Joanna Pickering's New Play DON'T HARM THE ANIMALS Is Selected To Run At The Chain Theatre Festival

 

A powerful and shocking new play directed by Melody Brooks, joins the Chain Theatre summer one act festival line up, running June 8th to June 25th.

Don't Harm The Animals, a new one woman play, written and performed by Joanna Pickering, will be part of the selected voices that make up this summer's Chain Theatre One Act Festival in the heart of midtown. Don't Harm the Animals is a powerful stand-alone one act that follows the lead character of Pickering's play The Endgame six months later.

Melody Brooks will direct. Brooks is an award-winning producer, director and founder of New Perspectives Theatre Company. Brooks, recently, won the 2023 Lee Reynolds Award from the League of Professional Theatre Women.

Brooks considers Don't Harm The Animals to be Pickering's best writing so far. Last year, Pickering was one of six playwrights selected for New Perspectives Theatre Company's Women's Work Short Play LAB, which developed and first showcased The Endgame. She has recently been accepted into the Women's Work Full-length LAB to work on a new original script.

Pickering said, "Melody Brooks is far too busy to be directing my play, so the fact she is my director is a real compliment to the power of this work. I am delighted to have the support of all these theaters backing my journey, and specifically, to tell brave, unheard stories that carry risk."

Pickering is regarded for writing on themes addressing female agenda, sexism and issues of sexual assault.

Don't Harm The Animals also features in Bad Victims, which ran in development last month at The Courtyard Theatre, London, and received strong audience review as shocking and powerful. This is the first time it is produced as a stand-alone play. Pickering said, "it works well as a short one act play as the themes remain from my other work, but from an unseen angle that is received as vital and heart rending."

Brooks will be directing Pickering on stage as she performs in her first one woman piece. Pickering, most recently, won best actress for her work in Diva at New York Women's festival, Los Angeles Film Awards, and The Actors Award, and is coming direct from stage after performing a lead role in her own play Bad Victims in London.

Don't Harm The Animals joins a 'Mix-Tape' of short plays on the line up, including comedies, dramas, and new musicals that comprise Chain's festival of New York City based playwrights telling stories their way. Chain Theatre "are always seeking to reflect and react to the world around us. Culturally. Politically. Socially. Audiences can find investment in the work at the Chain, because the work is about them, no matter what it might be. It's a place where artists and audiences can expand their perspective."

Chain Theatre has produced the NYT Critics Pick Macbitches, NYC Premiere of Six Corners by Emmy-nominated Keith Huff (A Steady Rain, Mad Men, House of Cards) and has also collaborated with Tony Award winner David Rabe (Sticks and Bones and The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel) Past award-winning productions include: Hurlyburly by David Rabe, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Dale Wasserman, and Talk Radio by Eric Bogosian.

This is a special invite to show your support for the arts and join them for an exciting selection of performances created by the best independent artists at one of the top independent theatre venues in New York City.

TICKETS: Tickets are $22 in advance and $25 at the door. BLOCK #5 Don't Harm The Animals by Joanna Pickering June 10th 8pm, June 13th 6.30pm, and June 23rd 8.30pm
LINK: https://www.chaintheatre.org/summer-one-act-festival-2023
Use Promo code: ANIMALS for discount tickets!

Masks are not required but strongly encouraged. Chain Theatre is located at 312 W. 36th Street, 3rd and 4th Floor, New York, NY 10018 For more about the Chain Theatre visit www.chaintheatre.org @chaintheatrenyc

CAST AND CREDITS:

Joanna Pickering (Playwright, Actress) is an award-winning actress and writer. Her plays have sold out in New York City, London and Paris, and are available at The Drama Book Shop. In 2022/23 Bad Victims sold out at The Courtyard Theatre in London, directed by Erica Gould (Neil LaBute/Theresa Rebeck) starring Pickering and Richard Emerson (West End Chess, ENO Coliseum) and was reviewed as "Sarah Kane meets Noel Coward." In 2022, The Endgame first showcased off-Broadway at New Perspective Theatre, directed by award-winning Illana Stein, and then moved to Paris to The Big Funk Company. In 2021, Truth, Lies and Deception ran to sold out audiences at Le Pave D'Orsay Theatre in Paris, with Pickering performing a lead role and receiving national press. Most recently, Pickering won Best Actress at New York Women in Film Festival, Los Angeles Film Awards and The Actors Awards for her film work in Diva. She is a member of The Actor's Studio Playwright Directors Unit, Theatre 68, The Actors Gym, The International Centre Of Women Playwrights, The League of Professional Female Playwrights, and is represented by 3 Arts Entertainment/Talented in Paris/SAG.

Melody Brooks (Director) is the founder and Artistic Director of New Perspectives Theatre Company and an award-winning producer, director and dramaturg who has worked in the professional theatre and various educational institutions for 40 years. Brooks received the 2023 "Lee Reynolds Award" from the League of Professional Theatre Women, the "Trailblazing Women and Arts Institutions Award" from Rhythm Color Associates and the "Spirit of Hope Award" from Speranza Theatre Company for her career-long support of women and BIPOC theatre artists. She is a member of Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA) and has been a member of LPTW since 2009.

MARK GARDENER (Composer) is an English rock musician, singer and guitarist with the band Ride. The band is one of the key pioneers of shoegaze, an alternative rock subgenre that emerged to prominence in the United Kingdom during the early 1990s. The band's first two albums, Nowhere (1990) and Going Blank Again (1992) have been critically acclaimed as two of the greatest shoegaze albums of all time. The latter's lead single, "Leave Them All Behind" became the band's most commercially successful song, reaching No. 9 on the UK Singles Chart. Both Going Blank Again and its 1994 follow-up, Carnival of Light, peaked at No. 5 on the UK Albums Chart. Gardener has written many solo albums as well as producing for other bands and writing music for film and TV. He recently wrote the soundtrack for award-winning film Upside Down - The Creation Records Story, which picked up a MOJO Vision Award for his work.

AOLANI LOPEZ (Stage Manager) (she/her) is a rising junior at Tufts University. She was previously a NextGen intern with Classic Stage Company which sparked her interest in the behind-the-scenes aspects of theatre. She is currently a summer production intern at New Perspectives Theatre Company.

Erwin Falcon (Sound effects) is the founder and CEO of Kid Kestrel LLC, an independent multi-media creative company.

DEBBIE ELLIS (Photograph of Miss Pickering, poster artwork) is a British photographer specializing in music, editorial, portrait, lifestyle and fashion photography. She has been published in I-d, N.M.E. GQ, Kerrang!, The Guardian, The Independent, Drapers, BBC introducing, Underground England, Bido Lito, Fred Perry, Loaded, City Life, Time Out, Louder Than War, Manchester Evening News and many online publications.

 

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