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The Writers' Room
Reading Series

The Writers'
Room
Reading Series

Please join us for readings of scripts from members of the 2021/2022 Geffen Playhouse Writers’ Room.

2021/2022 Writers' Room Playwrights

For My Next Trick...

November 18, 2022 at 3:00pm

Written & Performed by Michael Shayan
Directed by Michael Michetti

Can you keep a secret? Join acclaimed Iranian-American playwright and Magic Castle performer Michael Shayan for a death-defying journey through impossible circumstances. Marvel at his harrowing attempts to cut his weight in half, conjure up a sex life, and pull his father’s love out of a hat! A hilarious and moving autobiographical story of survival, redemption, and hope. It’ll be an escape act for the ages.


Word of Mouth

December 2, 2022 at 3:00pm

Written by Weston Gaylord
Directed by Jessica Hanna

Leo has created an unlicensed restaurant inside his apartment, where handpicked groups of four are invited to dine on his meticulously concocted dishes. A possible ghost sighting at last week’s dinner has tonight’s quartet of strangers hoping for a repeat apparition. But what the group is in for, as the evening unfolds, might be more haunting than even the supernatural can provide.


God Will Do The Rest

December 8, 2022 at 3:00pm

Written by Nicholas Pilapil
Directed by Rodney To

After her divorce, a forty-something former teen mom returns to her childhood home after being estranged from her family for almost two decades. But with the collision of her return and her glamorously overbearing mother's birthday, their family homestead soon explodes in an uproar of hidden truths and harbored secrets. With Santo Niño prayers, karaoke and chicken adobo, God Will Do The Rest exposes the complicated ways Filipino Americans grapple with their love and duty to family.


Kairos

December 9, 2022 at 3:00pm

Written by Lisa Sanaye Dring
Directed by Jennifer Chang

Kairos is the story of two people falling in love during a tectonic shift in society. Their nascent relationship is tested by the advent of Prometheus, a procedure that grants immortality to a select few. What happens to commitment, meaning and care when linear time breaks open?


Beneath the Bowtie

December 14, 2022 at 2:00pm

Written by Katie Lindsay, Tova Katz, Alexandra Kalinowski
Directed by Katie Lindsay

Lights up on The Marquese, a swanky, mafia-owned New York City club where drag kings dazzle a high-end clientele with musical showmanship and seductive gender play. It’s 1949, and though homosexuality and “cross-dressing” are illegal, a vigorous drag scene has turned the East Village into a hub of queer expression, thanks in large part to protection from the clubs’ mafia owners. Amidst the dazzle and danger, Donny, a young queer runaway, dreams of being a drag star, falls in love, and discovers what it takes to become who she was meant to be. However, as Donny gains a platform as a performer, she must confront the costs and compromises of being yourself in a world increasingly hostile to queer people. Beneath the Bowtie explores what it means to tell the truth of who we are when our lives are at stake, and how the legacy of our queer ancestors’ struggle and joy can embolden us today.


Aching

December 15, 2022 at 3:00pm

Written by Vivian Barnes
Directed by Joan Sergay

Nia describes sex. Carolyn makes baskets. Chris drives a truck. The Man does whatever you want him to do. Everyone's in pain. A play-in-progress about all of those things, and lizards.

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