EMERGING PLAYWRIGHTS LAB READING SERIES 2024
JULY 12 - 21, 2024
ATWATER VILLAGE THEATRE
FREE ADMISSION
IAMA Theatre Company presents staged readings of six new plays written by members of the company’s 2023-24 Emerging Playwrights Lab. Readings will take place over the course of two weekends, July 12 through July 21, at the Atwater Village Theatre. Admission is free and open to the public; reservations are required.
Making up the Lab’s Class of ’24 are Rachel Borders, Sarah Cho, India Kotis, Frank Paiva, Emman Sadorra, and t. tara turk-haynes. The six playwrights met on a monthly basis during their one-year residency to share and develop work in a peer-guided format led by program director Nicholas Pilapil, himself an IAMA Playwrights Lab alumnus. Pilapil’s play, The Bottoming Process, developed in the inaugural 2019-20 Lab, was produced by IAMA in a co-production with the Los Angeles LGBT Center in 2023. Also developed in the 2019-20 Lab, Job by Max Wolf Friedlich, went on to receive two critically acclaimed Off-Broadway runs and is currently scheduled for a Broadway run at the Hayes Theater beginning July 15, 2024.
The schedule of readings is as follows:
FRIDAY, JULY 12, 8PM
Chromatic Black Square written by t. tara turk-haynes, directed by Velani Dibba
In the throws of COVID in early 2021, Baldwin is fighting to keep his apartment, drop his relationship, and shake the love of a MAGA almost mother in law, while his estranged sister Tennie had pre-pandemic big art success that's dwindling down to job desperation, codependency on her best friend, and major life questions. In 1867, Fannie needs Erzulie, the half Black sister she sold during the war, to do something that will set up her remaining family for some modicum of stability. And everyone is connected to the ugliest painting that might flip the art world around.
SATURDAY, JULY 13, 8PM
slanted feelings written by Sarah Cho, directed by Katherine Chou
Two rival Korean families compete to make the best kimchi in town. They also happen to attend the same Korean church. Who will win and bring the most glory to God with their cooking skills? Let’s pray. slanted feelings is a playwright’s ode to Korean families, gut health, and competitive cooking shows.
SUNDAY, JULY 14, 8PM
I Will Be You written by India Kotis, directed by Reena Dutt
I Will Be You explores, briefly, the tensions between motherhood and artistry and daughterhood and feminism.
FRIDAY, JULY 19, 8PM
THE BOTTOMLESS PIT written by Frank Paiva, directed by Hannah Wolf
THE BOTTOMLESS PIT is a dramedy about queer sideshow performers in the 1930s. When BP and Jody’s marriage of convenience is upended by the arrival of a rich couple with similar secrets, they get an irresistible glimpse of a different life. But different doesn’t necessarily mean better, especially if it means risking everything. THE BOTTOMLESS PIT explores the parts we play for the people we love on the endless journey toward loving ourselves.
SATURDAY, JULY 20, 8PM
PHOEBE & JESUS 4EVER written by Emman Sadorra, directed by Giovanni Ortega
16-year-old Phoebe is having the best summer ever! She’s worship team leader at her church, madly in love with her boyfriend Josiah, and her BFF is the one and only Jesus Christ. But her holy world unravels when the secular pregnant teen Zoey arrives to shake things up, and Phoebe’s faith is tested as she ventures to explore sexuality within the confines of her religion. Can she find a way to reconcile being both holy and horny? And if she breaks the rules, will Jesus still want to be best friends 4ever?
SUNDAY, JULY 21, 8PM
ALL GIRLS written by Rachel Borders, directed by Olivia Songer
ALL GIRLS is about what happens when the administration of a family-owned all-girls sleepaway camp realizes that one of their campers is transgender. The play centers on three women from three different generations whose opinions and personalities clash as they determine what to do about the camper.
