New Play from Satirist Alexandra Petri to Open This Summer at The Welders

The Welders-Washington's only playwrights' collective devoted exclusively to developing and producing new work-have launched their seventh production. to tell my story: a hamlet fanfic, by Alexandra Petri, opens July 21, 2017 at the Silver Spring Black Box Theatre.

Lead Producing Playwright Alexandra Petri was recently named by Rolling Stone as "One of 50 Funniest People Right Now" and by Longform as "The Only Op-Ed Columnist You Need Right Now." For her Welders premiere Petri brings her ability to channel the present moment into humor to the stage.

"Being a member of the Welders means I could say, 'Hey, I have a play, it's a modern retelling of Hamlet and the characters are all teenage girls, plus it takes place on the Internet,' and feel fully supported'" says new Lead Producing Playwright Petri. "The Welders give me a chance to bring to the stage a feminist, modern retelling of Shakespeare set in a special world: the world of online fanfiction."

Elsie is your typical high school outcast: a nerd with delusions of grandeur whose only friend is Ophelia and whose sole outlet is writing online stories about her favorite characters from fiction and history. When Elsie discovers her father might have been murdered by her new stepdad, her efforts to solve this mystery come bursting out in her writing - with disastrous consequences. to tell my story is a tale about about a generation who grew up online and learned to be themselves on the internet first and in the real world second.

"The Welders are all about taking back the means of creative production and not waiting for permission to tell stories, and this seemed like a perfect opportunity to create theatre about searching for our own stories in the stories of others and how individuals use popular narratives to make sense of our lives." Petri continues, "It's really a love-letter to the online fan writing community."

Petri's new play takes place on the internet, where she spends most of her professional and personal life. "Getting to use the language of theater to dramatize life online is so so exciting to me - to give these words that are usually only performed in your head an actual theater treatment!"

Following on the heels of Stephen Spotswood's feminist missive The Girl In The Red Corner winner of the 2017 Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play, the production features an all female creative team (E-hui Woo, Danielle Preston, Lauren Chilton, Roni Lancaster) and a female director Megan Behm bringing the online and imaginative worlds to the stage.

to tell my story: a hamlet fanfic is about who gets to tell stories, and The Welders, modeled on a playwright having control over their words and vision, gives it a perfect home.

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IF YOU GO:

to tell my story: a hamlet fanfic

Featuring: Annie Ottati (Elsie), Sarah Taurchini (Ophelia), Chloe Mikala (Horatio), Shravan Amin (Ensemble) and Colin Connor (Ensemble)

With designs by: Lauren Chilton (Properties and Scenic Coordination), Veronica Lancaster (Projection Design and Sound Design), Danielle Preston (Costume Design), E-hui Woo (Lighting Design) and Mary Cat Gill (Stage Management)

July 18 - July 30, 2017
Tues, Wed, and Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m.
Sunday at 2 p.m.
With additional shows Sunday 7/23 at 7:30 p.m., Friday 7/28 at 7:30 p.m. and 10 p.m.
Opening night is Friday, July 21 at 8 p.m.

At The Silver Spring Black Box Theatre, 8641 Colesville Road, Silver Spring, MD 20910

Tickets: www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2952439.
Price and Discounts: $30 General Tickets, $15 for Students and Military Families with ID.

Special Events:

Wednesday, July 26th - FANtastic!
A post-show discussion about fan culture and fan studies. Learn about fan culture basics, then take a deep dive into fan culture with Awesome Con Program Director, Becky Mezzanotte.

Thursdays, July 20 and 27th - Welders' Open House
Arrive early to Thursday performances for an opportunity to meet with members of The Welders. Come learn more about how our unique company "passes it on" and consider applying to be part of the third generation.

Friday, July 28, 2017, 10 p.m. - Cosplay Night
Dress as your favorite character! Take photos, mingle and join the costume parade, and attend the 10 p.m. performance.

We are proud to take part in Playwrights Welcome, which offers available tickets to professional playwrights on the day of a performance, free of charge. Tickets will be available at the venue box office starting one hour before curtain. Playwrights must show their Dramatists Guild card to receive free tickets.

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The Welders, winner of the 2016 John Aniello Award for Outstanding Emerging Theatre Company, is a DC-based playwrights' collective whose mission is to establish an evolving, alternative platform for play development and production. The intent of that platform is to inspire and encourage members to take risks and make bold leaps in exploring the craft of playwriting; produce one performance of work created by each member playwrights before turning the company over to a new collective; create significant, meaningful, direct engagement between artists and members of the community; and support future generations of DC-area playwrights. We produce work that is as varied as the artists making it. We believe that connection to our audiences, our communities, and our fellow artists is an invaluable aspect of the art, and we strongly believe that there is no one way to produce, no one way to create, and no one way to experience theater. Visit www.thewelders.org for more.

Lead Producing Playwright Alexandra Petri is always writing. She is author of numerous plays, including Never Never (Barabbas Theatre Company), The Campsite Rule (Washington Rogues, Page to Stage), Rare Medium Well Done (Active Cultures), Hookups (Pandora's Box Productions, Santa Ana), One Room Over (Rising Sun Performance Company, NYC), Tragedy Averted (Capital Fringe 2013), Miss Emma's Matchmaking Agency for Literary Characters (Capital Fringe 2014), What Fresh Hell (Active Cultures Theater), Young Republicans (Capital Fringe 2012) and Treetop Idol (Prince George's County Department of Parks and Recreation Teen Performance Ensemble). As an undergraduate she wrote two shows as a member of the first all-female writing team for Harvard's Hasty Pudding Theatricals. Her plays have taken her from New York to Cambridge to Santa Ana to Bermuda to several elementary schools that seemed confused that she was there. She writes a daily blog and weekly columns for the Washington Post. Her essay collection "A Field Guide to Awkward Silences" is available from Penguin. Alexandra is a member of the BMI workshop currently working (with Jack Mitchell) on a musical adaptation of P. G. Wodehouse's "A Damsel In Distress" and "Young Romantics" (with Sam Linden) a rock musical about Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, & co.

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