2022 Conference Program and Tickets

7:30PM: Vintage Illustations of the Devil
by Kevin Esmond

(Foundry Reading)

A spooky collection of five frightening tales, all told from the gift shop/waiting area of a Cracker Barrel restaurant…..during a storm!!!  VINTAGE ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE DEVIL dares us to investigate a cold-hearted murder…to stare into an open grave…and to come face to face with the truest horror of all…what if we’ve been following the wrong story all along?

Content Warning: Gunshots, Discussion of Death by Poisoning, Discussion of the Occult, Children and Elderly in Threatening Situations

The Foundry is PlayPenn’s professional development and membership program for emerging Philadelphia-area playwrights.

7:30PM: Pase Lo Que Pase (I Will Always Find You) by Carl(os) Roa

(Foundry Reading)

Fátima lives in Tegucigalpa, where she must fight for her life every single day. Guillermo lives in Bogotá, where he is told repeatedly that he does not belong. They both find two halves of an ancient, sentient map that compels them to take a journey to meet each other. But what starts out as a mystic quest turns out to be a horrific nightmare. PASE LO QUE PASE explores the question: what does it mean to be terrified of your own culture?

Content Warning: This Play Contains Some Prominent Themes of Latin-American Trauma, Political Violence, Hate Crimes, Homophobia, and Suicide.

The Foundry is PlayPenn’s professional development and membership program for emerging Philadelphia-area playwrights.

7:30PM: Above the Fold
by Julie Zaffarano

(Foundry Reading)

ABOVE THE FOLD is set during the 1935 grand jury investigation of the death of rising musical theater star Evelyn Hoey in Glenmoore Pennsylvania. A group of reporters are covering the grand jury whose job it is to determine if there is sufficient evidence to conduct a trial for the murder of singer Evelyn Hoey by her lover Henry Huddleston Rogers III, the son of one of the richest men in the world. Reporter Dorothy Walton finds Evelyn’s story especially compelling.

“A couple months ago, Evelyn Hoey was a living, breathing person with hopes and dreams and fears. Family that loved her. Toast of the town. How does a woman like that end up with a bullet in her brain?”

Dorothy fights convention to be considered an equal partner with her male colleagues. She has to convince her editor to believe in her and in the importance of telling a truthful story. In addition, Dorothy needs to face her own feelings about her colleague and former lover, Carl, who is also assigned to cover the grand jury.

This is a story of victimization, of truth vs. sensationalism, of justice vs. power, and coping with personal demons.

Content Warning: Reenactment of Violence, Gun Play, Sexual Assault, Discussion of Murder and Suicide

The Foundry is PlayPenn’s professional development and membership program for emerging Philadelphia-area playwrights.

7:30PM: Moss and Kay’s Fabulous Adventure, Or: Objects Becoming More Distant From One Another At Ever Increasing Speeds
by Geo Decas O’Donnell

(Foundry Reading)

Moss & Kay meet in the audience of a play. Kay is there to support a friend, and Moss is there because their ex wrote it — about them. As the play begins, the story Moss was expecting is not the story being told; Kay has some ideas about how to fix that, so the two of them take matters into their own hands. What follows is an adventure about memory and relationships, about making art and working in restaurants, about letting go and meeting the next day.

Content Warning: Drugs and Alcohol, Discussion of Loss

The Foundry is PlayPenn’s professional development and membership program for emerging Philadelphia-area playwrights.

7:30PM: Goddess at the Lucky Lady Motel by Nimisha Ladva (Reading #1)

After a death in the family, Mummy-ji, a first generation South Asian immigrant, and her son, Ravi, clash over almost everything. Most of all, they are at odds over two things: Ravi’s wish to marry Seema, a Ph.D. candidate from a different caste, and how to keep their family’s motel business afloat. Can Mummy-ji confront her own caste bigotry and misogyny to make amends with her son or will she lose everything she has loved? Ladva’s play explores whether the generational divide can ever be broached–even by the Goddess.

Content Warning: Child Loss, Family Death, Sexual Harassment

7:30PM: Fat Muslim Girls
by Ken Kaissar (Reading #1)

In this drama by Ken Kaissar, risqué photographs of female college students are found in the desk of Edgar, a college professor, at fictional McCabe University. His colleague, Dr. Diane Patterson, becomes the self appointed seeker of justice for Zayna, a female student who took and shared the photographs of herself and her friends. Diane writes letters and gives interviews to keep the story alive, but she fails to take two major details into account: all of the photographed students are overweight, and all are of Middle-Eastern descent.  The public becomes less concerned with justice for one student, and more concerned with body shaming and threats of global terrorism.

Content Warning: Adult and Sexually Explicit Language, Discussion of Suicide

7:30PM: Whispers of My Sister by Stephanie Kyung Sun Walters (Reading #1)

Something’s not right with Yoon-Ah. The normally indomitable matriarch has been jumping at shadows and blurring memories from Korean burial grounds with her suburban American kitchen. Her daughters are convinced it’s all in Yoon-Ah’s head—until a figure materializes in the light of the refrigerator. Who will see the ghosts of the past? And how long will the ghosts stay? 2022 McNally Award winner Stephanie Kyung Sun Walters explores the impact of inherited trauma within immigrant families. Through magical realism the past meets the present, as two generations of sisters attempt to reconcile the past by meeting the past head on.

Content Warning: Themes Relating to Mental Health, Loss, Grief, Suicide, and Generational Trauma

2:00PM: Gente Del Sol by Santiago Tonauac Castro (Reading #1)

Valeria and Leonardo are at a crossroads. Leonardo, afraid of losing his relationship with Valeria, seeks professional help. Unsatisfied with western medicine, Leonardo seeks a second opinion from someone that can speak to Mexican culture and indigenous practices. Valeria does not feel capable of leaving Leonardo in his time of need but finds herself falling for Fern. This new play by Santiago Tonauac Castro uses magical realism to explore the intricacies of personal identity, sexuality, and transracial relationships.

