written by Margot Connolly & directed by Alex Keegan
In a coding competition, two teams of teenage girls need to create an app that changes the world for the better - but who decides which app and cause is most worthy?
Thursday, March 12th, 3 PM
EST Member Artists present
Short Plays by EST Member Artists
Jamie Richards*, artistic director, Happy Hour
Pew Fighters
by Lilli Stein*, directed by Jamie Richards*
featuring Zachery Byrd, Lilli Stein*, & Jack Plowe
A Confrontation of Times
by Holli Harms*, directed by Patronia Paley*
featuring Dion Graham*, & Alex J. Gould
A Pretty Good Death
by Eric Conger*, directed by Jamie Richards*
featuring Lynnette Freeman*, Jan Leslie Harding*, & Jack Plowe
Civilians*
by Cassandra Medley*, directed by Jamie Richards*
featuring Lynnette Freeman*, Hope Harley, & Marjorie Johnson
No, I Don’t Want To Be Your Facebook Friend
by Wendy Hammond*, directed by Jamie Richards*
featuring Anne O’Sullivan*
Admission is free, but reservations are strongly recommended.
*denotes EST Member Artist
with plays by Jake Brasch, AJ Clauss, Yilong Liu, Andrew Massey, & Megan Chan Meinero
Sunday, March 1st, 12:30pm & 3:30pm
by Andrew Massey
In the wake of the unexpected suicide of their son, Cole, a family tries to piece their life together. “Cole” is a study of how grief builds and self-perpetuates, examining how loss changes us and how we move forward when our world is shattered.
Friday, February 28th at 7pm & Saturday, February 29th at 2pm
by Amanda Keating
Bouncing from a present-day German lab where a team of women scientists study the fossilized dental plaque of medieval monastics to a German scriptorium in the 11th century, with fellowship is a play about loneliness and loss, asking how history defines science, art, and faith.
Thursday, February 27th, 8 PM
*please note, the time of this reading has shifted from what was originally announced
by Kristin Slaney & The Lobbyists
Miss Mitchell is a musical about Maria Mitchell, the first female professional astronomer in America, and an influential figure in women’s education on the island of Nantucket.
Monday, February 24th, 7 PM
by Michael Walek
The Tanzanian government allowed Jane Goodall to study chimpanzees in the wild under one condition - she must bring a chaperone. So, Jane invited her mother.
Thursday, February 13th, 3 PM & 7 PM
by Jessica Dickey
A playwright searches for the surviving letters between Galileo and his eldest daughter. Expanding across time, this story is an exploration of faith, forgiveness, and the cost of heeding one’s truth.
Monday, February 10th, 7 PM
EST/Youngblood presents
Sometimes, things are just going along great and one day, something changes. Maybe they left the dishes in the sink, maybe they told that same old joke, maybe they've stood you up for brunch. (How dare they!) But somewhere along the line, love went wrong. It happens. Love hurts. Love dies. Love bites. (Whoa, sorry, got a little dark there.)
It's almost February! Come commiserate with us as we drown our sorrows in all the syrup your pancakes can handle.
Don’t miss our meditation on bad romance, featuring new short plays by Jake Brasch, AJ Clauss, Nadja Leonhard-Hooper, Sofya Levitsky-Weitz, & Ife Olujobi
There are two chances to catch BRUNCH on Sunday 2/2, both here at EST.
Brunch served at 12pm, plays begin at 12:30pm!
Brunch served at 3pm, plays begin at 3:30pm!
by Justice Hehir, with dramaturg Emilie Pass
FreePlay is a feminist sex toy company, popular for its deconstructed take on the dildo. A story about engineering, female friendships, dildos, and the people who make them.
Thursday, January 30th, 7 PM
by Mary Elizabeth Hamilton
Smart explores how much our identity is shaped by habits, and what happens when our possessions start responding to the information of our daily lives.
Tuesday, January 28th, 7 PM
by Sam Chanse, developed with The Civilians
This reading will be presented at New Dramatists (424 W. 44th St.)
