Brooklyn College to present acclaimed playwrights
The Brooklyn College Department of Theater will present its inaugural New Works Brooklyn festival from June 25 to 29. The series will feature staged readings of one-act plays written by Kia Corthron, Erin Courtney, José Rivera, Anne Washburn and Mac Wellman, all of whom will take part in audience talkbacks during the week. In addition, Rivera will be directing his own piece. Additionally, Corthron, Courtney, Washburn and Wellman will take part in a panel discussion on the development of new plays on the closing day of the festival.
Five groundbreaking one-acts will be presented: “Megastasis” by Kia Corthron, directed by Elena Araoz; “The Last Book of Homer,” written and directed by José Rivera; “I Will Be Gone” by Erin Courtney, directed by Mary Beth Easley; “The Small” by Anne Washburn, directed by Benjamin Kamine; and “The Offending Gesture” by Mac Wellman, directed by Meghan Finn. Each of the readings will be curated by current and former students of the Department of Theater.
Kia Corthron’s explosive works for the theater include “Breath, Boom,” “Force Continuum,” “Light Raise the Roof,” “Urban Zulu Mambo” and “A Cool Dip in the Barren Saharan Crick.” They have premiered at the Atlantic Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, Signature Theatre, the Goodman Theatre, the Mark Taper Forum and London’s Royal Court among others. She has also written for such television series as “The Wire.”