The Workshop Theater presents a special one-night concert reading to benefit Judges & Lawyers Breast Cancer Alert, with plays by Sam Chanse, Ellen McLaughlin, Rehana Lew Mirza, and Caridad Svich. Judges and Lawyers Breast Cancer Alert (JALBCA) is an association of lawyers and judges that provides educational programs relating to breast cancer, funds legal and other support services for low-income women and families in crisis from breast cancer, and annually underwrites dozens of mammogram vans to provide early breast cancer detection for underinsured and uninsured women. All proceeds will fund legal services for low-income women and families in crisis from breast cancer.
Thursday November 4, 2021 at 7pm EST
Now available to stream on demand until Monday November 8 at 6:59pm.
Donors will receive a link to view the performances on YouTube.
THE WRITERS
Sam Chanse is the author of plays including Trigger, Monument, or Four Sisters (A Sloth Play), What you are now, The Opportunities of Extinction, Fruiting Bodies, The Other Instinct, Lydia’s Funeral Video, about that whole dying thing, and Asian American Jesus. Her work has been developed and/or produced with the Lark, Ars Nova, the Civilians, Ensemble Studio Theater/Sloan Project, NAATCO, Magic Theatre, New York Stage & Film, Engarde Arts, Ma-Yi Theater, Cherry Lane, Leviathan Lab, Broken Nose, 24 Hour Plays, and the Ojai Playwrights’ Conference, and is published by Kaya Press (Lydia’s Funeral Video) and TCG (The Kilroys List). She is a resident playwright of New Dramatists, a recent Lark Venturous Fellow, and a member of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab. She was recently a participant in New York Stage and Film’s inaugural NYSAF NEXUS project. A past fellow at MacDowell, Cherry Lane, Sundance Theatre Institute, and Playwrights Realm , she has also received residencies and commissions from NAATCO, Djerassi, SPACE at Ryder Farm, EST/Sloan, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, University of Rochester’s International Theatre Program, Ma-Yi/the Flea, and the SF Arts Commission. She is an alum of Ars Nova’s Play Group, the Civilians R&D Group, and the Lark’s New York Stage & Film Vassar Retreat. As an educator, she has taught writing and playwriting at Columbia University, New York University, the University of Rochester, and elsewhere. A native New Yorker, she was based in San Francisco for several years, when she served as artistic director of Kearny Street Workshop and co-director of Locus Arts, and developed work as a writer and performer at Bindlestiff, AATC, Playground, standup spots, and other artistic homes. She currently writes on ABC’s The Good Doctor, and is a member of Dramatist Guild and WGAE. MFA: Columbia University and NYU/Tisch GMTWP. www.samchanse.com
Ellen McLaughlin's plays have received numerous national and international productions. They include Days and Nights Within, A Narrow Bed, Infinity's House, Iphigenia and Other Daughters, Tongue of a Bird, The Trojan Women, Helen, The Persians, Oedipus, Ajax in Iraq, Kissing the Floor, Septimus and Clarissa, and Penelope. Producers include: the Public Theater, The National Actors' Theater and New York Theater Workshop in NYC, Actors' Theater of Louisville, The Actors' Gang L.A., Classic Stage Co., N.Y., The Intiman Theater, Seattle, Almeida Theater, London, The Mark Taper Forum, L.A., The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Getty Villa, California., and The Guthrie Theater, Minnesota, among other venues.
Grants and awards include: Helen Merrill Award for Playwriting, Great American Play Contest, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the NEA, the Writer's Award from the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund, the Berilla Kerr Award for playwrighting. T.C.G./Fox Residency Grant -- for Ajax in Iraq, written for the A.R.T. Institute.
She has taught playwriting at Barnard College since 1995. Other teaching posts include Breadloaf School of English, Yale Drama School and Princeton University, among others.
Ms. McLaughlin is also an actor. She is most well known for having originated the part of the Angel in Tony Kushner's Angels in America, appearing in every U.S. production from its earliest workshops through its Broadway run.
Rehana Lew Mirza is a playwright, writer and creator. She is currently writing the feature WISHTREE for Netflix. She is one of the 2020 recipients of the Kleban Prize for Librettists. She was also a winner of the HBOAccess Writing Fellowship and has been featured on the Kilroy List three times. She and playwright Mike Lew (also her husband) are currently in collaboration on a trilogy of plays under commission from La Jolla Playhouse, including an upcoming musical BHANGIN’ IT, being produced in 2022. Her play, HATEFCK, was produced by WP Theater and Colt Coeur in 2019. She was the recipient of a Toulmin Foundation Commission from Primary Stages for her play A People's Guide to History in the Time of Here and Now. Rehana won the Mellon National Playwright Residency at Ma-Yi Theater, administered by Howlround. She holds an MFA in Playwriting from Columbia University and BFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU, Tisch School of the Arts.
