Playwrights Foundation and Stanford to Continue 'Rough Readings' with OUR MOTHER'S MEAL

Playwrights Foundation (PF) and the National Center for New Plays at Stanford's 2016/17 Rough Reading Series present early draft readings on February 27 & 28 of OUR MOTHER'S MEAL by Novid Parsi in partnership with Golden Thread Productions.

The readings of OUR MOTHER'S MEAL are on Monday, February 27 2017 at 7:30 PM at Stanford and Tuesday, February 28 2017 at 2:00 PM at Custom Made Theatre in San Francisco.

What's an Iranian mom in East Texas to do? Throughout one long day, while she indefatigably cooks and cooks, her three children traipse back to the family home with their very American attitudes, expectations and conflicts-all foreign to her cultural sensibilities. As the day progresses, she must reckon with an escalating crisis that threatens the foundation of their lives. Straight out of a classical American dramatic genre, Our Mother's Meal retells the American story through a Middle Eastern lens, and in so doing redefines what America truly is.

NOVID PARSI is an Iranian-American writer whose plays have received productions and staged readings in the United States and the United Kingdom by companies including Golden Thread, The New Group, Paines Plough and the Young Vic, among others. He has been a finalist for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival and a semifinalist for the Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference. Novib was born in New York City, grew up in East Texas, and studied literature at Swarthmore College and Duke University. He lives with his husband in Chicago.

Torange Yeghiazarian (Director) writes, directs and acts for the theatre. A native of Iran and of Armenian heritage, Torange holds a Master's degree in Theatre Arts from San Francisco State University . Her play Call Me Mehdi is included in "Salaam/Peace: An Anthology of Middle-Eastern American Playwrights" published by TCG in 2008.Other plays include Waves, Dawn at Midnight, Behind Glass Windows, Abaga. As a teaching artist, Torange has taught playwriting to at-risk youth as part of the Each One Reach One program, incorporated theatre into social studies in Richmond 's Washington Elementary School as part of East Bay Center for Performing Arts' Learning Without Borders program, and led acting and play development workshops for Golden Thread Productions . She is the Artistic Directorof Golden Thread Productions , where she has devoted her professional life to exploring Middle Eastern culture and identity through theatre arts.

Readings take place Mondays at Roble Hall, Stanford University, 374 Santa Teresa St, Stanford at 7:30pm, and Tuesdays at Custom Made Theatre, 533 Sutter Street, San Francisco in the afternoon, at 2pM. Rough Readings are open to the public and always PAY WHAT YOU CAN. RSVP to playwrightsroughreadings.eventbrite.com. For a complete ongoing schedule go to bayareaplaywrightsfestival.org.

"The 2016-2017 Rough Readings Series is an important creative space for writers to dig deep into structure and form, and experiment with new insights outside of the pressures that come from a production, and for audiences, a close-up intimate experience with a new work." remarks Playwrights Foundation Artistic Director Amy Mueller. The series continues monthly December 2016 through May 2017 with seven exceptional new works that are pushing into new theatrical territory, challenging assumptions, and presenting deeply felt dilemmas within our culture and world society. The playwrights include PF Resident Playwrights Jon Bernson & Lisa Ramirez, as well as playwrights Trina Davies, Novid Parsi, and Carlos Murillo. The final two plays of the series will be announced in January.

The Rough Readings Series is produced in partnership with the National Center for New Plays at Stanford, a producing partner of the National New Play Network. Rough Reading Series offers groundbreaking, rising national and local playwrights the rare opportunity to incubate early drafts, which are then performed script-in-hand by some of the Bay Area's top tier professional actors, to accelerate their development, and shine a light on their value, as well as helping to foster a thriving relationship between Stanford University and the greater Bay Area theater community. The series provides theatergoers and professionals alike an intimate opportunity to experience and participate in the early development of a new work, and engage with the playwright. And, importantly, it has positioned uncommon new works to enter the American canon: over the past 10 seasons Playwrights Foundation has launched at least 50 plays from inception to to world premiere productions - recently Lauren Yee's King of the Yees, which is set to premiere at Chicago's Goodman Theatre, and the Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles this season, and Dominique Morisseau's Sunset Baby which premiered off-Broadway, and in Chicago in 2016.

Founded in 1976, Playwrights Foundation is today widely recognized as one of the top playwright development centers in the U.S., and the largest and most comprehensive on the West Coast. We are dedicated to the creative development and career acceleration of contemporary playwrights. We serve emerging and mid-career playwrights, with a special focus on those based in San Francisco Bay Area.

We seek to identify exceptional writers and give them space, time and professional artistic collaborators to explore new theatrical ideas, allowing them to experiment and take risks with structure, form and/or content in an environment that is free from the pressures of the marketplace. Playwrights we have worked with have won every award in the theater including the Pulitzer, the Obie, the National Critics Circle Award, and many more. Over 80% see their work fully produced on regional, national and international stages, including Broadway and London.

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