On Monday, April 9, Roundabout Theatre Company’s Roundabout Underground playwriting alumni will gather to present The 24 Hour Plays Off-Broadway. Six playwrights, six directors, 24 actors and a musical guest will perform six brand new short plays written & rehearsed over the course of a single day. The performance will begin at 8:00pm at the Laura Pels Theatre at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre (111 West 46th Street).
All proceeds from the evening will benefit Roundabout Underground and the New Play Initiative, programs focused on discovering and cultivating emerging playwrights and artists
“Roundabout Underground and The 24 Hour Plays share a commitment to discovering and nurturing new voices in the American theater,” Roundabout’s Director of New Play Development Jill Rafson and The 24 Hour Plays Executive Director Mark Armstrong said in a joint statement, “as well as to creating dynamic, unforgettable theater experiences. The 24 Hour Plays Off-Broadway promises to be a joyous, singular evening celebrating both of those endeavors.”
Stage and screen stars scheduled to appear in The 24 Hour Plays Off-Broadway include André De Shields, Aasif Mandvi, Anna Baryshnikov, Arian Moayed, Beanie Feldstein, Beth Behrs, Betty Gilpin, Cristin Milioti, Denis O’Hare, Franchesca Ramsey, Gideon Glick, Jackie Cruz, Jeremy Shamos, Leslie Ugams, Mike Carlsen, Nina Hellman, Reed Birney, Richard Kind, Sarah Steele, Sas Goldberg and more!
Playwrights include artists who debuted, or will debut, at Roundabout Underground: musical guest Adam Gwon and Friends and new work by Joshua Harmon, Jiréh Breon Holder, Meghan Kennedy, Alex Lubischer, Ming Peiffer and Jenny Rachel Weiner.
They will be directed by Roundabout favorites Mark Brokaw, Marc Bruni, Theresa Rebeck, Giovanna Sardelli, Whitney White and Charles Randolph-Wright.
Tickets range from $99-$2,500 and can be purchased at www.roundabouttheatre.org/the24hourplays or by calling Audience Services at 212-719-1300. Underwriter Packages are also available! Please call 212.719.9393, ext. 369 to learn more.
The 62-seat Black Box Theatre, below the Laura Pels Theatre in the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre, allows Roundabout to take artistic risks that are better suited for a more intimate space.
Through the New Play Initiative, Roundabout proves its devotion to the development and production of new works by significant writers and artists. The Roundabout Underground program in particular provides substantial artistic and financial resources to emerging playwrights to stage their debut productions in New York and on Roundabout’s stages. In addition to producing their first play, writers receive a commission for a future play, showing a level of commitment to writers’ careers and the future of theatre in New York that is unparalleled. The New Play Initiative has discovered and brought audiences some of the most important new voices in theatre and is dedicated to creating a diverse canon for the future of theatre. To learn more about Roundabout’s commitment to the development of new work, visit New Play Initiative.
Roundabout Underground showcases new plays that will either give a debut production to an emerging writer or director, or allow an experienced director to go back to his/her creative roots. Jill Rafson (Director of New Play Development) serves as Artistic Producer for this initiative that continues to be a creative breeding ground for nurturing new talent.
Prior Underground productions include the acclaimed world premieres of Stephen Karam’s Speech & Debate (2007), Steven Levenson’s The Language of Trees (2008), Adam Gwon’s Ordinary Days (2009), Kim Rosenstock’s Tigers Be Still (2010), David West Read’s The Dream of the Burning Boy (2011), Andrew Hinderaker’s Suicide, Incorporated (2011), Joshua Harmon’s Bad Jews (2012), Meghan Kennedy’s Too Much, Too Much, Too Many (2013), Jeff Augustin’s Little Children Dream of God (2015), Lindsey Ferrentino’s Ugly Lies the Bone (2015), Jenny Rachel Weiner’s Kingdom Come (2016), Martín Zimmerman’s On the Exhale (2017), Jiréh Breon Holder’s Too Heavy for Your Pocket (2017), and Alex Lubischer’s Bobbie Clearly (2018). Ming Peiffer’s Usual Girls will debut in Fall 2018.
THE 24 HOUR PLAYS bring together extraordinary artists to create time-limited theater around the world. In addition to The 24 Hour Plays on Broadway and The 24 Hour Musicals, regular events take place in London, Los Angeles, Dublin, Germany, Minneapolis, Athens, Helsinki, Mexico City and Florence. Through collaborations with organizations including The Old Vic Theatre, Dublin Youth Theatre, Urban Arts Partnership, Cornerstone Theater Company, The Orchard Project, Bennington College, Hennepin Theatre Trust, The University of Minnesota-Duluth and The Del Sole Foundation, The 24 Hour Plays have raised millions of dollars for charities. Each summer, The 24 Hour Plays partner with the New School for Drama to bring together the best actors, directors, playwrights and producers 25 and under for an intensive professional experience. Licensed affiliates have produced their own versions of The 24 Hour Plays in regional and professional theaters, colleges and universities, and just about everywhere you can find a curtain and a stage.
Lia Chang is an actor, a multi-media content producer and co-founder of Bev’s Girl Films, making films that foster inclusion and diversity on both sides of the camera. Bev’s Girl Films’ debut short film, Hide and Seek was a top ten film in the Asian American Film Lab’s 2015 72 Hour Shootout Filmmaking Competition, and she received a Best Actress nomination. BGF collaborates with and produces multi-media content for artists, actors, designers, theatrical productions, composers, musicians and corporations. Lia is also an internationally published and exhibited photographer, a multi-platform journalist, and a publicist. Lia has appeared in the films Wolf, New Jack City, A Kiss Before Dying, King of New York, Big Trouble in Little China, The Last Dragon, Taxman and Hide and Seek. She is profiled in Jade Magazine and Playbill.com
Backstage Pass with Lia Chang 