Caridad Svich received a 2012 OBIE for Lifetime Achievement. Her work as a playwright, translator, lyricist, and essayist has been seen in print, live and digital stages at diverse venues across the US and abroad. Key plays in her extensive repertoire include 12 Ophelias, Iphigenia Crash Land Falls…, Red Bike and The House of the Spirits (based on Isabel Allende’s novel). Theatrical premieres in 2021 include The Book of Magdalene and Theatre: a love story. As a screenwriter, her first feature film (as co-screenwriter, based on her play) Fugitive Dreams has been seen at the Fantasia, Austin, Tallinn Black Nights, Manchester (UK) and Maryland Film Festivals. Among her recognitions are an American Theatre Critics Association Primus Prize, the Edgerton Foundation New Play Award, and National Latino Playwriting Award (which she has received twice). She is founder of NoPassport theatre alliance and press and an editor at Contemporary Theatre Review. She has edited several books on theatre. She most recently authored a book about Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Routledge). She was awarded the 2018 Ellen Stewart Award for Career Achievement in Professional Theatre from the Association for Theatre in Higher Education. Her second film (as screenwriter) is currently in post-production.
THE ACTORS
Daphne Rubin-Vega Daphne just wrapped the film ALLSWELL, which is a collab with several members of the labyrinth theater co., and can be seen in Lin Manuel Miranda’s feature IN THE HEIGHTS, directed by Jon Chu, playing ‘Daniela.’ She shot the Netflix series SOCIAL DISTANCE, produced by Jenji Kohan and Tara Hermann, and SAME STORM, the newest Peter Hedges film, during the early months of COVID A staple of the New York theatre community, Daphne earned a Tony nomination for her portrayal of ‘Mimi’ in the original cast of RENT, and another for ANNA IN THE TROPICS. Daphne was ‘Luisa Lopez’ on KATY KEENE, the CW spinoff off of RIVERDALE and on the Netflix series, TALES OF THE CITY. She starred in the musical, MISS YOU LIKE HELL at The Public Theatre, and in the one-woman show EMPANADA LOCA, which was written for her. She helped adapt the play into the scripted podcast, THE HORROR OF DOLORES ROACH, which is currently in production for Amazon/Blumhouse TV.
Ato Essandoh was most recently seen as a series regular in the Netflix series AWAY opposite Hillary Swank for Matt Reeves, Jason Katims and Ed Zwick. He just wrapped the independent feature OUTPOST where he’ll play the lead opposite Beth Dover in Joe Lo Truglio’s directorial debut. Ato is currently shooting the Netflix feature REPTILE opposite Benicio del Toro and Justin Timberlake. In film, Ato can been seen in JASON BOURNE for Paul Greengrass andDJANGO UNCHAINED for Quentin Tarantino. Other credits include X:MEN DARK PHOENIX, GET HIM TO THE GREEK, BLOOD DIAMONDand HITCH. On the television front, Ato recurs as Dr. Isidore Latham on the NBC series CHICAGO MED. He was also seen as a series regular in the CBS seriesTHE CODE, the Netflix series ALTERED CARBON and the HBO series VINYL. Other credits include TALES FROM THE LOOP, ELEMENTARY, COPPER and BLUE BLOODS.
Laura Gómez is an actress and storyteller best known for her role as Blanca Flores on the Netflix hit series Orange Is the New Black. On television she has also been featured in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, HBO’s Show Me a Hero (created by David Simon) and the Dutch TV show Anne Plus. On the film front, Gómez has been seen in Exposed, America Adrift, and Sambá, which had its world premiere at Tribeca in 2017. She is currently a member of Dorset Theater Festival’s “Women Artists Writing,” a creative collective giving voices to female artists in the theater. Gómez is also an established voiceover actor and has lent her voice for the audiobooks Of How the García Girls Lost Their Accent by Julia Alvarez and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Díaz. In 2011, she was a recipient of the IX Screenwriting Developing Grant from the Carolina Foundation in Spain. An aspiring filmmaker, Gómez has studied film courses at the prestigious New York University and screenwriting at the Jacob Krueger Studio, and has starred in several short films including To Kill a Roach -winner of the NYU Fall 2012 Technisphere Award for Outstanding Achievement- and Hallelujah, both of which she also wrote, directed and produced. She also directed and co-produced the short film The Iron Warehouse, written by playwright and Juilliard alumni, Hilary Bettis and is currently writing the script for her first feature film. Gómez splits her time between New York City and Santo Domingo.