The daughter of a trauma survivor, Pia is driven by the desire to help free her mother from paralyzing fear memories – that’s why she became a neuroscientist. But the unexpected return of an old acquaintance triggers a storm of memory, forcing Pia to tangle with her own fears and paralysis, and pushing her to question deeply-held beliefs about her own past. How can changing our memories about who we were then change who we are now?
Friday, January 17th, 3 PM
by Mona Pirnot
At a beach house in the Caribbean, subjects come and go to take part in a trial testing the therapeutic value of one doctor’s homemade herpes vaccine.
Thursday, January 16th, 7 PM
EST Youngblood presents
As a new decade rolls around, it’s a chance to take stock and look back. Do things almost seem a little more rosy? A little more objective? A little more clear, as we enter 2020? Look back on a decade well-brunch’d and get ready to start 2020 off right with five new short plays, endless pancakes, bacon, and (Young)bloody Marys in 5…4…3…2…1…
featuring new short plays by Brittany K. Allen, Will Arbery, Dylan Guerra, Andrew Massey, & Julia Specht
There are two chances to catch BRUNCH on Sunday 1/5, both here at EST.
Brunch served at 12pm, plays begin at 12:30pm!
Brunch served at 3pm, plays begin at 3:30pm!
EST Youngblood presents
featuring new short plays by Jake Brasch, Michael Feldman, Jahna Ferron-Smith, Sofya Levitsky-Weitz, & Lizzie Stern
Ah, the holidays! The kinara is lit, the latkes are sizzling, and the presents are nestled gently under the tree. What’s that you hear on the rooftop above? Could it be? Yes, it’s five new short plays to ring in the holiday season, served up beside endless pancakes, bacon, and (Young)bloody marys!
There are two chances to catch BRUNCH on Sunday 12/8, both here at EST.
Brunch served at 12pm, plays begin at 12:30pm!
Brunch served at 3pm, plays begin at 3:30pm!
Your ticket purchase directly supports artist compensation for the Brunch series at EST. Thank you for making an impact.
Short Plays by EST Ensemble Artists
Jamie Richards*, artistic director, Happy Hour
featuring new short plays by Garrett M. Brown*, Brigitte Viellieu-Davis*, Pat Golden*, Laurence Klavan*, & Lilli Stein*
directed by Christine Farrell* & Jamie Richards*
featuring Maggie Bofill*, Molly Carden*, Chris Ceraso*, Christine Farrell*, Lynnette R. Freeman*, Alex J. Gould, Suzette Azariah Gunn, Marcia Jean Kurtz*, Jason Liebman*, Thomas Lyons*, Bruce MacVittie*, Mike Press, Julius Powell, Grant Shaud*, & Keith Weiss
Admission is free, but reservations are strongly recommended.
*denotes EST Member Artist
EST/Youngblood presents
featuring new short plays by the writers of Youngblood.
Do you smell that in the air? It's not the whiff of pumpkin spice and fresh hay bales.
It's trouble. A ten-minute play festival with 24 brand new plays over four separate nights of theatre- November 19-23.
Tickets to this event are free, but reservations are required for all performances.
EST Youngblood presents
featuring new short plays by Dan Giles, Lily Houghton, Andrew Massey, Megan Chan Meinero, & Mona Pirnot
Check your map, pack your spatulas, and hitch a ride to Hell's Kitchen to fuel up on endless pancakes, bacon, (Young)bloody marys, and five new short plays that take us on the road again!
There are two chances to catch BRUNCH on Sunday 11/3, both here at EST.
Brunch served at 12pm, plays begin at 12:30pm!
Brunch served at 3pm, plays begin at 3:30pm!
Your ticket purchase directly supports artist compensation for the Brunch series at EST. Thank you for making an impact.
World Premiere, October 2 through October 27
featuring Quincy Dunn-Baker, Layla Khoshnoudi, Diana Oh, Claire Siebers, & JD Taylor
Gretchen, Emma and Whitney have been friends since they were teenagers. They've been sober since they were teenagers. They set off on a road trip south--with homemade female urination devices, too much pie, and ill-advised sexual escapades--to celebrate and mourn a figure from their past. Catya McMullen’s new dark comedy GEORGIA MERTCHING IS DEAD reveals what it's like to face adulthood and death after growing up weird and possibly broken.
