Gingold Theatrical Group Reveals 2023-24 Speakers' Corner New Play Cohort
GTG’s Speakers’ Cornerbrings together four writers each year who have spent the year exploring a specific Shaw play.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Dec. 01, 2023
Gingold Theatrical Group, now in its 18th Season, has revealed that Kaela Mae-Shing Garvin, Ruth Geye, Gloria Oladipo and Max Yu have been selected for GTG’s Speakers’ Corner New Play Development Program for the 2023-24 season. These four writers have developed works in response to Shaw's Arms and the Man.
Named after the corner of London’s Hyde Park where George Bernard Shaw and other political speakers have delivered speeches since 1855, GTG’s Speakers’ Cornerbrings together four writers each year who have spent the year exploring a specific Shaw play and writing individual new plays in response to that text and Shaw’s forward thinking humanitarian ideals.
The group is led by GTG Director of New Plays, Lily Kanter Riopelle, a producer and director specializing in new play and musical development, community-driven projects, and arts education. In addition to serving as Gingold Theatrical Group’s Director of New Plays, Lily is a Brooklyn-based director of new plays, musicals, and reimagined classics. She is an alumna of Clubbed Thumb’s and Manhattan Theatre Club’s Directing Fellowships and the Williamstown Theatre Festival’s Directing Corps, a member of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, and a New Georges Affiliated Artist. She has associate or assistant directed on Broadway, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Williamstown Theatre Festival, and others. She is an associate member of SDC. Lily is a founding co-artistic director of Two Headed Rep, a company that commissions new plays written in response to classics and produces the old and new works in rep. She studied Theatre and Computer Science at Williams College and attended The National Theatre Institute’s Directing Program. When she’s not directing plays, Lily spends her time building web applications and making wheel-thrown ceramics out of a community studio in Brooklyn.
“These four exceptional playwrights bring their unique perspectives, voices, and visions to Speakers' Corner,” said Artistic Director David Staller. “We are inspired by their collective compassion and humor as we hone our communal space for new play development. GTG’s work inherently acknowledges our connection to the generations that came before us, and the experiences of those that follow. It’s a thrill to anticipate how this group of inquisitive creators and arts activists will continue to interpret this moment in conversation with Shaw and his work. Our goal is to add new plays to our annual production season.”
Speakers’ Corner members have met bi-monthly over the past year, concluding this December with the opportunity to work with directors and actors in an AEA-Approved 29-hour workshop, culminating with a public presentation of their play. All presentations will take place at 7pm at 520 8th Avenue. Seating is extremely limited. To reserve a seat, visit info@gingoldgroup.org.
More information on the presentations can be found below:
Ping Pong Play
By Kaela Mei-Shing Garvin
Directed by Benita de Wit
Presented on December 11 at 7pm
During a 2001 table tennis tournament, Yining and Anjali become fast friends. Ping Pong Play non-chronologically follows two Asian femmes' lifelong friendship as they play the sport live, try to maintain their connection, and grow through major life and world changes over eight decades, exploring how macro structures affect micro interpersonal relationships.
How Can I Help You?
By Ruth Geye
Directed by Carsen Joenk
Presented on December 11 at 7pm
Claire, a freshly hired dental receptionist, has been called into the office on her day off to accommodate a 102-year-old Holocaust survivor with a cracked tooth and a love of Wagner. Dr. Meyer and Dr. Meyer are out on the island for the weekend, and their son (Dr. Meyer) has been left in charge.
I Wanna Kill, Annie G
By Gloria Oladipo
Directed by Maya Davis
Presented on December 8 at 7pm
16-year-old Annie Gadson is threatened by the affable presence of orphan Anne Shirley, a white 16-year-old who is accidentally adopted by the Black Gadson family to care for the family's land. In a wayward attempt to fit in with the Gadsons, Anne begins to appropriate Black culture. The humorist romp I Wanna Kill, Annie G asks: can Annie G withstand Anne's 'culture vulture' ways or will whiteness win (again)?
Call Me Comrade
By Max Yu
Directed by Bryn Herdrich
Presented on December 7 at 7pm
Set in Wuhan during the Cultural Revolution, Call Me Comrade is the story of a daughter who denounces her father, leading him to a plotting a revenge that adheres to the political correctness of the era.
For more information about Speakers' Corner Writers Group and all the projects of Gingold Theatrical Group, including the acclaimed Project Shaw, call 212-355-7823, email info@gingoldgroup.org, or visit online at www.gingoldgroup.org.
ABOUT GINGOLD THEATRICAL GROUP
Gingold Theatrical Group, now in its 18th year, creates theater that supports human rights, freedom of speech, and individual liberty using the work of George Bernard Shaw as our guide. All of GTG’s programs are inspired by Shaw’s humanitarian values. Through full productions, staged readings, new play development, and inner-city educational programs, GTG brings Shavian precepts to audiences and artists across New York, encouraging individuals to breathe Shaw’s humanist ideals into their contributions for the future. Shaw created plays to inspire peaceful discussion and activism and that is what GTG aims to accomplish. GTG just concluded an extremely successful limited Off-Broadway run of Shaw’s Arms and the Man, directed by David Staller, which was filmed and will be streamed online in 2024. GTG’s past productions include Man and Superman (2012), You Never Can Tell (2013), Major Barbara (2014), Widowers’ Houses (2016), Heartbreak House (2018), Caesar & Cleopatra (2019), Mrs. Warren’s Profession (2021), and Candida (2022).
Founded in 2006 by David Staller, GTG has carved a permanent niche for the work of George Bernard Shaw within the social and cultural life of New York City, and, through the Project Shaw reading series, made history in 2009 as the first company ever to present performances of every one of Shaw's 65 plays (including full-length works, one-acts and sketches). GTG brings together performers, critics, students, academics and the general public with the opportunity to explore and perform theatrical work inspired by the humanitarian and activist values that Shaw championed. All comedies, these plays boldly exhibit the insight, wit, passion and all-encompassing socio-political focus that distinguished Shaw as one of the most inventive and incisive writers of all time.
Through performances, symposiums, new play development, and outreach, as well as through our discussion groups and partnerships with schools including SUNY Stony Brook, Regis, the De La Salle Academy, City College, the New School, Marymount, and The Broome Street Academy, GTG has helped spark a renewed interest in Shaw across the country, and a bold interest in theater as activism. Young people are particularly inspired by Shaw’s invocation to challenge the strictures society imposes, to embrace the power of the individual, to make bold personal choices and to take responsibility for these choices. GTG’s new play development lab, Speakers’ Corner, created to support playwrights inspired by Shaw’s ideals, is now in its second cycle. Through monthly prompts and feedback, writers develop work inspired by or in response to a specific Shaw text. Plays developed through Speakers’ Corner will be nurtured in workshops and readings with the expectation that GTG will publish or produce them. GTG encourages all people to rejoice in the possibilities of the future. All of GTG’s programming is designed to inspire lively discussion and peaceful activism with issues related to human rights, the freedom of speech, and individual liberty. This was the purpose behind all of Shaw’s work and why GTG chose him as the guide toward helping create a more tolerant and inclusive world through the exploration of the Arts.
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