PLAYSONOS Digital Audio Festival Announced At Columbia University

Columbia University School of the Arts, with support from the Center for Teaching and Learning at Columbia University, will present PLAYSONOS, a digital audio festival featuring work from Theatre Program MFA Playwrights.

Produced by Head of Playwriting David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly, Soft Power) and Theatre Management and Producing students Sean Anthony Chia and Anabel Manuela Romero, the festival was conceived by Playwriting alumna Paola Alexandra Soto '20 and student Goldie E. Patrick to empower students to create theatre that goes beyond the proscenium. The festival provides each playwright, actor, and director a platform to play within a digital theatrical environment that was rediscovered during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Student Alison Savino serves as the Associate Producer and Production Stage Manager, with student Jonah Yoder as Assistant Stage Manager.

The festival features new work from Blake Bonilla*, Justin Aaron Halle*, Samuel Kressner*, Julián Mesri (Playwriting '20), Alle Mims*, Martin Murray (Playwriting '20), Greg T. Nanni*, Goldie E. Patrick*, Daniel Rattner (Playwriting '20), Paola Alexandra Soto (Playwriting '20). It stars performers Alle Mims, Mazvita Chanakira*, Savannah Hankinson, Kenneth Ray, Katherine George*, Daphne Kinard*, Gillian Abbot*, Brigitte Thieme-Burdette*, Jose Antonio Melian, Sean Anthony Chia*, Sarah Musicant, Anna Dresdale, David Mandelbaum, Amy Coleman, Dara Epstein, Adebowalé Adebiyi*, Anita Abdinezhad*, Christopher Cassarino, Victoria Pero, Amanda Whiteley, and Jesse Montagna with Direction from Andrew Freeburg*, Daniel Rattner, April Dae Opkwae, Rebecca Miller Kratzer*, Julián Mesri, Dmitri Barcomi*, Brysen Boyd (Creative Writing '20), Spencer Whale*, and Laura Dupper*.

*Current MFA Theatre Student.

Original music for this festival was created by Juilliard Composers Horacio Fernandez and SiHyun Uhm, with an original PLAYSONOS theme by SiHyun Uhm.

This production was recorded and edited by FiveOhm.

One audio play will be released each day from NOVEMBER 8-17, 2021 HERE: www.playsonos.arts.columbia.edu

DAY 1: BO + LI by Paola Alexandra Soto

A short audio play adaptation of the play Boseman and Leena by Athol Fugard rather than taking place in South Africa in the twentieth century, this piece is set in what remains of America after the world has been ravaged by the climate crisis. When the world ends, what will survive?

DAY 2: SARASOTA, FLA. by Martin Murray

Well, the bad news is that vampires are real. Oh, and they have magic powers. And they live all over the place. Even in Florida.

DAY 3: ROADKILL by Sam Kressner

On a bitter cold night, Bernadette sits on the side of the road with her engine running.

DAY 4: QUEEN OF THE MIST by Daniel Irving Rattner

It's 1901 and Annie Edson Taylor is about to become the first person to survive a trip over Niagara Falls (hopefully). She climbs into her barrel, shuts the lid and... waits. She had prepared herself for the fall, but not for all this waiting. Alone with her thoughts, Annie's mind races as she heads inescapably down river, towards either fame and fortune or certain death.

DAY 5: BBC AMERICA: AUGUST CORONAVIRUS REPORT WITH AMELIA WILKINSON by Alle Mims

Welcome to BBC America. I'm your host, Amelia Wilkinson. Today we will be doing a special coronavirus report for the month of August. Some of the statistics in this broadcast may be disturbing to those of us with universal healthcare. Listener discretion is advised. Stayed tuned to the end of the program for a special call to action for Americans.

DAY 6: FALSE 9 by Julián Mesri

A father and son share a soccer match under quarantine.

DAY 7: MICHAEL INSIDE by Blake Bonilla

While being watched over by his reckless sister-in-law, Michael, an incapacitated cancer patient fights with himself and his subconscious to save his life and his family's financial security.

*This is an immersive audio play that must be experienced with headphones in order to experience the main character's perspective.

DAY 8: MACHT FREI by Justin Aaron Halle

Veering between Dachau concentration camp in 1943 and New York City in 2020, Macht Frei explores the blood memory of inherited Jewish trauma, intergenerational disconnect, and all the things history has failed to teach us-despite its violent insistence on repeating itself.

DAY 9: SUNGLASSES BY THE SEA by Greg T. Nanni

Two women, by the sea, wearing sunglasses. One wants to prepare for the inevitable waterpocalypse. One just wants to live life to the fullest. And the sea gets closer, hungry for sunglasses.

DAY 10: VOTE LIKE A BLACK WOMXN by Goldie E. Patrick

In all her work with galvanizing voters to register in the upcoming election, Tasha never considered her biggest challenge would be so familiar. Is she looking for more than she's asking on the other end when it's a former lover who she's randomly assigned to call? What will it take for her to feel like all of her efforts and sacrifices haven't been in vain?

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