Theater Breaking Through Barriers Presents Third Virtual Playmakers' Intensive: INUNION

Theater Breaking Through Barriers Artistic Director Nicholas Viselli today announced the Third Virtual Playmakers' Intensive: INUNION, scheduled for October 19th through November 1st, on YouTube nightly at 7:30pm or Facebook at 8:15pm, via ZOOM.

Disability intersects with all populations in our world: Every age, race, gender and sexual orientation. TBTB strives to create a common ground for all voices and serve as an ambassador in the quest for full, systemic equality in our world. The fourteen original plays constituting the 3rd Virtual Playmakers' Intensive represent a diverse chorus within American culture. Created for and rehearsed entirely on the Zoom platform, TBTB's VPI 3 will stream live performances of these new short works directly to you, wherever you may be!

TBTB's VPI3 will stream live performances of these new short works directly, one each evening. There are two ways to live stream - on YouTube nightly at 7:30pm (with live captioning, available only on YouTube) and on Facebook at 8:15pm.

The program will include:

Monday October 19th - Game Night by Khalil Lesaldo, directed by Kimille Howard, and featuring Samantha Debicki, Ann Flanigan, Laura Gaona, and Melissa Jennifer Gonzalez. Old friends reunite online. Featuring sparks and honey.

Tuesday October 20th - You've Been Tony'd by Chris Chan-Roberson, directed by Christina Roussos, and featuring Jaleesa Graham, Christopher Imbrosiano, and Patrick J. O'Hare. How does world-famous actor Carl Cartier deal with a "small" request from his biggest fan?

Wednesday October 21st - The Sound Beneath the Sound by Jeff Tabnick, directed by Graydon Gund, and featuring Lori Brown-Niang, Jordan Feit, Jamie Petrone and Pearl Rhein. A young woman does everything in her power to distract herself from the reality of 2020 including starting a love affair with a stranger. But when she begins to hear voices in her walls, she discovers that if she can just be quiet, she's able to hear deeper and clearer than she ever imagined.

Thursday October 22nd - Receptacle by Rebecca Quinn Robertson, directed by Nicholas Viselli, and featuring Rachel Handler, John Paul Niang, Estrella Tamaz, and Gaia Visnar. Receptacle is about the invisible dangers of the experience of being female, the inherent power of the collective feminine alliance, and the severe pain of uncertainty engendered by not having control over one's own body. Three women are given the chance to reveal their many selves over the course of a visceral conversation taking place in a clinical environment, where the experience all three have in common is that their relationship to their bodies is being scrutinized, so that they might have the opportunity to fulfill their biological purposes.

Friday October 23rd - Jai Ho! by Kathryn Grant, directed by Keyanna Alexander, and featuring Shashi Bangera, Christine Bruno, Alyssa H. Chase, and Jack Sims. What happens to the homeless people dumped out of the Hotel Lucerne on the Upper West Side? In Jai Ho!, a young woman steps in to help to the consternation of her protective sisters, COVID be damned!

Saturday October 24th - There Are Too Many of Us (Government TV's Most Popular Mandatory Game Show) by Nico Grelli, directed by Shellen Lubin, and featuring Richard Lear, Martin Lewis, and Richard M. Rose. There Are Too Many of Us is a sci-fi tragicomedy. It takes place backstage at a televised talent competition on Government TV, where contestants are chosen by a national lottery system to sing for their lives.

Sunday October 25th - Grams by Gwynn MacDonald, directed by Roberto Cambeiro, and featuring Carlos Guillermo, Bree Klauser, and Dipti Mehta. Three people from different worlds are trying to make sense of their new chaotic lives during this pandemic. One answer might just be a singing telegram.

Monday October 26th - conSession by Stuart Green, directed by Ben Rauch, and featuring Veronica Cruz, Sean Phillips, Dan Teachout. While Charlie's making tremendous progress under Dr. Carriacou's care, there's one thing that may change their relationship forever. All may be fair in love and war, but is blood thicker than watery steel cut oatmeal.

Tuesday October 27th - You Can't Get a Man with a Gun by Caroline Aaron (Screen Actors Guild Award winner for "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel"), directed by Kristin Heckler, and featuring Scott Barton, Juan Carlos Diaz, Aya Ibaraki. With the enforced togetherness brought on by the pandemic, a couple's twenty-year relationship is in danger of unraveling. With the help of an internet therapist and her puppets, Bart, a creative writing, teacher is hoping to get some advice to save his marriage. But something goes terribly wrong. The consequences are shocking and irreversible.

Wednesday October 28th - The Art of Exposure by Shellen Lubin, directed by Kalilah Black, and featuring David Harrell, Christopher Hurt, Melanie Portsche, Rebecca Quinn Robertson. As Zoom connects us across the miles and over time zones, what if it could connect even further points in time? A brother and sister experience this transcendent unexplored potential for online connection as they struggle with each other and the memory of their recently deceased, extremely problematic step-father, trying to sell his house.

Thursday October 29th - Find Your Love by Tatiana G. Rivera, directed by Gwynn MacDonald, and featuring Shravan Amin, Robin Marshall, Ben Rauch, Patrick Tombs. To whom can you call when the world is ending but your existential crisis just wont quit? An evening radio show. Duh.

Friday October 30th - Goodnight Somebody by Jerrod Bogard, directed by AhDream Smith, and featuring Jennifer Bradley, Sarah Folkins, Ward Nixon, Nick Walther. The evening before accepting a lifetime achievement award, a legendary children's book author gathers his closest confidants to listen to his prepared speech, a speech that could change all their lives.

Saturday October 31st - Teacher's Pet by Enrique Huili, directed by Richard M. Rose, and featuring Anita Hollander, J. Martin McDonough, Keith Murfee-DeConcini. Teacher's Pet follows an elderly man who is tormented by his past and guilt. As he struggles with his addiction, he is confronted by individuals, who present ultimatums that must to be answered. Teacher's Pet examines what it means to love ones-self and how to take responsibility for one's actions.

Sunday November 1st - Persephone by Chris Phillips, directed by Ann Marie Morelli, and featuring Helen P. Coxe, John Little, Paul Pryce. In the face of a possible threat to their way of life, three representatives of a colony on a planet far from Earth are forced to make a decision that could either destroy the delicate balance created by their people - or test the very definition of their own humanity.

"TBTB is extremely excited to be able to collaborate with this incredibly talented group of artists to create new original works, particularly in the absence of live theater during this time of COVID-19. Our Virtual Playmakers' workshops have been a revelation in that they allow us to call together artists from all parts of the world to develop new short works in-progress and share them with a global audience. Our first two workshops this year allowed us to test the waters and connect with a much larger, deeply diverse pool of talent. VPI3 will combine our previous discoveries to create our largest, most unified body of work to date. As New York's only professional Off-Broadway theater for disabled artists, it is deeply gratifying for us to be able to bring such an incredibly diverse and esteemed group of artists together to generate work that speaks to and for all humankind," said Viselli.

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