Profile Theatre To Release Audio Play: CLAUDIA, A VIRAL LOVE STORY

PROFILE THEATRE is premiering Claudia, A Viral Love Story, a 5-episode audio play by 9 astounding writers, known for their work in theatre, film and TV. Each writer was given prompts to create a scene and was asked to hand over their scene to the next writer to build on. Writers Hansol Jung (Wolf Play & Netflix's Tales of the City), Christopher Oscar Peña (Jane The Virgin on CW & HBO's Insecure), Hilary Bettis (72 Miles To Go at Roundabout Theatre & FX's The Americans), and 6 others paint a portrait of life turned upside down by COVID-19. Starring a tiny pangolin contemplating extinction, multi-generations of a Wuhan fish monger, a gay Iranian opera singer, a Honduran migrant at Mar-a-Lago and many more, the script offers a magic realist take on a
global pandemic that is both touching and hilarious.

Directed by Josh Hecht and featuring a mix of local and non-local performers, Claudia, A Love Story, was inspired by Paula Vogel's 'Covid Bakeoff'. Vogel has been teaching playwriting for 30 years, using her signature 'playwriting bake-off': a method for creating new work quickly with a recipe of ingredients, including plots, settings, characters, and other source material. On April 3 she released a 'Covid Bake-Off' using the structure of the classic German play La Ronde and characters from around the globe from Wuhan to Tehran, Milan, and more.

The first episode of the play will be released on June 15 at profiletheatre.org.

The series will be free but listeners are encouraged to donate to Prism Health, a primary care center founded by Cascade AIDS Project (CAP) to help people living with HIV and AIDS.

Profile's Josh Hecht notes: "Paula Vogel's brother Carl died of AIDS in the late 1980s. Paula celebrated him (and plumbed the experience of losing a loved one to a mysterious new illness) in her play The Baltimore Waltz which opened our last season. Since then, she has said she embeds a message to Carl in everything she writes. We dedicated our Community Profile program, which uses the practice of writing and storytelling to build much-needed community with the LGBTQIA+ community and People Living With HIV, to Carl Vogel. Cascade AIDS Project has been a terrific partner to us in spreading the word. It's a pleasure to use this special project to help raise money for their primary healthcare center, Prism Health in Paula and Carl Vogel's names."

Prism Health is a primary care health center in Portland, OR providing compassionate healthcare services to the LGBTQ community and beyond. They offer culturally effective healthcare in a safe, affirming and non-judgmental space. Prism was founded in 2017 by Cascade AIDS Project. (CAP) is the oldest and largest community-based provider of HIV services, housing, education and advocacy in OR and Southwest WA.

In conjunction with the launch of the audio play, Profile will announce the lineup for their next 2020-2021 Generations season that will continue to explore the voices and visions of three generations of American Playwrights: Lynn Nottage, Paula Vogel, and Brenden Jacobs-Jenkins. From Vogel's insights into life in plague times and Jacobs-Jenkins' vivid philosophical reflections on life, death and racial inequality, the season will undoubtedly provide frameworks for thinking (and living) through this complex moment.

ABOUT the writers

Scene 1: Hansol Jung (Wolf Play at Artists Rep, "Tales Of The City" on Netflix)

Scene 2: Hilary Bettis (72 Miles To Go at Roundabout Theatre, "The Americans" on FX)

Scene 3: Dan Kitrosser (GLAAD-winning film "We The Animals," upcoming Svetlana, Svetlana at Bag & Baggage)

Scene 4: Harrison Rivers (GLAAD-winning writer, Where Storms Are Born, Williamstown Theatre Festival)

Scene 5: christopher oscar peña ("Jane The Virgin" on CW, "Insecure" on HBO)

Scene 6: Philip Dawkins (Charm at Northlight Theatre and MCC Theatre)

Scene 7: Jason Grote ("Mad Men" on AMC, 1001 at Denver Center for the Performing Arts)

Scene 8: Em Lewis (Magellanica at Artists Rep)

Scene 9: Anna Ziegler (Photograph 51 on the West End starring Nicole Kidman, Actually at Manhattan Theatre Club, The Geffen Playhouse, Williamstown Theatre Festival)

To post a comment, you must register and login.