7
Aug/17

CORKSCREW THEATER FESTIVAL

7
Aug/17

corkscrew theater festival

Paradise Factory
64 East Fourth St. between Second & Third Sts.
August 7 – September 3, readings free, shows $24
347-954-9125
corkscrewfestival.org

On August 20, FringeNYC will hold a fundraising variety show in which they will reveal the future of the popular summer theater festival, which will not be taking place this year. Stepping into the void is the debut of the Corkscrew Theater Festival, presented by the Brewing Dept. and Fortress Productions at Paradise Factory in the East Village. The festival consists of five world-premiere productions and five readings running August 7 through September 3 by early-career artists, most of whom identify as female; the readings are free and the shows are $24. “The plays featured in the inaugural Corkscrew Theater Festival center on the need to be seen. By the institution that won’t listen to you, by the sibling whose struggles affect both of you, or by the boyfriend who just doesn’t understand that you’re turning into a werewolf,” artistic director Thomas Kapusta said in a statement. “We’re proud to give these new artists and their stories – some joyful, some tragic, and some hilarious – the chance to be seen and heard in quality productions performed in repertory this summer.”

The plays, which tackle such subjects as mental illness, queer love triangles, millennial privilege, and, yes, werewolves, consists of Kaela Mei-Shing Garvin’s High School Coven, directed by Felicia Lobo; Robert Zander Norman’s All of My Blood, directed by Taylor Haven Holt; Nora Sørena Casey’s False Stars, directed by Jenny Reed; Lilla Goettler and Katie Hathaway’s Ex Habitus, directed by Lilla Goettler; and Morgaine Gooding-Silverwood’s Cradle Two Grave, directed by Gooding-Silverwood and choreographed by Raquel Chavez. The readings, about such topics as an interracial couple in a gentrifying neighborhood, amateur porn, nuclear holocaust, and an island of giant rabbits, comprise Uzunma Udeh’s A Day in the Life: A Performance Piece of Performance Pieces, directed by Udeh and Ann-Kathryne Mills; Ayo Edebiri and Nick Parker’s Mad Cool, directed by Diane Chen; the musical Hot Cross Buns, with book and lyrics by Julia Izumi and music and lyrics by Grace Oberhofer, directed by Logan Reed; Laura Winters’s Gonzo, directed by Noam Shapiro; and Ryan Bernsten’s The New Order, directed by Kristin Skye Hoffmann.