PlayPenn Announces Spring 2017 Mini-Conference of New Plays

PlayPenn, the Philadelphia-based organization dedicated to the development and nurturing of new plays and playwrights, is partnering with Repertory Theatre of St. Louis and Contemporary American Theatre Festival to present workshops of two new works by acclaimed writers Mickey Fisher (creator of CBS's EXTANT with Halle Berry) and Kara Lee Corthron.

The PlayPenn Mini-Conference, which features Fisher's Replica and Corthron's Welcome to Fear City, will have public readings at Drexel's URBN Center Black Box on March 19 and March 20.

"PlayPenn's week-long workshops with producing theatres are intended to advance a new play before its hits the stage, and our track record demonstrates the impact of our work," said PlayPenn's Artistic Director Paul Meshejian. "All four of the plays developed in this program have subsequently been produced, including last year's Barrymore Award winning Best New Play. This year, we are thrilled to support Repertory Theatre of St. Louis and Contemporary American Theatre Festival to develop work by Mickey Fisher and Kara Lee Corthron, respectively, and for the first time, offer these workshops concurrently in a 'mini-Conference' of free readings for Philadelphia audiences, whose response will ultimately help shape these plays into what theatregoers across the country will see."

Replica, by Fisher, tells the story of a terminally ill woman who volunteers for an experimental procedure that would allow her memories and personality to live on in a perfect biological clone. As she and her "replica" undergo a series of tests to determine the success of the procedure, she uncovers startling revelations about her life and inevitable death. Replica is a sci-fi thriller that tackles the complex moral and ethical questions we may soon be facing and asks the fundamental question: "What does it mean to be human?"

Corthron describes Welcome to Fear City as follows: It is July 1977 and the South Bronx is HOT: from a heat wave, from this new thing that would come to be known as "hip-hop," and from an astounding number of fires burning the borough to the ground. E, a young African-American man, dreams of being a poet, but unemployment, a raging fiscal crisis, and a family on the brink of disaster drive him to ask a dangerous question: Can you love your 'hood if you take part in its destruction? Welcome to Fear City is about a community trying to get by in the midst of crime, social apathy, poverty, and a whole new art form that's about to electrify the world.

Both works will be presented in free readings on March 19 (Replica) and March 20 (Welcome to Fear City) at the URBN Center Black Box Theatre at Drexel University (3401 Filbert Street, Philadelphia, PA). Tickets to the readings will be made available to the public starting March 1 via PlayPenn's website, playpenn.org. Donor Priority Access reservations, for PlayPenn donors making annual gifts of $175 or more, will be accepted beginning 10 days prior.

Complete details on the mini-conference, including writers' bios, are available below.

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Replica by Mickey Fisher

Mickey Fisher is the creator of the CBS television series EXTANT, starring Halle Berry and Executive Produced by Steven Spielberg. After attending the University of Cincinnati's College Conservatory of Music for Musical Theater, Mickey began working as a writer/actor/director for stock and regional theaters like Jenny Wiley Theatre in Kentucky and Wagon Wheel Theatre in Indiana. After several years writing and producing original theatrical works in New York he made his first feature film THE KING OF IRON TOWN. After a few more micro-budget features he made his way to Los Angeles where he sold his pilot for EXTANT, which ran for two seasons. He was a writer on the series MARS for NatGeo and is currently writing for THE STRAIN on FX.

Associate Producers: Gayle and David Smith. Director: Seth Gordon. Seth Gordon is the Associate Artistic Director of Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. Dramaturg: Michele Volansky.

Reading Date: Sunday, March 19, 2017 at 7:30 pm

Reading Location: URBN Center Black Box Theatre at Drexel University, 3401 Filbert Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104.

Replica is being developed in cooperation with Repertory Theatre of St. Louis

Reading Cast: Tom Teti (Avalon); Kim Carson (Harper) and Molly Ward (Replica)

Welcome to Fear City by Kara Lee Corthron

Kara Lee Corthron's plays include AliceGraceAnon (New Georges), Holly Down in Heaven (Forum Theatre, DC), Listen for the Light (Know Theatre, Cincinnati 2017), Etched in Skin on a Sunlit Night (PlayPenn, InterAct, Philadelphia), and Welcome to Fear City (Kilroys 2016). She's the author of the young-adult novel, The Truth of Right Now, Simon & Schuster 2017. Awards: proud member of New Dramatists, 2012-2014 Women's Project Time-Warner Fellowship, Vineyard Theatre's Paula Vogel Playwriting Award, Princess Grace Award, two NEA grants, Helen Merrill Award, Lincoln Center's Lecomte du Nouy Prize (three-time recipient), four MacDowell fellowships, residencies at Bogliasco Foundation (Italy), Skriðuklaustur (Iceland), Hawthornden (Scotland), and the Millay Colony. TV: NBC's Kings (2008-2009). Juilliard alumna.

Director: Elena Araoz. Dramaturg: Michele Volansky

Reading Date: Monday, March 20, 2017 at 7:30 pm

Reading Location: URBN Center Black Box Theatre at Drexel University, 3401 Filbert Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104

Welcome to Fear City is being developed in cooperation with Contemporary American Theater Festival

Reading Cast: Aaron Bell (E); Abdul Sesay (Cheky); Taysha Canales (Neesy); Kimberly Fairbanks (Wanda); Brandon Pierce (Jacques/Vagrant/Benji); and Lindsay Smiling (Rat/Boss/Man)

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PlayPenn is a 12-year old artist-driven organization dedicated to improving the way in which new plays are developed, inviting playwrights to engage in risk-taking, boundary-pushing work free from the pressures of commercial consideration. The organization's flagship annual new play development Conference and year-round development workshops in cooperation with producing theatres result in staged readings of at least 10 new plays each year for over 1,800 artists, producers, and theatergoers. Additionally, PlayPenn's rapidly expanding educational programs-which include 15-17 in-person and online classes annually with notable instructors, application assistance, personalized dramaturgy services, plus The Foundry, a three-year membership group for emerging playwrights resident in Philadelphia-serve another 230+ playwrights from the region and across the nation. PlayPenn supports artists at all career stages across a broad spectrum of cultural, economic, ethnic, and gender experience. Since 2005, PlayPenn has helped to develop over 100 new plays from infancy to a state closer to production-readiness. Nearly 60% of these plays have gone on to more than 275 professional productions at esteemed institutions in the United States, Great Britain, and elsewhere around the world, including the London's National Theatre, National Theatre of Israel, English Theatre Berlin, Roundabout Theatre, Lincoln Center Theatre, Atlantic Theatre, Second Stage, Actors Theatre of Louisville, LaJolla Playhouse, Denver Center Theatre, South Coast Repertory, and a host of theatres in the Philadelphia region, in cities across the country and around the world. In 2017, PlayPenn will celebrate the first of its developed plays to hit a Broadway stage-JT Rogers' Oslo at the Vivian Beaumont Theater.

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