Brave New World Repertory Theatre Will Launch BNWorks 2020, Its 3rd Annual Play Reading Series

Brooklyn's Brave New World Repertory Theatre will launch BNWorks 2020, its 3rd annual play reading series - this year focused on Climate Change - in Brooklyn's Flatbush-Ditmas Park.

The popular series, which sells out quickly, presents Saturday night readings of new plays followed by talkbacks with the playwrights in elegant private Ditmas Park homes. Tickets ($35) include complimentary wine and light fare. In 2020, for the first time, the series will include second readings on Sunday afternoons at 2pm for a broader community invited to pay whatever they can. (Dates and details below)

"We're thrilled to debut our 3rd annual season of this new generation of BNWorks in Ditmas Park - in living rooms, with food and wine; a tradition going back to our early Salon Series," says BNW's producing artistic director Claire Beckman. "This season's plays, MOON BEAR by Nina Ki and RAIN AND ZOE SAVE THE WORLD by Crystal Skillman, were selected as the best two plays about Climate Change from over 200 local submissions; coincidentally both are by women." Last season BNWorks focused on Race in America; the inaugural season in 2018 reflected the diverse and global community of Ditmas Park with plays set in India, Atlanta, Wisconsin, The Ukraine, and Mexico.

As part of its launch of BNWorks 2020, BNW also partnered with #climatechangetheateraction at a special event (December 14) featuring three of 50 plays commissioned by the global initiative arts/activism organization The Arctic Cycle and read by BNW company members for an invited audience of contributors.

Brave New World readings are meant to be events unto themselves, with talkbacks following the readings existing as an opportunity for playwrights to be in dialogue with their audience rather than taking prescriptive advice. Most of the dialogue happens after the talkback, over wine and snacks, in a casual organic way. - The Brooklyn Rail, March 2018

Past notable BNWorks playwrights have included Charles L. Mee, Donnetta Lavinia Grays, Stefanie Zadravec, Malcolm Tariq, Kristoffer Diaz, and Erin Courtney. Notable directors have included May Adrales, Tamilla Woodard, Lisa Peterson and Liesl Tommy.

BNWorks 2020

***Venue addresses are disclosed when tickets are purchased.

Link for tickets HERE

Moon Bear

by Nina Ki
Directed by Dennis Yueh-Yeh Li
January 25: Dinner at 7:30; Reading at 8:00
January 26: Reading at 2:00pm

Rain and Zoe Save the World

by Crystal Skillman
Directed by Hersh Ellis
February 29: Dinner at 7:30; Reading at 8:00
March 1: Reading at 2:00pm

About the Playwrights:

Nina Ki is a Queerean (Queer + Korean) American playwright who was born and raised in Los Angeles, but lives in Brooklyn. She graduated from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in 2008 with a BFA in Dramatic Writing, and her plays have been read and produced nationwide, including with Queens Theatre, Brave New World Repertory Theatre, The Classical Theater of Harlem, The Living Room Theater, the HBMG Foundation, Funhouse, InspiraTO, and Another Country Productions. She is a recipient of ALAP's Diversity Fellowship, and recently her play Moon Bear was given special consideration for the Relentless Award. Her work has been published in LGBT Comedic Monologues that are Actually Funny, the In Full Color anthology, and Youth PLAYS. To contact her or learn more about her work, please visit her website at www.nina-ki.com

Crystal Skillman is an award-winning dramatist. She is a NY Innovative Theatre Award winner, an alumni of Youngblood, the WP and Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, and an EST member. Plays include NYTimes Critics Picks OPEN (The Tank), KING KIRBY (The Brick), GEEK (Vampire Cowboys), and CUT (Theatre Under St. Marks), as well as ANOTHER KIND OF LOVE (Chopin Theatre), and WILD (Lucille Lortel MCC Reading, IRT). New plays include PULP VÉRITÉ (2019 Kilroys List Honorable Mention) and RAIN AND ZOE SAVE THE WORLD (2018 EMOS Prize). She is thrilled to share that several regional productions of OPEN, and an upcoming publication from Dramatists Play Service, will be announced shortly this fall. It will also be announced that she was selected for the 2019 Civilians R & D Group to write her new piece THIS SHOW IS MONEY (Music/Lyrics Gaby Alter). Crystal is the book writer of the musical MARY AND MAX (Composer/Lyricist Bobby Cronin), winner of the 2018 MUT Award Critics Prize, which premiered at Theatre Calgary last fall, which will premiere in Europe this fall. TV/Comic Books: EAT FIGHTER (WebToon), ADVENTURE TIME (Boom! Studios), and the pilot PAPER HEROES (Finalist for Big Break and Launch Pad).

To post a comment, you must register and login.