The Foundry Graduate Readings

The Foundry is PlayPenn‘s three year membership program led by L Feldman and R. Eric Thomas that supports emerging Philadelphia playwrights with professional development, networking opportunities, and exposure as they launch their playwriting careers. Foundry graduates will present a workshop reading of their play. This year’s Foundry playwrights are: Robynne Graffam, Griffin Horn, Devin Randall, and Megan Schumacher.

Independent Workshop Reading

PlayPenn and The Sol Project will team up to present a workshop presentation of a play that will center a local Latiné writer as part of The Sol Project’s mission to “amplify the voices of Latiné playwrights in NYC and beyond.” The first of two readings will happen in Philadelphia, and the second in New York.

“I” is for Invisible by DeLanna Studi: Independent Workshop Reading

PlayPenn will present a virtual reading of “I” is for Invisible by playwright DeLanna Studi, Artistic Director of Native Voices and citizen of the Cherokee Nation. “I is for Invisible” is a play about the missing and murdered Indigeous woman epidemic and one family’s journey searching for a missing loved one wwhile navigating a system that is disinterested in justice for people like them.

DEATH CAME BY MY DOORSTEP

by Devin Randall

Family is family is family is family… at least it used to be. But for one small family in one small home, the ties are falling at the seams. After skipping back home to mama’s house, Lyra and Luis are bemused. “Why did we come here?” “Where did mom go?” And who’s crying in the other room? You see, Lyra needs a favor, Luis needs a break, and Dedra needs to get out this tomb.  

WHY DON’T WE DANCE

by Robynne Graffam

Beth returns home for her twenty-fifth high school reunion, bracing herself to finally face the man who stood her up for her senior prom. Instead, she discovers a shocking lie her younger sister told all those years ago that forces her to question everything she’s come to believe about herself, her family, and what she thought would be her future.

OUR HOPEFUL ANXIOUS HEARTS

by Griffin Horn 

Deb and Pen return to settle their mother’s estate after her death, only to find out that an old family friend, Es, and their mother were lovers. As Es struggles to be part of the sister’s lives, they sort out their mother’s legacy which includes longing, unachieved dreams, compromises, and regrets. Can they be a part of each other’s lives, given all that has transpired?

UNPRECEDENTED

by Meghan Schumacher

A Black woman, who with the help of her anthropomorphized conscience, tries to understand her own choices and why she responded to a discriminatory situation in the way that she did. Through the constant rehashing of the traumatic moment, the play asks the question:“How does our conscience serve us?” This dark comedy explores the subtle moments of racism, and the microaggressions that can haunt one for perpetuity.