PASADENA, Calif.: Boston Court Pasadena has announced the new-play development initiative Making Scripts Happen, which will feature presentations of new projects and works in progress. The initiative will be anchored by a new five-member Playwrights’ Group, to be facilitated by literary manager and director of new play development Emilie Pascale Beck.
“Boston Court will offer the playwrights’ cohort in-depth dramaturgy as well as the ability to hear their work in the mouths of actors,” Beck said in a statement. “This was an opportunity to pull together writers at various stages of their careers to form a dynamic conversation.”
The Playwrights’ Group will include Rosie Narasaki for Unrivaled; Jihan Crowther for Lions; Somebody Jones for Too Grey Too Loud; Paula Cizmar for Strawberry; and Ryan Stevens for The Resurrectionist. Monthly readings of the group’s work will be open to audiences beginning in July.
Other Making Scripts Happen projects will include development workshops, readings, and the annual New Play Reading Festival in December. The first production will be Aditi Brennan Kapil’s modern verse translation of Measure for Measure, in partnership with Play On Shakespeare, on February 27.
On March 28, Boston Court will present Mariology in collaboration with Critical Mass Performance Group. Created and directed by Nancy Keystone, this work-in-progress spectacle explores the Virgin Mary as a beacon of faith and weapon of colonization.
In May, Andi Chapman will direct a virtual workshop of Both And…A Play About Laughing While Black by Carolyn Ratteray. Ratteray’s one-woman play explores clowning, dreams, and loss.
Finally, Boston Court will present a virtual workshop of Letters from Home by Kalean Ung, created in collaboration with director Marian McClure and musician Chinary Ung. Letters from Home uses music and Shakespeare to explore first-generation American identity and Cambodian refugees’ stories.
Boston Court Pasadena is dedicated to creating and presenting works that are innovative, diverse, vital, and adventurous in an intimate setting.
