PCPA InterPlay Returns With Four New Play Readings

PCPA brings back InterPlay readings from February 26 through March 20 - with four new plays, each being read twice over the course of four weekends. The readings are all live streamed via Zoom. The series includes The Mountaintop, Into the Breeches!, Two Degrees, and Fade. Performances are 7pm Fridays and 1:30pm on Saturdays. $10 per viewer or $40 for all four. A special $100 VIP pass includes all four play readings plus a special event with the authors of the plays on Thursday, February 18 at 7pm which includes a $60 donation to #PCPAStrong.

Literary Associate Emily Trask said that she is eager to share these wonderful new plays with our audiences. "I'm thrilled that, by popular demand, our InterPlay series will be returning to PCPA this spring. We will be introducing four more 'fresh' plays, by four fantastic, diverse, and exciting playwrights, to the Central Coast - where we cultivate not just great agriculture but also great art!"

In celebration of Black History Month, The Mountaintop by Katori Hall will be playing Friday, February 26 and Saturday, February 27. The action takes place in the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee on April 3, 1968. It will be the last night Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. will spend on earth. He had earlier in the day delivered his famous "I've been to the mountaintop" speech. Dr. King's interaction with the motel maid delivers more than room service in this reimagined final night of the civil rights leader. Directed by Keith Arthur Bolden, the cast includes Yusef Seevers as Martin Luther King Jr. and Assata Amankeechi as Camae. The reader is Lewis Powell.

Up next, the hilarious Into the Breeches! by George Brant is playing Friday, March 5 and Saturday, March 6. It's WWII. All the male actors and director of the Oberon Playhouse are off fighting the war, and the theatre sits dark. That is until, an unexpected troupe of players assemble to bring an all-female cast together to produce Shakespeare's Henriad. Into the Breeches! is a moving celebration of collaboration, female fortitude, friendship, and a timely reminder of the healing power of live theatre. The cast includes PCPA Resident Artists Erik Stein, Emily Trask, Don Stewart, Kitty Balay, Polly Firestone Walker, Katie Fuchs-Wackowski, and the reader is George Walker, along with guest artists, under the direction of Andrew Philpot.

The third presentation introduces Emma Phelps, a paleo climatologist who researches ice core samples in Greenland. As sees first-hand, the symptoms of our changing climate, her grief over the loss of her husband has left her personally frozen. Tira Palmquist's Two Degrees layers science, politics, and the deeply personal, in a landscape that is relevant in our current political climate and literal climate. The cast, under the direction of Roger DeLaurier includes Kitty Balay, Polly Firestone Walker, Andrew Philpot, Yusef Seevers, and reader George Walker. Two Degrees will be performed live on Friday, March 12 and Saturday March 13.

This spring's InterPlay series concludes with Fade by Tanya Saracho. A story that balances diversity, class, and culture in a bitter-sweet comedy. Lucia has landed a writing job for a major TV show. But, her "token" position as the "diversity hire" backs her into a corner and shakes her confidence. As she comes out of her shell, after befriending the Latino janitor, her credibility and status among the Hollywood elite builds, but ultimately raises the question of "who gets to tell your story?" Fade plays Friday, March 19 and Saturday, March 20. It's directed by Christian Arteaga and features guests Carolina Morones as Lucia and Stefan Espinosa as Abel, the reader is Leo Cortez.

For more information and to purchase tickets visit www.pcpa.org/interplay/.

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