYC Arts, the country's premier program for showcasing up-and-coming theater writers and composers, has announced their lineup for the 2023 SheLA Summer Theater Festival. The Festival, which annually features the works of West Coast-based gender-marginalized playwrights, will run from July 10-16, 2023 at the Zephyr Theatre in West Hollywood with both an in-person audience and select digital performances.

The 2023 SheLA Summer Theater Festival will present four new full-length plays: Bismillah, or In the Name of God by Nakisa Aschtiani, the moon play by Maddie Nguyen, There Is Evil In This House by Natalie Nicole Dressel, and Sister, Braid My Hair by Sarahjeen François. It will also present one musical: RoseMarie - A Kennedy Life Interrupted by Margaret Owens.

Tickets to the performances will be available in June, and you can learn more about each show at www.SheNYCArts.org/She-LA.

The SheLA shows were selected after a rigorous, blind, months-long selection process out of over 300 submissions from around the globe. All performances will comply with state and local COVID-19 safety guidelines.

For more information on SheLA's sister festivals, SheNYC and SheATL, visit www.SheNYCArts.org.

SheNYC Arts is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization devoted to producing plays, musicals, and adaptations by writers of marginalized genders, to prove that these works are meaningful, high-quality, and commercially viable. SheNYC produces Summer Theater Festivals in New York City, Los Angeles, and Atlanta annually, as well as CreateHER, a semester-long program for high school students interested in careers as playwrights and producers. Through additional educational and community engagement programs, including The Broadway Women's Alliance, SheNYC aims to make the theater industry a better place for all people. Learn more at www.SheNYCArts.org.

ABOUT THE SHOWS

the moon play

By Maddie Nguyen

When June Tran, a brilliant but discouraged space enthusiast, decides that humanity isn't worth the effort anymore, her solution is simple - she's going to build a rocket ship, fly it to the Moon, and live out the rest of her life in peaceful solitude. The only problem is that NASA keeps sending her annoying messages from a technician known only as "Houston" to negotiate her back down to Earth. Between her conversations with Houston and a Vietnamese folktale about the Man in the Moon, June is forced to confront both her longing and aversion to connection with other people.

Sister, Braid My Hair

By Sarahjeen François

Oak and her sisters, Olei, Yeva, and Soraya live out their days as figures in a quintessentially Black work of art- the only place, it seems, where people like them are safe. They pass their time braiding one another's hair while exchanging the stories and wisdoms of their predecessors who existed in the real-world. These stories entice the younger siblings to ignore caution and escape the safety of their frames to get a taste of reality, but when their exploits lead them through life-changing obstacles, they quickly discover that the real-world ain't as pretty as their picture.

Bismillah, or In the Name of God

By Nakisa Aschtiani

In Bismillah, or In the Name of God, we meet Darius Shirazi and his best friend, Bahar Ohftahb. While the two were raised in completely different households, their immigrant parents always fought for the American Dream. When a shooting at a gay bar changes their lives forever, this group of longtime Iranian-American friends, from varied upbringings, are forced to grapple with their beliefs and fight for what is right in a new and troubling world. Who will stand up for you when you cannot take a stand for yourself? What happens when faith clashes with the promise of unconditional love?

There is Evil in This House

By Natalie Nicole Dressel

There is Evil in This House is about a pop culture-obsessed transgender girl who rewinds her childhood growing up in a haunted house, coming out to her mother, and attempts to discover the truth at all costs about the demons that haunt her still.

RoseMarie - A Kennedy Life Interrupted

Book, music, and lyrics by Margaret Owens

RoseMarie - A Kennedy Life Interrupted is the story of RoseMarie Kennedy told through the lens of her younger sister Eunice Kennedy as she looks back at their lives together. The musical illuminates the struggle of even the wealthiest of families, to raise a neuro-divergent child in the age of eugenics, institutionalization, and forced sterilization. Even though her story will ultimately end in tragedy, it will be RoseMarie's influence that will change the world.

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