People's Light Showcases Local Region with 'Community Matters' New Play Series

Community Matters is a series of free events presented in partnership between People's Light and numerous local organizations to spark dialogue about vital issues in our community. Performed readings of new plays are the centerpiece of each evening. They are followed by a discussion with the artists, community partners, and special guests.

The 2015 series will feature the first drafts of new plays written as part of the theatre's New Play Frontiers program. New Play Frontiers is an initiative that brings leading American playwrights to People's Light to write new work that explores our American identity through stories of deep meaning to nearby populations. Readings will feature People's Light company members and numerous guests including Laura Gómez (Orange is the New Black), Raúl Castillo (HBO's Looking), and Bobby Moreno (Year of the Rooster).

New Play Frontiers is supported by the Barra Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts, and was launched in 2012 with a grant from the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.

ABOUT THE PLAYS:

UNTITLED MUSHROOM PLAY (Kennett Square)

By Eisa Davis

Directed by Seema Sueko

Saturday, August 8, 2015 at 2 pm

Steinbright Stage

"This play centers on Latino life in and around Kennett Square. It is an examination of relationships between a wide variety of characters dreaming of their futures and trying to repair harms from their very recent past." - Eisa Davis

PROJECT DAWN

By Karen Hartman

Directed by Chay Yew

Monday, August 10, 2015 at 7 pm

Steinbright Stage

"I started with the idea of the Underground Railroad. I wanted to know how a person transitions from legal property to a free human being. What happens in a safe house? As a contemporary equivalent, I met with the founders of Dawn's Place, a home for survivors of the commercial sex trade. This led me to the Project Dawn Court, which serves women with prostitution convictions. Project Dawn differs from a conventional court by offering mandated therapy and trauma counseling, consistency of parole officers and other supervisory staff, and assistance with survival needs, but operates within the court system. If a woman completes the year-long program, her charges are dropped. If she fails, she does time. I sat in on that monthly court all year. I spoke with participants and with staff members. It was a humbling, deeply moving, sometimes excruciating line of inquiry, with surprisingly frequent comic moments. In this play seven actresses play double roles, each as a participant and a staff member of the court. Seven faces, fourteen women, navigating safety, connection, confinement, and freedom." - Karen Hartman

For this reading, we invite audience members to bring and donate unopened trial size toiletry items (shampoo, toothpaste, lotions, etc.) for the women of the Project Dawn Court.

Panelists include Mary DeFusco, Esq., Defender Association of Philadelphia; Shea M. Rhodes, Esquire; and Sister Terry Shields, President, Dawn's Place.

INVASIVE SPECIES (A Garden Plot)

By Kathryn Petersen

Directed by Ed Sobel

Monday, August 17, 2015 at 7 pm

Steinbright Stage

"I worked at two food pantries that received donations from The Chester County Food Bank, which led me to a Saturday drop point for fresh produce at the local community garden. This led me to other community gardens. The ethnically and economically diverse backgrounds of the individuals cultivating their raised beds as well as the history of the landscape of the Great Valley drew me in. I spoke with many gardeners and invested observers. I also visited when no one was around and walked the paths and looked at the plots and imagined. I peered through fences. I thought of insiders and outsiders. I thought of what challenges arise, what dirt gets uncovered, when people try to create a paradise."
- Kathryn Petersen

All readings are FREE, but reservations are requested. To reserve, call 610.644.3500 or visit PeoplesLight.org.