Jennifer Ikeda (EE-KEH-DAH) is HAPA, born and raised in Oakland, CA. Broadway: Top Girls (MTC), Seascape (LCT); Off-Broadway: Vietgone, Linda (MTC); Bad News (Skirball); Revolt. She. Said., Marie Antionette (Soho Rep); King Philip’s..., Takarazuka!!! (Clubbed Thumb); Love & Information (NYTW); Charles Frances Chan’s…, Leah’s Train (NAATCO); Today Is My Birthday (Page 73); Rescue Me, The Square (Ma-Yi); Oliver Twist, Hamlet (TFANA); Women Beware Women (Red Bull); and for the Public Theater: Lady Macbeth with the Mobile Unit; As You Like It, The Bacchae at the Delacorte; another As You Like It, Two Noble Kinsman, and Ping Pong downtown. Regional credits include La Jolla Playhouse, Ahmanson/CTG, Berkeley Rep, ART, and The Shakespeare Theatre. TV: recurring on Dash & Lily, Blue Bloods, Blindspot, Smash. Appearances on New Amsterdam, Maniac, Tell Me A Story, Elementary, Madame Secretary, Happyish, Person of Interest, Suits, Fringe, L&O. Film: Jenny has appeared twice opposite TV/Film star Ken Jeong, in KILLING HASSELHOFF and ADVANTAGEOUS, which premiered at Sundance. VO: dozens of audiobooks, including the best-selling All Soul’s Trilogy by Deborah Harkness and Jean Wakatsuki Houston’s seminal book on Japanese-American Internment, Farewell to Manzanar. Two time recipient of the Audie Award, and multiple appearances on NPR’s Selected Shorts.
Patch Darragh has an extensive list of TV credits, with notable arcs on SUCCESSION, MR. MERCEDES, THE LOUDEST VOICE, THE PATH, LONGMIRE, BOARDWALK EMPIRE and many more. He is best known for his Series Regular role in the Netflix cult hit EVERYTHING SUCKS! On the film side, Patch can be seen in THE FIRST PURGE and CAM, both for Blumhouse, as well as BRITTANY RUNS A MARATHON and SULLY. He recently shot a leading role in upcoming indie CABRINI opposite John Lithgow in addition to a large Guest Star in Apple TV+’s ECHO 3/LONGBOARD.
April Matthis is an Obie Award-winning actor and company member of Elevator Repair Service. Off-Broadway: Toni Stone (Roundabout); Fairview, LEAR (Soho Rep); Signature Plays—Funnyhouse of a Negro (Signature Theatre); IOWA, Antlia Pneumatica (Playwrights Horizons); On the Levee (LCT3). With ERS: Baldwin/Buckley at Cambridge (Philadelphia Fringe Festival), The Sound & the Fury; Fondly, Collette Richland (NYTW); Measure for Measure (The Public); Everyone’s Fine with Virginia Woolf (Abrons Art Center); GATZ (Perth Festival). Regional: Little Bunny Foo Foo (Actors Theater of Louisville), A Streetcar Named Desire (Yale Rep). TV: “Evil” , “The Good Fight” (Paramount Plus), “New Amsterdam” (NBC). Film: Black Card, November, Fugitive Dreams.
Taylor Schilling is an Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated actress, best known for her starring role as Piper Chapman in the Netflix original series, “Orange is the New Black,” which ran for seven seasons. Schilling recently wrapped the Hulu limited series “Pam & Tommy” opposite Seth Rogen. She was most recently seen in "The Second Wave" for Robert & Michelle King, a COVID-contained series which aired as a Spectrum Original. Prior to that, she was seen in the Hulu anthology series "Monsterland."Schilling appeared in the Film Arcade indie comedy, “Family,” which premiered at the 2018 SXSW Festival. She also appeared in Emilio Estevez-directed drama, “The Public,” starring alongside Alec Baldwin, Jena Malone, Christian Slater and Gabrielle Union. The film premiered at the 2018 Toronto Film Festival. Schilling also starred in Orion Pictures horror thriller, “The Prodigy,” indie “Take Me,” Netflix’s “The Titan,” Patrick Brice’s Sundance, Tribeca and SXSW hit “The Overnight.” In 2015, Schilling starred opposite Peter Dinklage in the Classic Stage Company production of “A Month in the Country.” In 2012, Schilling appeared in the Academy Award winning film “Argo” opposite Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston and John Goodman. Earlier in 2012, Schilling starred opposite Zac Efron in Scott Hicks’ “The Lucky One.”
Jeanine Serralles: Selected NY credits include: Catch as Catch Can (Page 73); Don't You F***ing Say a Word (59E59); Gloria (Vineyard-Drama Desk nomination, Lucille Lortel nomination-featured actress), Verite (LCT3); Dying For It (Atlantic); The Maids (Red Bull Theater); Maple and Vine (Playwrights Horizons); The Black Eyed (New York Theatre Workshop, Drama League nomination), Hold Please (Working Theater, Drama Desk nomination-Featured Actress). Selected Regional credits include: Girls (Yale Rep), MoscowX6 (Williamstown), These Paper Bullets (Yale Rep, Connecticut Critics Circle Nomination-Outstanding Actress in a play); Tartuffe (Westport Country Playhouse, Connecticut Critics Circle Award-Featured Actress). Selected Film&TV: Utopia (Amazon, series regular), The Woman in the Window, Hot Summer Nights, Cubby, Inside Llewyn Davis, The Abolitionists, No Pay-Nudity, Bull(recurring.) MFA: Yale School of Drama.