WP Theater Has Announced 2020 Lineup for PIPELINE FESTIVAL

WP Theater, under the leadership of Producing Artistic Director Lisa McNulty and Managing Director Michael Sag, has announced the 2020 lineup for The Pipeline Festival, the third biennial showcase of its celebrated WP Lab residency for playwrights, directors and producers. Running from March 26 - April 25, 2020 at WP Theater (2162 Broadway, at 76th Street), the festival is the culmination of the renowned two-year WP Lab residency, providing a unique opportunity for audiences to see five new plays - in various stages of development, ranging from staged readings to full-length workshop productions - presented over a span of five weeks.

The Festival, true to its name, serves as a pipeline to funnel the work of talented women+ artists to the forefront of American theater. Each play is created and produced by collaborative writer/director/producer teams from the WP Lab residency program.

The 2018-2020 WP Lab artists are:

PLAYWRIGHTS: Vanessa Garcia, Sukari Jones, Christina Quintana (CQ), Charly Evon Simpson, and Bryna Turner

DIRECTORS: Victoria Collado, Sarah Hughes, Candis C. Jones, Rebecca Martínez, and Arpita Mukherjee

PRODUCERS: Ilana Becker, Marie Cisco, Lucy Jackson, Stephanie Rolland, and Alyssa Simmons.

The WP Playwrights Lab is co-led by WP Producing Artistic Director Lisa McNulty and WP Artistic Producer Rachel Karpf; the Directors Lab is led by Tony Award-nominated director Leigh Silverman and WP Associate Artistic Director Tamilla Woodard; and the Producers Lab is led by Tony Award-winning producer Sally Cade Holmes, with support from Stephanie Ybarra (Artistic Director, Baltimore Center Stage) and Roberta Pereira (Producing Director, The Playwrights Realm).

Previous Festival works have included 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama recipient Martyna Majok's queens (subsequently produced in Lincoln Center Theater's 2017-18 Season), Sarah Burgess' Kings (The Public Theater's 2017-2018 season), Sylvia Khoury's Power Strip (Lincoln Center Theater's 2018-19 Season), and 2018 Jonathan Larson Grant recipients Zoe Sarnak and Emily Kaczmarek's Afloat.

Tickets for The Pipeline Festival are now on sale via WWW.WPTHEATER.ORG/ 888.811.4111. Festival passes are available for $60. The performance schedule is as follows: Thursday at 7:00pm, Friday at 3:00pm & 8:00pm, and Saturday at 8:00pm.

WEEK 1: MARCH 26 - 28

PHASES OF THE MOON

Playwright: Bryna Turner

Director: Rebecca Martínez

Producer: Stephanie Rolland

Before she mastered the art of losing, the poet Elizabeth Bishop was a socialist vegetarian in a peacoat at Vassar College during the Great Depression. Following "Bishie" and her friends over a single lunar cycle during their senior year, Phases of the Moon begins with a ritual gone awry and asks us to consider what's real under all the pretending.

WEEK 2: APRIL 2 - 4

SANDBLASTED

Playwright: Charly Evon Simpson

Director: Victoria Collado

Producer: Ilana Becker

Angela and Odessa are struggling for survival in a dark present that's being overtaken by an epidemic affecting only black women. A fabulous wellness celebrity emerges as one who could guide them-if only they trust her and follow her into the shifting sands. Will they find a cure? Can a cure even be found? sandblasted is by turns poetic and absurd; a story of waiting and hoping, and of the meaning of touch.

WEEK 3: APRIL 9 - 11

TOBIAS: A NOVEL IN PERFORMANCE

Playwright: Christina Quintana (CQ)

Director: Arpita Mukherjee

Producer: Marie Cisco

Tobias was a real person; far more than just a footnote in one of North America's earliest-known scandals. TOBIAS: A Novel in Performance is a hybrid theatrical experience, melding the forms of narrative-fiction and playwriting to explore a distinct connection across three backgrounds: Mohawk, African, and Dutch. Tobias, as narrator, leads the audience though a gripping examination of the often-complicated lines between power, sex, and love: both then and now.

WEEK 4: APRIL 16 - 18

GRACE, SPONSORED BY MONTEVERDE

Playwright: Vanessa Garcia

Director: Sarah Hughes

Producer: Alyssa Simmons

Catherine is searching for something authentic. Frustrated by her life's direction and haunted by her annoying ex-husband, she embarks with her f*ckbuddy, Lewis, on a Lewis-and-Clark-esque trip across America sponsored by Monteverde Moonshine. But as Catherine travels the country, posting photos and interviews of people she meets-an immigrant worker, a wayward nun, a queer homeschooled teen-she inadvertently raises more questions than answers: about "the real America," about her own identity, and about what "authenticity" even means anymore #ManifestYourDestiny #GraceSponsoredByMonteverde #DrinkandRideResponsibly

WEEK 5: APRIL 23 - 25

MY BABY

Playwright: Sukari Jones

Director: Candis C. Jones

Producer: Lucy Jackson

Estelle discovers she cannot be a bone marrow donor for her mother Gladys, who has been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. Meanwhile, Tinesha is tirelessly searching the universe for her stolen baby. A complicated family drama about mothers, daughters, and the cosmic quests we undertake for the ones we love.

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