Actresses America Ferrera (“Ugly Betty”), Kate Mulgrew (“Orange is the New Black”), and Emily Bergl (“Desperate Housewives”) will headline the Lilly Awards Foundation’s inaugural (3)Plays from the Kilroys’ List: A Reading Series.
Intended to promote new works by female playwrights, this year’s reading series will showcase Laura Schellhardt’s “The Comparables,” Larissa FastHorse’s “What Would Crazy Horse Do?” and Meg Miroshnik’s “The Tall Girls.” All three works will be directed by women (Lear deBessonet, Liesl Tommy, and Leigh Silverman, respectively).
The Lilly Awards Foundation’s mission is to promote gender parity at all levels of theatrical production and develop and celebrate the work of women in the theater. The Kilroys is a list of 46 plays most recommended by industry leaders in a national survey of the best underproduced plays by female and trans playwrights. It was created as “a tool for producers committed to ending the systemic underrepresentation of female voices in the American theater.”
The reading series’ free performances begin on Monday, March 9 at 7 PM at The Duke on 42nd Street in NYC, followed by engagements on March 16 and March 23. Reservations are strongly recommended and can be obtained via Artful or the Lilly Awards’ site. An “AfterChat” reception sponsored by The Interval will follow each reading.
Here is the (3)Plays from the Kilroys’ List: A Reading Series schedule.
Monday, March 9th at 7:00 p.m.
The Comparables
A play by Laura Schellhardt
Directed by Lear deBessonet
Featuring America Ferrerra and Kate Mulgrew
In Laura Schellhardt’s play The Comparables three women vie for power in the cut-throat world of high-end realty. Bette runs her own female-dominated agency. Monica is her loyal second-in-command. Iris is the savvy new hire. When Bette’s reputation falls under attack, the future of the agency is at stake. Who, if anyone, will survive the ordeal, and to what lengths will they go to ensure success? A dark comedy that begs the question: for women in the competitive world, is there more than one way to do business?
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Monday, March 16th at 7:00 p.m.
What Would Crazy Horse Do?
A play by Larissa FastHorse
Directed by Liesl Tommy
Featuring Emily Bergl, Jesse Perez and Madeline Sayet
Set today, What Would Crazy Horse Do? by Larissa FastHorse, is about two Native Americans who are facing the extinction of their tribe while the first female leader of the KKK is poised to bring a gentler version of the Klan into the limelight. When the two groups are brought together, they find that sometimes they are asking the same questions. When is race separation racism? And when is it essential preservation? It’s a question both sides need to answer before it is too late.
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Monday, March 23rd at 7pm
The Tall Girls
A play by Meg Miroshnik
Directed by Leigh Silverman
Featuring Kally Duling, Alexandra Henriksen, Cobie Minifie and Erin Wilhelmi
The Tall Girls takes place in Poor Prairie — the dusty, desolate town where fifteen-and-a-half-year-old Jean has been exiled as caretaker for her wild-child cousin, Almeda. It’s a grim, dangerous place to eke out an existence as a teenage girl — until a handsome man with a past arrives, a brand-new basketball in tow. As the town’s girls come together to form a team set on making it out of Poor Prairie, a murky committee of townspeople threatens to stamp out girls’ sports altogether. Inspired by the flourishing and decline of high school girls’ basketball teams in the 1930s rural Midwest, The Tall Girls asks: Who can afford the luxury of play? And what is the cost of childhood?