Content Warning: Violence, Mentions of Racism

7:30PM: All the Emilies in All the Universes by Ian August (Reading #1)

Ian August’s world bending drama takes us on a journey with Emilie and Jeff, a couple struggling with the devastating loss of their stillborn child. Emilie exists in four distinct parallel timelines. But when an unexpected bend in the space / time continuum brings these four grieving Emilies together, they realize that infinite possible realities means that somewhere, “somewhen”, their lost son was born alive. The four Emilies vow to travel through infinite dimensions, risking permanent erasure from the multiverse, to find the baby boy they thought they’d lost forever. All the Emilies in All the Universes is a play about coping with grief, the act of pursuing self-acceptance, and finding the truth hidden in yourself in the ever-expanding multiverse around you.

Content Warning: This Play Includes Curses, Swears, and Potentially Offensive Language, as well as References to Pregnancy, Stillbirth, and Perinatal Grief.

2:00PM: The Pigeon
by Brie Knight (Reading #1)

Nina, Constantine, Irina, and Trigorin may all be familiar characters to you. They live eternally dissatisfied with their lives. But in this new dark comedy by Brie Knight, we find the characters in an adjacent universe in the middle of the apocalypse. With the world threatening to break open, will they finally fulfill their desires? Or will happiness once again escape them, when they are sucked into a black hole?

Content Warning: Contains Strong Language, Sexual Content, Themes of Suicide and Death

7:30PM: Goddess at the Lucky Lady Motel by Nimisha Ladva (Reading #2)

After a death in the family, Mummy-ji, a first generation South Asian immigrant, and her son, Ravi, clash over almost everything. Most of all, they are at odds over two things: Ravi’s wish to marry Seema, a Ph.D. candidate from a different caste, and how to keep their family’s motel business afloat. Can Mummy-ji confront her own caste bigotry and misogyny to make amends with her son or will she lose everything she has loved? Ladva’s play explores whether the generational divide can ever be broached–even by the Goddess.

Content Warning: Child Loss, Family Death, Sexual Harassment

7:30PM: Fat Muslim Girls
by Ken Kaissar (Reading #2)

In this drama by Ken Kaissar, risqué photographs of female college students are found in the desk of Edgar, a college professor, at fictional McCabe University. His colleague, Dr. Diane Patterson, becomes the self appointed seeker of justice for Zayna, a female student who took and shared the photographs of herself and her friends. Diane writes letters and gives interviews to keep the story alive, but she fails to take two major details into account: all of the photographed students are overweight, and all are of Middle-Eastern descent.  The public becomes less concerned with justice for one student, and more concerned with body shaming and threats of global terrorism.

Content Warning: Adult and Sexually Explicit Language, Discussion of Suicide

7:30PM: Whispers of My Sister by Stephanie Kyung Sun Walters (Reading #2)

Something’s not right with Yoon-Ah. The normally indomitable matriarch has been jumping at shadows and blurring memories from Korean burial grounds with her suburban American kitchen. Her daughters are convinced it’s all in Yoon-Ah’s head—until a figure materializes in the light of the refrigerator. Who will see the ghosts of the past? And how long will the ghosts stay? 2022 McNally Award winner Stephanie Kyung Sun Walters explores the impact of inherited trauma within immigrant families. Through magical realism the past meets the present, as two generations of sisters attempt to reconcile the past by meeting the past head on.

Content Warning: Themes Relating to Mental Health, Loss, Grief, Suicide, and Generational Trauma

2:00PM: Gente Del Sol by Santiago Tonauauc Castro (Reading #2)

Valeria and Leonardo are at a crossroads. Leonardo, afraid of losing his relationship with Valeria, seeks professional help. Unsatisfied with western medicine, Leonardo seeks a second opinion from someone that can speak to Mexican culture and indigenous practices. Valeria does not feel capable of leaving Leonardo in his time of need but finds herself falling for Fern. This new play by Santiago Tonauac Castro uses magical realism to explore the intricacies of personal identity, sexuality, and transracial relationships.

Content Warning: Violence, Mentions of Racism

7:30PM: All the Emilies in All the Universes by Ian August (Reading #2)

Ian August’s world bending drama takes us on a journey with Emilie and Jeff, a couple struggling with the devastating loss of their stillborn child. Emilie exists in four distinct parallel timelines. But when an unexpected bend in the space / time continuum brings these four grieving Emilies together, they realize that infinite possible realities means that somewhere, “somewhen”, their lost son was born alive. The four Emilies vow to travel through infinite dimensions, risking permanent erasure from the multiverse, to find the baby boy they thought they’d lost forever. All the Emilies in All the Universes is a play about coping with grief, the act of pursuing self-acceptance, and finding the truth hidden in yourself in the ever-expanding multiverse around you.

Content Warning: This Play Includes Curses, Swears, and Potentially Offensive Language, as well as References to Pregnancy, Stillbirth, and Perinatal Grief.

5:00PM: The Pigeon
by Brie Knight (Reading #2)

Nina, Constantine, Irina, and Trigorin may all be familiar characters to you. They live eternally dissatisfied with their lives. But in this new dark comedy by Brie Knight, we find the characters in an adjacent universe in the middle of the apocalypse. With the world threatening to break open, will they finally fulfill their desires? Or will happiness once again escape them, when they are sucked into a black hole?

Content Warning: Contains Strong Language, Sexual Content, Themes of Suicide and Death