New Perspectives Theatre Company Presents EMERGENCE

New Perspectives Theatre Company has announced EMERGENCE, its 13th Annual Women's Work Short Play Festival, running live Monday, August 9 to Saturday, August 14, 2021.

The Festival performs in two programs on an alternating schedule of 4:00pm and 8:00pm, with a combined program on August 14th at 2pm and 5pm. All performances are at NPTC Studio, 458 West 37th Street (at 10th Avenue.)

The festival is comprised of six plays in two programs. Program A includes: That's What Happened by Queen Esther, directed by Melody Brooks; Bad Koreans by Rebekah Lopatto, directed by Dani Ortiz; and Candy Girls by Jeana Scotti, directed by Lola Lopez Guardone. Program B includes: Brittany Johnson by Mehrnaz Tiv, directed by Lola Lopez Guardone; Earthshine by Makaela Shealy-Sachot, directed by Karin Crighton, and Anarchy by Mary Glen Fredrick, directed by Maggie Monahan.

NPTC's Women's Work LAB offers a festival each summer with plays created from scratch in a unique process that begins anew each February. LAB Program Manager Jenny Greeman provided the theme to 2021 members, then resident directors collectively dramaturged the scripts to bring them to production quality over a five-month period. The festival provides the critical development tool of putting scripts on their feet, fully rehearsed in a simple production style. The theme of EMERGENCE was inspired (as all themes have been) by the social and political discourse percolating in the U.S. at the start of a new LAB. The 2021 theme was influenced by a new Democratic Administration and the then hoped for end to the pandemic. As always, each writer found her own take on this theme, and the resulting plays are as unique and diverse as the talented writers who created them.

Program A begins with That's What Happened by Queen Esther, which interweaves the experiences of an African American Capitol police officer and a participant in the January 6th insurrection for a look at the two realities in contemporary America. Rebekah Lopatto's Bad Koreans is set on a college campus and farcically spotlights the dilemma of a group of young women struggling to claim their own identity in the face of cultural dictates from all sides. Jeana Scotti's absurdist Candy Girls tackles the question of workplace sexual harassment through a generational lens and the infestation of the "male gaze" in all aspects of women's lives.

Program B opens with Brittany Johnson by Mehrnaz Tiv, which looks at the ways in which the entertainment industry pigeonholes women from different cultural backgrounds, and one aspiring actor's journey to succeed in spite of the odds. Earthshine by Makaela Shealy-Sachot is a mystical fairytale set in a closed religious community and Anarchy by Mary Glen Fredrick is a highly theatrical romp in a futuristic world where "paying the rent" is truly worse than hell.

The plays are directed by Melody Brooks, Karin Crighton, Lola Lopez Guardone, Maggie Monahan and Dani Ortiz. Rychard Curtiss is the Production Designer.

Tickets: $20; $15/students and seniors w/ID; TDF accepted for select performances; FESTIVAL PASS $30 (both programs): Advance Sale at Eventbrite.

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