Anne Hamilton/Hamilton Dramaturgy

The New American Voices Festival

@ Queens Theatre

Presents a reading of

Homebodies
Saturday, April 12 – 8pm, in the Studio Theatre
written by Maria Alexandria Beech
Directed by Michelle Bossy

Featuring Olivia Negron*, Claudia Acosta, Cathy Curtain*, Rock Kohli* and Chris Henry Coffee*

A freelance writer and her mother live a quiet and secluded life in New York, except when a frozen chicken and other objects crash on the floor. That’s when a mysterious couple who moved in below knocks on the door. A funny and tender play about life choices and cultural assumptions, with a fascinating group of characters including an ex-lover, an Indian salesman, and a newborn baby.

*member, AEA

To rsvp: http://queenstheatre.org/2013-14-NAV-free-play-reading-series

The Playwright:

Maria Alexandria Beech’s play Infinity Pond, commissioned by Primary Stages and Aspen Theater Masters, was selected for the new Palm Beach Theater Festival. Alex is commissioned to write a play for Teatro Luna in Chicago in 2014, the first play in its Five in Five Series by women playwrights. Her play, Breaking Walls, was produced at The Cherry Lane Theater. Her play, Little Monsters, was produced by Primary Stages and Brandeis Theater Company. Her translation of Eduardo Machado’s The Cook was produced by Stages Theater. Her musical CLASS, with composer Karl Michael Johnson, will be workshopped in Michigan in the summer. Since 2006, Alex has been a member of The Dorothy Strelsin  New American Writers Group at Primary Stages (where she wrote Class, Charity, Bonds, Little Monsters, Homebodies, and currently, ISLANDS). She’s also an alum of the Hispanic Playwrights Lab at Intar (Gloria).

Alex earned a BA (cum laude) and Masters in Fine Arts in Playwriting from Columbia University, and a Masters in Fine Arts in Musical Theater Writing from New York University. Her awards include The Aspen Theatre Master’s Visionary Award (2009), and Outstanding New Script Award at the Planet Connections Theater Festivity for What Are You Doing Here(2011). Alex is a member of the Dramatists Guild in New York.

Director:
Michelle Bossy is a New York based director and producer dedicated to bringing new plays to the stage.  She is the Associate Artistic Director of Primary Stages, where she produces new American plays, and where she has also served as Assistant Director, Company Manager, and Artistic Associate. She produced the World Premiere of Dread Awakening and directed and produced the premieres of Un Plugged In (by Brian Pracht); South Beach Rapture (by David Caudle); and Sarajevo’s Child; Cumberland; Low Brow; and Missing Mike Vitelle. Recently, she directed the world premiere of Little Monsters by Maria Alexandria Beech at the Brandeis Theater Company, and High School Confidential for Primary Stages.  She directed developmental readings of Eat Your Heart Out by Courtney Baron (Perry Mansfield New Works Festival), Bicycle Girl by Rogelio Martinez (Repertory Theater of St. Louis), Gloria by Maria Alexandria Beech (EST), Mercy by Adam Szymkowicz, and May Day by Molly Smith Metzler, among many others.  Michelle is the Director of the Dorothy StrelsinNew American Writers Group, where she has worked with over twenty emerging writers. Michelle holds the first undergraduate directing degree from Webster University’s Conservatory of Theatre Arts. She is the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of the Plum Theatre Company. She teaches acting and playwriting for the Einhorn School of Performing Arts (ESPA) and directing for Syracuse University. Member: Lincoln Center Director’s Lab and the League of Professional Theatre Women.