Off-Broadway's The Playwrights Realm's Play on Words, a one-night live-streamed festival of short new plays, streams March 28 at 7 PM ET. The event is the culmination of an initiative in which donors get to have a hand in writing and creating work.
Broadway favorites Ashley Bryant and Will Roland are joined by Midori Francis (The Wolves, The Sex Lives of College Girls, Dash & Lily), Eric Lockley (The Inheritance, Luke Cage), and Susannah Perkins (Network, The Wolves).
The plays include What to Do if You Hit Turbulence by May Treuhaft-Ali, The Great New York Dough-Off by Francisca Da Silveira, Untitled Chainsaw Circus Musical Pitch by Grace McLeod, Dead Divas’ Dinner by Anton Dudley, and FAIRBNB by Don Nguyen. Donors who contributed $100 or more have the chance to vote for one of two endings for each play live during the festival.
All works are directed by Mike Donahue (Here She Is, Boys, The Moors) with video recording and editing by Caite Hevner (In Transit, Derren Brown: Secret) with video associate Sydney Dye, and stage management from Kara Kaufman.
Each play has its own donor collaborators. The festival's donor collaborators include Jacob Abramovich, Jen Bilik & Brian Rosenberg, Drew & Meera Gilbert, Sally Pritchard, Sarah Young, Soumi Eachempati, Anna May Feige, Ella Foshay, Bonnie Gale, Mindy Stern & Jim Burnham, Daniel Cohen & Tanya Goldfarb, Jim & Katie Marks, Evan & Kim Michael, Sharon & Bill Monahan, Ella Foshay, Kathy & Geddes Parsons, Nathan Saint-Amand, Tina Sloan-McPherson, The Waldins, Valerie DiFebo, Jack Gindi, Husani Oakley & Jashiro Dean, Norma Rosenberg, Bloomberg Philanthropies, and an anonymous donor.
Donors at other levels offered at the beginning of the initiative had further participatory opportunities such as providing a stage direction, becoming a cast member, sitting for an interview with a playwright, and more. Play on Words evolves The Realm’s mission to bring their community together in virtual fundraisers during the pandemic. In 2020 and 2021, their two Play-A-Thons raised more than $100,000.
For more information, visit PlaywrightsRealm.org.
