The 81st NNPN Rolling World Premiere, NOMAD MOTEL By Carla Ching Concludes Its Roll At Unicorn Theatre

National New Play Network, the country's alliance of nonprofit theaters that collaborate in innovative ways to develop, produce, and extend the life of new plays, celebrates the final stop of its 81st Rolling World Premiere (RWP): Unicorn Theatre's production of Nomad Motel by Carla Ching. The Roll began at City Theatre Company, continued to Horizon Theatre Company and will run at Unicorn Theatre from January 23 to February 27, 2019 in Kansas City, MO. Nomad Motel was presented at NNPN's 2016 National Showcase of New Plays, hosted by the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Texas at Austin.

An NNPN Rolling World Premiere (RWP) models a process for developing and producing new plays that results in stronger work and the momentum needed for a play to join the repertoire of frequently produced new American works. Each Rolling World Premiere connects three or more NNPN Member Theaters that choose to mount the same new play within a 12-month period, allowing the playwright to develop the work with a new creative team in each theater's community. To date, NNPN has championed RWPs with over one million dollars in financial support. Alumni plays have received hundreds of subsequent productions, recognition in markets across the world, been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, won Steinberg/ATCA, Stavis, PEN and Blackburn awards, and been adapted into feature films.

Alix lives in a tiny motel room with her mother and two brothers, scrabbling to make weekly rent. Mason lives comfortably in a grand, empty house while his father runs jobs for the Hong Kong Triad. Until the day his father disappears and Mason has to figure out how to come up with grocery money and dodge Child Services and the INS. Mason and Alex develop an unlikely friendship, struggling to survive, and trying to outrun the mistakes of their parents. Will they make it out or fall through the cracks? A play about Motel Kids and Parachute Kids raising themselves and living at the poverty line in a land of plenty.

Nomad Motel, originally commissioned and developed by South Coast Repertory with support from the Time Warner Foundation, was developed during a residency at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Playwrights Conference in 2015. Preston Whiteway, Executive Director; Wendy C. Goldberg, Artistic Director.

An LA native, Carla stumbled upon NY-based pan-Asian performance collective Peeling at the Asian American Writers Workshop and wrote and performed with them for three years, which she still considers her first theater training. Her plays include Nomad Motel (NNPN Rolling World Premiere at City Theatre, Horizon Theatre, Unicorn Theatre; forthcoming at The Atlantic Theatre Company), Fast Company (South Coast Rep, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Lyric Stage and Pork Filled Productions; winner of the Edgerton New American Play Award), The Two Kids That Blow Shit Up (Artists at Play, Mu Performing Arts, Aurora Theatre Company and Midnight Rice with Theater Off Jackson), TBA (2g) and The Sugar House at the Edge of the Wilderness (Ma-Yi Theater Company). Her work has been developed at the O'Neill Playwright Conference, Berkeley Rep's Ground Floor, Huntington Theatre Company's Breaking Ground, the NNPN Showcase of New Plays, The Women's Project Lab, The Lark Play Development Center's Writers Workshop and Meeting of the Minds, the CTG Writers' Workshop and the Ma-Yi Writers Lab. Former Artistic Director of Asian American Theater Company, 2g. TBA is published in Out of Time and Place. Fast Company is published by Samuel French. Toulmin Commission from The Atlantic Theater Company. BA, Vassar College. MFA, New School for Drama. Proud member of New Dramatists and founding member of The Kilroys. On television, Carla has written on Graceland, Fear the Walking Dead, I Love Dick, The First and Preacher.