CWP Launchpad Reading Series
The CWP Launchpad Reading Series is a new initiative produced as part of The Center at West Park's Center for New Work Development. The series provides a platform for emerging theatre companies and early-career producers to curate a weekend of pay-what-you-can developmental readings of new work, with rehearsal and presentation space, marketing & promotional support, technical & administrative assistance, and a curatorial stipend provided by CWP. Through the Launchpad Reading Series, CWP uplifts artists at the start of their careers by creating accessible and inclusive presentation opportunities showcasing diverse talents, and provides the next generation of arts leaders with the support to put their ideas and communities on the stage.
About the featured curators
Marissa Joyce Stamps is a Black, Haitian-American NYC-born and based Afrosurreal writer, director, and educator who’s often in dialogue with landscape dramaturgy. Award/Honors: Princess Grace Playwriting Award, Yale Drama Series Prize Shortlister, MacDowell Fellow, Caldera Artist-in-Residence, three-time O’Neill NPC Finalist. Memberships + Affiliations: EST/Youngblood, Breaking & Entering Theatre Collective, Roundabout’s Directors Group, The Kilroys, Lucille Lortel’s Alcove, The New Georges Jam. Her work’s been supported by The Vineyard, The National Black Theatre, New Dramatists, Clubbed Thumb, Bushwick Starr, Ars Nova, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Lucille Lortel, Exponential Festival, The Brick, Conch Shell Productions, Chautauqua Theater Company, CATCH Performance Series, Orchard Project, + more. MFA Playwriting: Brooklyn College.
Friday, February 27th @ 7:30
Quadria; South of What We Mean When We Say Rush Gardens
by Brent Thomas Whiteside
Directed by amani meliyah
Parlor at St. Paul & St. Andrew
Quadria, South of What We Mean When We Say Rush Gardens follows a young Black girl who just wants to enjoy her summer. Moving through a city shaped by memory, Quadria navigates the Southside of Chicago, where the front gate and the edge of the block mark the limits of her world. As adults around her worry, warn, and watch, the play unfolds in fragments and returns, where geography becomes both origin and echo. As time folds and voices overlap, Quadria traces inheritance through language and the body, asking what it means to come from somewhere constantly renamed, misremembered, or erased; carrying what cannot be fully explained and standing just south of understanding. carrying what cannot be fully explained.
Saturday, Feb 28th @ 3pm
SUNSET
by Katryna Alexis
Board Room at St. Paul & St. Andrew
SUNSET finds seemingly happy couple Shaniqua and Bartholomew stuck on the Q train at dusk. The cracks begin to form, though, when a stalled train becomes the perfect opportunity for the ugly truth to come out. This reading will be followed by a talkback with the three playwrights.
Saturday, February 28th @7pm
Paris
by Dhari Noel
Parlor at St. Paul & St. Andrew
Stone and Jean are entangled. In a street in Paris. In a cafe in Paris. In a hotel in Paris. In a House. In a bedroom. Stone and Jean. Jean and Stone. Entangled in desire, rage, heartbreak. It’s exactly what they want. Exactly what they can’t want. The masochist says to the sadist, “make me hurt.” The sadist says, “no.” Stone and Jean, entangled, grasping for ecstasy.