The Echoes Writers Group at Primary Stages is a year-long, educational program focused on finding, nurturing, and amplifying the voices of women, non-binary, gender non-conforming, and trans artists. Led by the artistic team at Primary Stages, Echoes is a place for writers to discover and develop their voice in a supportive and creative community that grows together.
The group is comprised of 8 writers who participate in twice-weekly Mentorship and Sharing Sessions, where they have the chance to create and develop their own work with professionals from across the theater community. Mentors for our 2022/23 cohort include Michelle Bossy, Brittany K. Allen, Calamity West, Caridad Svich, Brenda Withers, Rehana Lew Mirza, Stefanie Zadravec, and Amalia Rojas, with such topics as Playwriting Fundamentals, Adaptation, 10-Minute Plays, Comedy, Dramaturgy, Dialogue, and more.
Each Group member receives a $500 honorarium, and this year-long program culminates in a week of developmental workshops for the writers and a public presentation of the Group members' work in the Spring.
Primary Stages strives to reflect the story of all races, ethnicities, genders, sexualities, classes, ages, and abilities, and hopes for this group to reflect the America around us as opposed to what has historically been taught and represented.
This program is made possible by a generous grant from The Cornelia T. Bailey Foundation New ERA Women Writers Program.
March 27 & 28 at 59E59 Theaters
All readings are free and open to the public
RSVP
Monday, March 27, 7:00pm
Featuring excerpts of new work by Ang(ela) Bey, Jess Ducey, Ashil Lee, and April Soetarman
Tuesday, March 28, 7:00pm
Featuring excerpts of new work by Kim Brockington, lingyue, Regan Moro, and Max Raymond
MEET OUR 2022/23 WRITERS
ANG(ELA) BEY is a performer, playwright, and director from Philadelphia. Their plays imagine irresistible, liberated futures for Black folx. Ang's work received development with the inaugural cohorts of Strides Collective's Emerging Playwrights, Jouska PlayWorks, and currently with Azuka Theatre's Rising Writers. Recipient to multiple grants, residences, and awards, Angela has been produced and commissioned by Shoe Box Theatre Collective, Theatre in the X, Shakespeare in Clark Park, Christ Church Neighborhood House, and more. Ang is founder of Philly-based production entity, Upstream Performance Collaborative. Echoes is their NYC playwriting debut. They are stoked to be in such wonderful company! Asé! angbey.com
KIM BROCKINGTON has been acting for over 30 years in TV, Film, and Stage. Recently, Kim added writer to her resume. Her writing credits include Broken Pieces, a semifinalist at the Eugene O'Neill in 2020 and a semifinalist at the National Black Theater in 2022. Broken Pieces will be workshopped in 2023 at NBT. Other plays include First Daughter, The Language of Poetry, Honey, and Daisy. Her Collection of Poems BlueGoddess Love Poems is a five star Amazon Favorite. Her poetry was also featured in the Actors Journal for Durango Festival. She has written articles for Heart and Soul Magazine. Recently, she created 'The Lovely Breath: Daily Meditations for Calm & Serenity' that will be featured on the Insight Timer App in 2023! As an actress, you can catch Kim currently recurring as Lillian Gaines in "Godfather of Harlem" and in Power Book 3: Raising Kanan as Dr Loretta West. Kim is a graduate of The American Academy of Dramatic Arts. For more visit www.kimbrockington.com.
JESS DUCEY (they/them) is a writer, producer, fundraiser, and event manager. They spent the last nine years in Aotearoa New Zealand, where they were a regular Naked Girls Reading performer, a dancer in queer ballet Sapphic Lake, co-founder of Queer AF, Wellington's first queer arts festival, and creator of Unfinished Business, in which artists shared in-progress works over a three course dinner in their flat. Their writing has appeared on Radio NZ and is forthcoming in Landfall. Jess enjoys nature, knitting, elaborate dinner parties, public transit, books, learning to clown, cheese, and cycling (slowly!) around the city. Find them patting every dog in Astoria or at @thejduce.
ASHIL LEE (they/she/he) is a NYC-based actor, playwright, and sex educator. Korean-American, trans nonbinary child of immigrants. Selected acting credits: The Nosebleed (LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater), World premieres of You Can't Touch My Sister... (Columbia University) and The Virtuous Fall... (Spicy Witch Productions), theatrical premiere of Dogville (dir. Robert O'Hara). Playwriting groups: Pataphysics 2020 with Clare Barron. NYU: Tisch. BFA in Acting, Minor in Youth Mental Health. Masters Candidate in Mental Health and Wellness (NYU: Steinhardt). Creator of Script Tease, theatre inspired by sex-ed facts that fundraises for charity. Best friend to blind dog, Huxley. Upcoming: The Nosebleed (Woolly Mammoth, 2023) www.ashillee.com
LINGYUE was born in the U.S. and raised in the American Midwest. After a stint on the West Coast and Hollywood, she is back to writing plays in the Midwest. She strives to tell stories that are grounded in the feminine, peer at social structures from the margins, and seek to question the status quo. Voices of Our Nation (VONA) Writer's Workshop. Prop Thtr 2021/2022 Playwrights Workshop. A staged reading of her most recent play, Ordinary Women Nameless Women, is forthcoming at San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Company (SFBATCO).
REGAN MORO is a Brooklyn-based playwright and actor mostly writing about religion, lesbian Tik Tok breakup curses, big deaths, little deaths, Disney adults, and family estrangement. She was born in the North Country, received her BFA from the University of Michigan, and spent a year as an apprentice at Actors Theatre of Louisville. Since then, they've worked with Playwrights Horizons, La Jolla Playhouse, the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center's National Playwrights Conference, Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Mad Ones, New Georges, and many others. She also appeared on the most recent season of HBO's "Succession." They are really happy to be here.
MAX RAYMOND (he/him) is an NYC-based theatre artist. As an actor, recent projects include Archie's Weird Parody, a new musical sendup of "Riverdale" in which he plays Archie, and Frailty, Thy Name, a virtual adaptation of Hamlet, in which he played a nonbinary Hamlet. Max is a Co-Founding Artistic Director of Star Pocket Theatre Company, which produced Mashallah: Exploring Middle Eastern Identities in America and The Member of the Wedding, in which he played Frankie, at art gallery VAE Raleigh. He is an ensemble member of the Social Justice Improv Project and a Literary Advisory Council member of The PlayGround Experiment. Max also works as a freelance trans literacy educator. maxraymond.org
APRIL SOETARMAN (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist, designer, and writer. Her narrative-driven works play with the language of everyday objects and speculative institutions to explore complex human emotions. Her projects have been exhibited by museums and public spaces, as well as unofficially installed in dozens of urban spaces across the country. April is also behind WeirdSideProjects.com, her previously-anonymous series of experiments in code, text, and street art. Notable works include The Museum of Almost Realities (2017), The Department of Emotional Labor (2019), and The End of the Day (2020). @AprilSoetarman / AprilSoetarman.com