Corkscrew Theater Festival Presents Reading Series Featuring Four New Musical And Plays

Corkscrew Theater Festival continues its commitment to developing new work through the Corkscrew Reading Series, part of its third annual festival, which runs July 10-August 3 at the Paradise Factory (64 East 4th Street, Manhattan). The festival features four world premieres, four workshop productions, and four readings performed in repertory over four weeks, with 80 performances in all. As in past years, special attention has been given to theater makers who are developing work through tight-knit collaborations.

The Reading Series this year features two new musicals: Daniel Emond's Kill the Whale, a musical/concept album that filters Moby-Dick through a contemporary perspective and features a score soaked in rock, hip hop, folk, R&B, psychedelia, and soul, along with Kate Eberstadt's Notes from the Basement, inspired by Eberstadt's experience founding a music program in an emergency refugee camp in Berlin and then spending a year processing the experience in her parent's basement (framed as a mixtape of choral arrangements, electronic loops, and Middle Eastern music). Two experimental plays fill out the line-up - Mad, by Jay Mazyck, about a young man grappling with the recent murder of his guardian, a black transgender woman, and Eamon Boylan's and Through the Crack in the Closet Door, a dance/theatre piece about the closet as a space of liberation for queer and trans people.

All readings as part of Corkscrew Theater Festival will take place at the Paradise Factory (64 East 4th Street, Manhattan). Tickets are now on sale. Individual tickets to the four mainstage productions are $24, and tickets to the downstairs series are $20, with discount passes available to those seeing more than one show. All four readings are free and can be reserved online. Visit corkscrewfestival.org to learn more or call 347.954.9125 for more information.

Corkscrew Readings

Mad
written and directed by Jay Mazyck

July 10 at 8pm

Caught between the realities of his home and his place in the outside world, Ford struggles to grieve for his guardian M, a black transgender woman who was recently murdered. Spilling over with anger and hurt, he and his family must dive deep into their own trauma and participate in a purge that no one is ready for.

Jay Mazyck (19) is from Brooklyn, NY. He is currently receiving acting training at Rutgers University. He starred in the Off-Broadway production of Chisa Hutchinson's Surely Goodness and Mercy (Keen Company) after having participated in many college/high school shows and readings. He is an alumnus of LaGuardia High School.

Notes from the Basement
written and composed by Kate Eberstadt, directed by Molly Rose Heller

July 15 at 8pm

Notes from the Basement is a staged concept album exploring love and loss through the perspective of an aid worker during the European refugee influx of 2015-2016. After founding a music program in an emergency refugee camp in Berlin, Kate Eberstadt lived in her parents' basement for a year, processing - and not processing - the enormity of the experience: that of the families she interacted with, the aid workers and other people she met there, and her own. Framed as a mixtape of choral arrangements, electronic loops, and Middle Eastern music, Notes from the Basement grapples with finding humanity in seemingly inhuman circumstances.

Kate Eberstadt is an artist based in NYC. She writes, acts, composes/produces music, and makes art with people. Kate spent much of her early 20's haunting the art world under the wing of theater director Robert Wilson. In 2016, she founded The Hutto Project, a performing arts program for children living in an emergency refugee camp in Berlin. Notes from the Basement started as a concept album in her parents' basement, and is her first full-length show for the stage. Artistic residencies include The American Academy in Berlin, The Watermill Center, and The Center at West Park. Her work has appeared in publications such as the New York Times, NPR, and internationally in publications such as Der Tagesspiegel, El Español and Tokyo Shimbun. Eberstadt has also worked as a teaching artist in youth centers across the US and Europe, including on Rikers Island. She makes up half the electro pop sister duo Delune - @deluneofficial! For more information please visit www.kateeberstadt.com Instagram: @updatesfromkate

Molly Rose Heller is a multi-talented theatre-maker. Select directing credits include: Existential Questions (Green Room 42), Olivia Harris' Planet Joy (City Winery), Dybbuk (upcoming), Faust 2.0 (Mabou Mines, asst dir., upcoming), Cannibal Galaxy: a love story (New Ohio, asst dir.), and Missing Gemini (Winner, Best Direction). Other credits include Design for Living (Berkshire Theatre Group), Imagining the Imaginary Invalid (La Mama) and book/lyrics for Plath. (FringeNYC). She graduated Magna Cum Laude with a B.A. in Theatre and Drama Arts from Columbia University and a B.A. in Modern Jewish Studies from the Jewish Theological Seminary.

Kill the Whale
written and composed by Daniel Emond

July 19 at 3pm

Kill The Whale is a musical/concept album that re-imagines Moby-Dick as a series of songs baring the souls of each character on board Captain Ahab's vessel. The score, soaked in rock and hip hop, folk and roots, rhythm and blues, psychedelia and soul, is an eclectic reflection of America's diversity. Ultimately, Melville's novel serves as a jumping off point for composer Daniel Emond, who delves into the depths of subjectivity to discover his own interpretation of the world around him. As with the whale itself, some of our greatest fears are borne from our own minds.

Daniel Emond, a lifelong musician, singer, and composer, spontaneously began this massive work on a bike ride through Brooklyn, writing the melody to the chorus of his first song, The Whale. Since then, he has developed a plan to create Kill the Whale: A Musical Odyssey--An irreverent Re-telling of Moby-Dick, that would manifest as a live musical production, a musical film, and a concept album. Composition and music-directing credits include DAWN (Signature Theatre, Sonnet Rep, SPACE on Ryder Farm, O'Neill Finalist) and Daphne (IRT).

and Through the Crack in the Closet Door
created and directed by Eamon Boylan, produced by Mika Kauffman

August 1 at 3:30pm

Cinderella has all night. Cinderella has all night. Cinderella is all right. And not just a "she." A poem, a TED Talk and a party, and Through the Crack in the Closet Door rediscovers the closet as a space for the liberation of trans and queer bodies.

Eamon Boylan (they/them/theirs) is a NYC based director/creator whose recent/upcoming projects include Soft Butter (Ars Nova, Musical Theatre Factory), Waafrika 123 (National Queer Theater), Untitled (WP/The Public), Femmebodys (MTF), and various projects at spaces including BAM, LCT3/Lincoln Center, the O'Neill, Joe's Pub, American Theater Company, and elsewhere. They're a 2019 Trans Lab Fellow, a 2019 Sokoloff Arts Fellow, an alumnus of directing programs at NTI and SDCF.www.eamonboylan.com

Mika Kauffman (they/them/theirs) is a producer, musical writer, director, dramaturg and performer. They received their BFA in acting from Towson University and an MFA in musical theatre writing from Tisch. Off-Broadway credits include #adulting (Director), The Great Cat Massacre (Director), safeword. (Associate Director), Afterglow (Assistant Director), reading-performance of Paranormative (Book/Lyrics), We Are The Tigers (Dramaturg); upcoming projects include MAXA, The Maddest Woman in the World (Book/Lyrics) and Spectacle (Music/Lyrics). They are a member of Ring of Keys and SDC and recently began ALL BODIES, a producing company dedicated to supporting new work by non-binary, gender non-conforming and trans artists. www.mikakauffman.com, @mikakauffman

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