Brevity is the soul of this new works festival
Celebrating short, new plays and the playwrights behind them, our inaugural Arts Incubator Short Play Fest features four powerful works that speak candidly to this global moment.
In Rachel Yong’s Guilt Is a Mother, Joy and Max work through letting go — in a time when holding on feels like all we have. What does it mean to be together when we're all apart anyways?
From composer Eliza Randall and lyricist-playwright Sam Norman, The Yellow Wallpaper is a musical retelling of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s classic, feminist short story. A new mother in 1890s New England copes with forced isolation and the repercussions of patriarchy.
Black and Blue is Samuel Harps’ trenchant exploration of identity and injustice. An African-American police officer navigates the conflict of interest he embodies as a pandemic and protests rage on.
In Alli Hartley-Kong’s hopeful comedy The Waiting Room, Natalie and Katherine forge a fast, if unlikely, bond over their own grapples with fertility.
As featured in The Rivertowns Enterprise, ArtsWestchester, River Journal, Cultural Pursuit, The Hudson Independent, The Times Square Chronicles, The Scarsdale Inquirer, and BroadwayWorld
This event streamed March 26-28, 2021.
Learn more below about the incredible playwrights and creative teams bringing each play to life.
“That makes Mommy sad. Pizza for Hanukkah?”
In Rachel Yong’s Guilt Is a Mother, Joy and Max work through letting go — in a time when holding on feels like all we have. What does it mean to be together when we're all apart anyways?
Rachel Yong is an actor and writer residing in Brooklyn. Her plays have been performed at The Flea Theater, JACK, HERE, Berkeley Rep, UC Berkeley, and Stanford University. She is a founding member of Decent Company, where she wrote and performed three solo shows, including porn at grandma's house, per | form, and Diver Girl: or, The Most Fearless Rachel Yong! Prior to moving to New York, she was a proud member of PlayGround, the Bay Area's leading playwright incubator. She is the writer and creator of the comedy web series Randee So Dandy and has written and produced two short films screened at the Asian American International Film Festival. She also writes essays, novels, reviews, and poems; most recently, she wrote five words for The Onion. www.yorachel.com
Featuring (L-R) Leemore Malka, Rory Kulz, Ariel Estrada, and Beth Griffith. Directed by Sarah Hughes.
“You had me good and trapped / You forgot I could adapt”
From composer Eliza Randall and lyricist-playwright Sam Norman, The Yellow Wallpaper is a musical retelling of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s classic, feminist short story. A new mother in 1890s New England copes with forced isolation and the repercussions of patriarchy.
Eliza Randall is a composer, pianist, and music director from Southern Nevada. She began composing music when she was 6 years old and has been hooked ever since. She studied classical piano under internationally renowned pianists Jeffrey Shumway and Stephen Beus and has performed in such prestigious venues as the Las Vegas Smith Center for the Performing Arts. Her recent projects include organizing the Provo, Utah branch of the annual Bach in the Subways program, lecturing at the Music Teachers National Association Symposium at James Madison University, and acting as a judge for the Las Vegas Music Teachers Association (LVMTA) Junior Festival piano competition. Her twenty minute musical, written with Sam Norman, will receive its debut on the podcast The Latest Draft, and her various stand-alone compositions have been performed by groups such as the Gallatin Theatre Troupe and Tin Pan Alley 2. Eliza graduated magna cum laude from Brigham Young University with a degree in piano performance, and is currently pursuing an MFA in musical theatre writing at NYU Tisch School of the Arts.
Sam Norman is a prize-winning lyricist, librettist, poet and translator originally from England. His three full-length musicals have been performed across the UK to rave reviews. His twenty-minute musical, written with Eliza Randall, will receive its debut on the podcast The Latest Draft and is also slated for productions with HARP Theatricals (NYC) and Blank Conversations (NM). Sam has been profiled in The Huffington Post, appeared on panels with Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, and was a finalist in the Mercury Songwriting Contest. Beyond musical theatre, he has authored a book of comic poems, A Teen’s Guide to Modern Manners, which was warmly reviewed by Buzzfeed, and he won The Stephen Spender Prize for Poetry in Translation. Sam graduated from Oxford University with a congratulatory first-class degree and is currently studying for an MFA in musical theatre writing at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. www.samuelnorman.com
Featuring (L-R) Vaibu Mohan, Mason McDowell, and Hannah Fernandes. Directed by Max Mackay.
Produced by Rikki Ziegelman and Hayden Anderson of HARP Theatricals.
“I take the uniform off, and I’m a target. Now I’ve got to be a target in uniform?”
Black and Blue is Samuel Harps’ trenchant exploration of identity and injustice. An African-American police officer navigates the conflict of interest he embodies as a pandemic and protests rage on.
Samuel Harps studied with noted playwrights August Wilson and OyamO before becoming a member of the playwrights program at the prestigious Negro Ensemble Company. His first major production, Don't Explain, was staged at New York's famed Nuyorican Poets Cafe in 1991. The explosive drama about the death of trumpeter Lee Morgan went on to receive seven AUDELCO Awards, including Best Dramatic Production and Playwright of the Year. Samuel’s work as a literary artist was recognized with the Arts Council of Rockland County Executive Award. His productions have been featured around the country and in New York City at The Paul Robeson Theater, The National Black Theater, The Billie Holiday Theater, and HERE. Samuel is the Founder and Artistic Director of Shades Repertory Theater in Garnerville, New York.
Featuring (L-R) Dameon Reilly and Maiysha Jones Reilly. Directed by Samuel Harps.
“People should talk about what’s real.”
In Alli Hartley-Kong’s hopeful comedy The Waiting Room, Natalie and Katherine forge a fast, if unlikely, bond over their own grapples with fertility.
Alli Hartley-Kong is an internationally-produced playwright, published poet, and digital strategist based in northern New Jersey. As a public historian and museum educator, she helps cultural institutions tell their stories through the lens of theatre. Her writing has been featured in national play competitions and publications like Smithsonian Magazine. Alli creates theatre that amplifies women's voices and elevates the real issues they go through.
Featuring (L-R) Jenn Bedell and Kathleen Mallon. Directed by Angie D’amico-Post.