Scenic Design: Alexis Distler | Costume Design: Sydney Maresca | Lighting Design: Cat Tate Starmer | Sound Design: Almeda Beynon | Props Master: Caitlyn Murphy | Intimacy/Fight Director: Alex J. Gould | Production Stage Manager: Fran Acuña-Almiron | Assistant Stage Manager: Ingrid Pierson
Photos by Jeremy Daniel Photography
“★★★★”
“Morbidly hilarious…It breaks your heart with a piercing exploration of the ways in which loss, trauma and love—romantic, platonic, familial—shape our lives.”
- Raven Snook, TimeOut New York, CRITIC’S PICK
“Funny, engaging, and occasionally vicious, especially when it dives into its characters’ ugly, vulnerable moments.”
“Hilariously foulmouthed.”
- Maya Philips, The New Yorker
“★★★★”
“With GEORGIA MERTCHING IS DEAD, McCullen celebrates a special sort of resilience that’s rooted in a sense of self, while showing it receives vital nourishment from our connection with others.”
CATYA McMULLEN (Playwright) is a playwright, comedian, TV + screenwriter. Her plays include AGNES (Lesser America/59E59, NYT Critics Pick), LOCKED UP BITCHES (The Flea Theater), GEORGIA MERTCHING IS DEAD (Upcoming World Premiere EST/Youngblood), Everything Is Probably Going To Be Okay, We Pray To Elephants, A**HOLES IN GAS STATIONS, Rubber Ducks And Sunsets (Ground UP Productions) along with numerous shorts. Her play Missed Connection won the Sam French OOB short play competition and was directed by Leslye Headland (Russian Doll). She is the creator of the WE ARE ANIMALS series, a quarterly variety show series she wrote with Scott Klopfenstein of the Gold Record selling band Reel Big Fish, where she performed under her feminist hip hop alias “Chihuahua Fancy.” She is a proud alum of the Obie Award-winning EST/Youngblood and a company member of The Middle Voice Theater Company; the apprentice company of Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. Film/TV: AMC's Dietland, Freeform's Everything's Gonna Be Okay (upcoming), and currently FX's "Y the Last Man" adaptation. GEORGIA MERTCHING IS DEAD was optioned by STARTHROWER Entertainment, which she adapted. BA UNC Chapel Hill.
GIOVANNA SARDELLI* (Director). With Rajiv Joseph: Los Angeles: Archduke (World Premiere the Taper, CTG), Guards at the Taj (Geffen Playhouse, 2017 Ovation Award for Best Production of a Play). Off-Broadway: Describe The Night (Obie Award for Best New American Play 2018), Huck & Holden (Cherry Lane); Animals Out of Paper – Joe A Callaway Award - and All This Intimacy (Second Stage); The Leopard and The Fox(AlterEgo). Regional: Archduke (TheatreWorks Silicon Valley), Describe The Night (Alley Theatre); Mr. Wolf (Cleveland Play House); The Lake Effect (TheatreWorks Silicon Valley); The North Pool (TheatreWorks World Premiere, Barrington Stage Company). Other Select Off-Broadway World Premieres: The upcoming Georgia Mertching is Dead by Catya McMullen (Ensemble Studio Theatre), Little Children Dream of God (Roundabout); Wildflower (Second Stage); Finks (Ensemble Studio Theatre); Apple Cove (Women’s Project). Other Select Regional: the recent World Premiere of Heidi Armbruster’s Mrs. Christie (Dorset Theatre Festival), They Promised Her the Moon, Somewhere, The Whipping Man (The Old Globe); Constellations (Geffen Playhouse); All The Way, The Whipping Man (Cleveland Play House); The Mountaintop, Absalom (Actor’s Theatre of Louisville); Clybourne Park, Lord of the Flies, Muckrakers (Barrington Stage Company); Crimes of the Heart, Velocity of Autumn, Somewhere (TheatreWorks Silicon Valley). Though based in New York, Sardelli is the Director of New Works for TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, the recipient of the 2019 Regional Theatre Tony Award. Education: MFA Graduate Acting Program, NYU and graduate of their Director’s Lab.
*Denotes EST Member Artist
