Athena Project’s Read & Rant program seeks to combine the sharing of theatrical work with the wider public and the new play development aspects of our former Plays In Progress Series while also fostering collaboration between playwrights and dramaturgs. Think book club for plays! Learn what makes a good script, discuss how it affects us, and explore the ways it links to the larger world. This monthly free offering to the community aims to raise awareness of the under-representation of women’s stories on stage.

Each month, we read two new and unproduced scripts selected from a nationwide call for submissions and typically meet every third Monday online via Zoom to discuss the works. Join us to converse with invited playwrights who bring an in-depth knowledge of the works and theatrical writing at large. Guided by a dramaturg, we also invite you to share your constructive comments, thoughts, and affirmations in order to aid in the development process of the pieces.

This month we will be featuring two playwrights selected from our Read & Rant lottery:

Laura Anthony’s A Very Great Mischief:
In August 1921, the British House of Commons presented a clause to amend Section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885. This act was used to send Oscar Wilde to prison in 1895 for “committing acts of gross indecency with male persons,” and was commonly understood as the buggery law. The resolution would add “acts of indecency by females” to the buggery laws of Great Britain. Such an amendment was lambasted as “a very great mischief,” that would not deter women from same-sex encounters, but rather inform those who were not aware that they could engage in such acts. Inspired by the true events of 1921, A Very Great Mischief is a queer spin on Cyrano de Bergerac and Twelfth Night in the farcical style of Oscar Wilde.

Kate Douglas’ Wonderland:
Wonderland explores the anguish and ecstasy of women’s anger in two parts.
Part One is set in a dystopian ‘anger management’ rehab for women to help heal them of their rage and “get control of their lives.”
Part Two is set in an outlandishly monied suburb where omnipresent violence is entirely normalized.

After you register for a session, you will receive information on how to access our featured scripts. We want everyone to participate who would like to learn more about these talented playwrights and their plays.

Join Todd Almond and Kate Douglas in this one-night-only celebration of their new musical The Lucky Few. It’s New Year’s Eve, 1959, an explosive moment in American history. The U.S. has entered the space race; Lenny Bruce appeared on NBC for the first time; Miles Davis began recording Kind of Blue; and somewhere in South Dakota, Jane is making music nobody has ever heard before.

Tickets: $25

While I’m waiting for spring to return I’m playing Rockwood Music Hall next month with some very special guests

SUNDAY FEB 13th
8:30pm
Rockwood Stage 2

LOTS of brand new music (scary)
BEAUTIFUL band (scary talented)

Come say hello.

Hold, Please is an enlivening exploration of stasis and boredom as a gateway to the extraordinary. As we enter a full year of pause, Hold, Please asks: what can we learn inside of ambiguity, inside of “not knowing”, inside of waiting? 

A mobile phone is required for this performance.

Tickets are free with a timed entry reservation at Little Island: https://littleisland.org/timed-entry-reservations/

Emergence Collective will perform their new show PERENNIALS at Little Island, based on their docu-musical of the same name.

Emergence Collective shares stories of endurance in ecosystems and lived experience to gain a deeper understanding of what survival and healing mean for all beings right now as we begin to emerge from this year of pandemic.

This show is free and open to the public.

Kate Douglas & Shayfer James will perform selections from THE NINTH HOUR in Times Square as part of the Georgia series from Up Until Now Collective.

Featuring ASL interpretation by Brandon Kazen-Maddox and special guests.

This event is free with RSVP.

An excerpt of Destination Wonderful will be performed as part of the New Musicals Lab at the Ferguson Center

Destination Wonderful is a pop-verbatim musical that follows a group of salespeople attending a mandatory conference hosted by a multi-level marketing organization (MLM). Told over the course of a single weekend, the piece explores the precarious nature of hope and the impossibility of the lavish lifestyle that is sold to these employees.

Gingold Theatrical presents a digital, work-in-progress reading of The Apiary.

Through a freak accident, lab assistants Zora and Pilar discover the bees have an usually positive response to dead human flesh. As the bees begin to thrive, Zora and Pilar find a way to continue to feed the bees in order to save them - and cope with their own failing health.

The Apiary has been developed at GTG’s Speakers’ Corner.

Against Women & Music! is an absurdist-horror Victorian chamber musical written by Kate Douglas & Grace McLean. Celine is a widow emerging from a year of mourning following her husband’s death and grappling with her peculiar daughter Geneva’s debut into high society. When the doctor prescribes Geneva piano lessons to “finesse her emotional intelligence,” Celine discovers a sinister presence has possessed her daughter.

RSVP and more information available HERE

Written and performed by Kate Douglas and Shayfer James
Kevin Newbury, director
Troy Ogilvie, choreographer

This performative rock-noir reimagining of the famous epic explores the intricacies of mankind's relationship with power and violence. Staged in the Fuentidueña Chapel at The Met Cloisters, it is a classic story of glory and ruin—as told through triumphant pop anthems, heart-wrenching lullabies, heroes, and monsters.

Tickets cost $25 and include same-day Museum admission during open hours.

Click here to purchase tickets & learn more

The culmination of 21 hours of collaboration between a playwright and the LOM ensemble.

Showing: March 7th, 7:30pm - Gemini & Scorpio Loft
Featuring LOM Lieutenants!

The Ensemble Playwright Lab (EPL) is a residency program in which the playwright engages with Letter of Marque's (LOM) ensemble to create, develop, or reimagine a piece of work.

We're back, we have an incredible playwright, come see a reading of her play "Wonderland" at the next event on Wednesday, February 20th at 7pm.

WONDERLAND is a story of nonimaginary people populating an imaginary town. Wonderland is a staged suburb built to conceal a World War Two fighter jet factory in case the Japanese bombers fly over. Three actresses have been hired to live ordinarily as townspeople as a finishing touch. But World War Two never ends, and the summer job stretches on forever. WONDERLAND questions the meaning of authenticity and denial in a manufactured world where imminent doom is possible in every moment.

A free staged reading series celebrating new works by female playwrights.

Tuesday, April 24th - An Infinite Progression by Kate Douglas

In order to save her job, Ella, an accountant, convinces her manager Simon to review the company's budget to find a cut that could save her job. Instead, they end up devising a scheme to reclaim old debts on the company's letterhead.

6:30pm at Urban Stages, Doors at 6pm
259 West 30th St
(btw 7th & 8th Ave)

No RSVP necessary, first come first seated.
Glass of wine with small donation
 

Kate Douglas & Shayfer James perform songs from their first musical, The Ninth Hour, and will debut some new tunes from their second musical, The Seven Who Were Hanged.

A new collaboration between singer/songwriters Kate Douglas, Matthew Dean Marsh, Raina Sokolov-Gonzalez & Sylver Wallace.