PCPA will present a new series of InterPlay live readings from Friday, Feb. 26, through Saturday, March 20, featuring four new plays to be read twice over the course of four weekends.
The series will be livestreamed via Zoom and will include productions "The Mountaintop," "Into the Breeches!" "Two Degrees" and "Fade."
In celebration of Black History Month, "The Mountaintop" by Katori Hall will be performed on Friday, Feb. 26, and Saturday, Feb. 27.
The action takes place in the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 3, 1968. It will be the last night Martin Luther King Jr. will spend on Earth. He had earlier in the day delivered his famous “I’ve been to the mountaintop” speech. An interaction with the motel maid delivers more than room service in this reimagined final night of the civil rights leader. Directed by Keith Arthur Bolden, the cast includes Yusef Seevers as King and Assata Amankeechi as Camae. The reader is Lewis Powell.
A second play, the hilarious "Into the Breeches!" by George Brant, will be played Friday, March 5, and Saturday, March 6.
The setting is World War II and all the male actors and director of the Oberon Playhouse are off fighting in the war as the theater sits dark. That is until, an unexpected troupe of players assemble to bring together an all-female cast to produce Shakespeare’s Henriad. "Into the Breeches!" is a moving celebration of collaboration, female fortitude, friendship and a timely reminder of the healing power of live theater. The cast includes PCPA resident artists Erik Stein, Emily Trask, Don Stewart, Kitty Balay, Polly Firestone Walker and Katie Fuchs-Wackowski, as well as reader George Walker and guest artists, under the direction of Andrew Philpot.
The third presentation introduces Emma Phelps, a paleo climatologist who researches ice core samples in Greenland. Seeing firsthand the symptoms of our changing climate, her grief over the loss of her husband has left her personally frozen. Tira Palmquist’s "Two Degrees" layers science, politics and the deeply personal in a landscape that is relevant in our current political climate — and literal climate. The cast, under the direction of Roger DeLaurier, includes Balay, Firestone Walker, Philpot, Seevers and reader Walker. "Two Degrees" will be performed live on Friday, March 12, and Saturday, March 13.
The InterPlay springtime series concludes with "Fade" by Tanya Saracho. "Fade" plays Friday, March 19 and Saturday, March 20.
The story of diversity, class and culture is a bittersweet comedy. Lucia has landed a writing job for a major TV show, however, her “token” position as the “diversity hire” backs her into a corner and shakes her confidence. As she comes out of her shell, after befriending the Latino janitor, her credibility and status among the Hollywood elite builds and ultimately raises the question of “who gets to tell your story?” It is directed by Christian Arteaga and features guests Carolina Morones as Lucia and Stefan Espinosa as Abel, and the reader is Leo Cortez.
Performance times are 7 p.m. Fridays and 1:30 p.m. Saturdays and are $10 per viewer, or $40 for all four.
For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.pcpa.org/interplay/