Parity Productions Selected For NYTW Next Door Series For World Premiere Of MIRRORS

Parity Productions, the New York based theatre company dedicated to producing new work and filling at least 50% of the creative positions (playwrights, directors, and designers) with women and/or trans and gender nonconforming (TCNG) artists, is pleased to announce its selection to the 2019/2020 Season of Next Door at New York Theatre Workshop for its world premiere production of Mirrors by 2018 Parity Commission Winner Azure D. Osborne-Lee, to be directed by Parity's Founder and Artistic Director, Ludovica Villar-Hauser.

Next Door at NYTW provides a home for companies and artists who are producing their own work. This initiative provides each project with subsidized resources and space for development and performance in the 4th Street Theatre. As part of an ongoing effort to expand support for artists at every stage of their careers, this series has served over 300 artists in the first two years alone.

Mirrors will have its world premiere in February 2020 as part of the 2019-20 Next Door Season at New York Theatre Workshop. "As a theatre maker with a deeply queer and feminist sensibility, I'm excited to be working with both Parity Productions and New York Theatre Workshop to bring the world of Mirrors-a glimpse into family and community in the 1940s and 1960s South, as well as into the multi-faceted wonder of Blackness-to present-day New York," says playwright Azure D. Osborne Lee.

Set in the sleepy Mississippi town of Etheridge in the summer of 1960, Mirrors depicts the lives of three African-American women bound by love and loss and family, and the secrets of their shared past. When 17-year-old Alma Jean finds her mother dead, she must pack up her life and move in with her mother's ex-lover, a woman she doesn't know. Her new guardian, Bird Wilson, is the town pariah and unused to sharing her home. Will mourning the death of a shared loved one bring Alma Jean and Bird together or push them further apart?

"Parity Productions is overjoyed at having been selected for Next Door at NYTW, and we look forward to bringing Azure's powerful play to production," says Parity's Founder and Artistic Director, Ludovica Villar-Hauser.

Azure D. Osborne-Lee (he/him, they/them) is a current member of Trans Lab, which is supported by The Public Theater and WP Theater. Azure's work has been produced and/or developed by Trans Lab, The Tank, The Syndicate, The Flea Theater, BAX|Brooklyn Arts Exchange, BAM, JACK, Rising Circle Theater Collective, The Fire This Time Festival, Horse Trade Theater Group, The Castillo Theatre, The New Ohio Theatre, National Black Theatre, Freedom Train Productions, Downtown Urban Arts Festival, Lambda Literary, The Helix Queer Performance Group, and regionally. Winner of Downtown Urban Arts Festival's 2018 Best Play Award and the 2015 Mario Fratti-Fred Newman Political Play Contest. He was the recipient of the 2018 Parity Commission. http://azureosbornelee.com

Ludovica Villar-Hauser is the Founder and Artistic Director of Parity Productions. Her credits include the Off-Broadway premiere of Final Analysis by Otho Eskin at the Signature Theatre (Outstanding Direction at Midtown International Theatre Festival); the world premiere of Gregory Murphy's The Countess, which ran for 634 performances Off-Broadway before moving to London's West End; the Off-Broadway premiere of Leaves of Glass by English playwright Philip Ridley; As It Is In Heaven by Arlene Hutton at The Cherry Lane; the Off-Broadway premiere of Bold Girls by Rona Munro at 29th Street Rep; and the world premieres of A Dozen Perfect Moments, The Brightness of Heaven, and Living Arrangements by Laura Pedersen; the world premiere of She Calls Me Firefly by Teresa Lotz at SoHo Playhouse, and, most recently, the world premiere of Charlie's Waiting at Theaterlab by 2017 Parity Commission Winner, Mêlisa Annis. Villar-Hauser was the youngest woman to simultaneously produce and direct in London's West End. Her Long Day's Journey Into Night transferred after its initial run to a larger West End venue. She is a recipient of NYWA's Galaxy Award, served on the Board of the League of Professional Theatre Women from 2009-2018, and currently produces the League's Oral History program.

Parity Productions is a formidable producer of new work that ensures that they fill at least 50% of the creative positions (playwrights, directors, and designers) on their productions with women and/or trans and gender nonconforming (TGNC) artists. In addition to producing their own work, they actively promote other theatre companies that follow their 50% hiring standard. Artistically, they develop and produce compelling new plays that give voice to individuals who rebel against their marginalized place in society. In concert with Parity's mission to see more women and TGNC artists employed in the theatre, Parity Productions awards two commissions per year to women and TGNC playwrights who have demonstrated a singular talent for storytelling. The selected playwrights receive $2,500 each.

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