BIOS:

Eisa Davis is an actor, playwright, and singer-songwriter. In 2012, she was the Herb Alpert Award winner in Theatre. Also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for her play Bulrusher, published by Samuel French, she wrote and starred in Angela's Mixtape, named a best of 2009 by The New Yorker. Her work has been developed by the Hip Hop Theater Festival, New York Theater Workshop, New York Stage and Film, the New Group, Soho Rep, the Flea, Rattlestick, the Cherry Lane, Portland Center Stage, Hartford Stage, Cleveland Playhouse, Seattle Rep, Yale University, Nuyorican Poets Café, the Schomburg Center for Black Research, and the Culture Project, among others. Eisa's writing has been published in American Theatre, The Source, To Be Real, Everything But The Burden, Step Into A World, Role Call, and Total Chaos. Other plays include Ramp (Ruby Prize winner), The History of Light (Barrymore nomination), Paper Armor, Umkovu, Six Minutes, Warriors Don't Cry, and collaborations with Active Ingredients and Hip Hop Anansi. She was a resident playwright at New Dramatists, where she won the Helen Merrill Award, and the Whitfield Cook Award, among others. She has received fellowships from Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, Cave Canem, and the Van Lier and Mellon Foundations. As an actor, recent theatre work includes the world premiere of Melissa James Gibson's This, and her Obie Award-winning performance in the Broadway rock musical Passing Strange, now a film directed by Spike Lee.

Karen Hartman held the Playwright Center's 2014-15 McKnight Residency and Commission for a nationally recognized playwright. Current and upcoming work includes Roz and Ray (developed at Playwrights Center, Seattle Rep, Hedgebrook), The Book of Joseph (Chicago Shakespeare Theater), Project Dawn, in workshop at People's Light, and a Yale Repertory Theater commission about the landmark Supreme Court case Ricci vs DeStefano. Her new dialogue for Mozart's The Magic Flute appeared in Pacific Music Works' production at the Meany Center in Seattle, 2015. Hartman's Goldie, Max, and Milk premiered at Florida Stage and the Phoenix Theater, nominated for the Steinberg and Carbonell Awards. Other works: Goliath (Dorothy Silver New Play Prize), Gum, Leah's Train, Going Gone (N.E.A. New Play Grant); Girl Under Grain (Best Drama in NY Fringe); Wild Kate, ALICE: Tales of a Curious Girl (Music by Gina Leishman, AT&T Onstage Award); Troy Women; Donna Wants; Sea Change, score by AnnMarie Milazzo; and MotherBone, score by Graham Reynolds (Frederick Loewe Award). New York: Women's Project, National Asian American Theatre Company, P73, the New York Fringe (Best Drama), and Summer Play Festival. Regional: Center Stage, Cincinnati Playhouse, Dallas Theater Center, the Magic, and elsewhere. Publications: Theater Communications Group, Dramatists Play Service, Playscripts, Backstage Books, and NoPassport Press. Awards: Sustainable Arts Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation at Bellagio, the N.E.A., the Helen Merrill Foundation, Daryl Roth "Creative Spirit" Award, Hodder Fellowship, Jerome Fellowship, Fulbright Scholarship. An alumna of New Dramatists and longtime Brooklynite, Karen is now Senior Artist in Residence at the University of Washington. Her prose is published in the New York Times and The Washington Post.

Kathryn Petersen is a playwright, actress and teacher residing near Philadelphia. A member of the Dramatist's Guild, she's had two plays published (with Playscripts and Dramatic Publishing) and eleven plays produced, including four Pantos penned in collaboration with composer/lyricist Michael Ogborn: Cinderella (2008, rev. 2013), Treasure Island (2007, rev. 2011), Snow White in Follywood (2009), and The Three Musketeers: The Later Years (2010). Cinderella, when it was first produced in 2008, garnered 13 Barrymore Award nominations including Best New Play and Best Musical (which it won.) Her play, Arthur's Stone, Merlin's Fire (2003) has been produced by schools and theaters around the country. Her Chrysalis Project, in collaboration with scenic designer Tony Straiges, was a finalist in the Independence Foundation New Theatre Works Initiative and she is one of six playwrights chosen to be part of New Play Frontiers at People's Light. Currently, she's at work on a new play, The Executrix. As a professional actress, she is a member of the Actors' Equity Association and has acted in over seventy productions regionally. Ms. Petersen is a company member at People's Light and an Associate Professor of Theater at Arcadia University in Glenside, PA. For more information, check out www.kathrynpetersen.com.

Edward Sobel's recent Philadelphia directing credits include the world premieres of Moon Man Walk and The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington (both by James Ijames) and productions of Superior Donuts, Clybourne Park and Endgame (all at the Arden). Other directing credits include Huck Finn, The Chosen and A Lesson Before Dying at Steppenwolf Theatre Company; the world premieres of Cadillac (five Joseph Jefferson Award nominations including best director) at Chicago Dramatists and Weapon of Mass Impact at A Red Orchid. Ed served on the artistic staffs of Steppenwolf, the Arden, Delaware Theatre Company and as Artistic Director of the Playwrights Center of Chicago. At Steppenwolf he oversaw the development of over 40 new plays into production, including: Pulitzer and Tony Award winner August: Osage County, Pulitzer finalists Red Light Winter and Man from Nebraska, and Joseph Jefferson Award winner The Pain and the Itch. He also created and was the director of the First Look Repertory of New Work, for which he received the Elliott Hayes Award from the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas for outstanding contribution to the field. Broadway credits as dramaturg include August: Osage County and Superior Donuts. He holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and an MFA in directing from Northwestern. He is currently the Head of Directing and Playwriting at Temple University.

Seema Sueko is the Associate Artistic Director of The Pasadena Playhouse, a position she's held since January 2014. Prior, she was the Executive Artistic Director of Mo`olelo Performing Arts Company, an Equity company she co-founded in San Diego, and Visiting Artistic Associate at Arena Stage in Washington, DC. Directing and acting credits include: The Pasadena Playhouse, Mo`olelo, The Old Globe, Yale Repertory, 5th Avenue Theatre, Indiana Repertory, San Diego Repertory, and Native Voices. As a playwright, she has been commissioned by Mixed Blood in Minneapolis and CENTERSTAGE in Baltimore. Seema was named by American Theatre magazine as one of 25 theatre artists nationwide who will have a significant impact on the field over the next quarter century. Born in Pakistan and raised in Hawaii, she holds an M.A. in International Relations from the University of Chicago.

Chay Yew's production credits include the Public Theater, Playwrights Horizons, New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Realm, Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Kennedy Center, Mark Taper Forum, Goodman Theatre, American Conservatory Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theater, Denver Theatre Center, Huntington Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Cincinnati Playhouse, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Northlight Theatre, Empty Space, Roundhouse Theatre, Portland Center Stage, Cornerstone Theatre, Geva Theater Center, East West Players, Singapore Repertory Theatre, amongst others. His opera credits include the world premieres of Osvaldo Golijov and David Henry Hwang's Ainadamar (co-production with Tanglewood Music Center, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and Los Angeles Philharmonic) and Rob Zuidam's Rage D'Amors (Tanglewood). He recently edited a new anthology of Asian American plays, Version 3.0, for TCG Publications. He is a recipient of the OBIE Award and Dramalogue Award for Direction. An award-winning playwright and an alumnus of New Dramatists, he serves on the Executive Board on the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers. He recently directed the world premiere of Marcus Gardley's An Issue of Blood. Upcoming projects include the world premieres of Lucas Hnath's Hillary and Clinton and Brian Quijada's Where Did We Sit on the Bus?, and Gardley's The House That Will Not Stand. He is the Artistic Director of Victory Gardens in Chicago.

Now in its 40th season, People's Light, a professional, not-for-profit theatre in Chester County, Pennsylvania, makes plays drawn from many sources to entertain, inspire, and engage our community. We extend our mission of making and experiencing theatre through arts education programs that excite curiosity about, and deepen understanding of, the world around us. These plays and programs bring people together and provide opportunities for reflection, discovery, and celebration. Founded in 1974, we produce eight to nine plays each season, in two black box theatres with 340 and 160 seats respectively, mixing world premieres, contemporary plays, and fresh approaches to classic texts for our 7-Play, Discovery, and Teen Series.

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