We’re thrilled to announce the dates for our 2nd annual BIPOC Writer Adaptation Showcase! On July 14, 15, & 16 we will be showcasing Desi Moreno-Penson’s work-in-development, El Bacalao: The Catfish Man (based on Euripides’ The Bacchae) and Brandon Zang’s work-in-development Nuwa In Fairyland! Check out full info on the plays below and reserve your seats TODAY!
Lifeline Members: don’t forget, even if you’ve used all of your flex tickets for the season already, you can still take advantage of your membership and get 20% off any further tickets you purchase!
After a selection process that more than doubled the amount of submissions Lifeline received during the inaugural workshop in 2021-22, Moreno-Penson and Zang have been working with members of
Lifeline’s artistic ensemble, as well as team members of their choosing, for the last 5 months to utilize
Lifeline’s unique and effective process of development to help nurture these playwright’s new
adaptations that move us beyond the margins of our own lives.
El Bacalao: The Catfish Man
Written by Desi Moreno-Penson
Directed by Ruben Carrazana
Friday, July 14 at 7:00pm and Saturday, July 15 at 2:30pm
Reserve your seats TODAY!
El Bacalao: The Catfish Man, loosely based on Euripides’ The Bacchae and taking place in the small backwater town of Thebes, Florida, tells the story of a dysfunctional, cantankerous Cuban family on the verge of losing everything. A storm’s coming; a restaurant is closed; a young girl is dead. And a Yoruban demigod is hell bent on vengeance.
Desi Moreno-Penson (she/her) is a playwright, actor, dramaturg, and independent theater producer based in NYC. She has an MFA in Dramaturgy and Theater Criticism from Brooklyn College. Her plays have been developed/produced at Ensemble Studio Theater (EST), INTAR, MultiStages, Perishable Theater (Providence, RI), Henry Street Settlement, SPF-Summer Play Festival, terraNOVA Collective, Downtown Urban Theater Festival (DUTF) @the Cherry Lane, Urban Theater Company (Chicago), Teatro Coribantes (San Juan, PR), among others.
Nuwa In Fairyland
Written by Brandon Zang
Directed by Helen Young
Saturday, July 15 at 7:00pm and Sunday, July 16 at 2:30pm
Reserve your seats TODAY!
Nuwa In Fairyland: Adopted by an American family when he was a baby, 15-year-old Benji has no memory of his life in China. However, after he is cast as Puck in his school’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Benji’s method acting exercises begin to blur his sense of reality. In the mystical land of the fairies, Benji has a chance encounter with the Chinese goddess Nüwa, who may hold the key to the boy’s connection to his birthplace. Told through a blend of Shakespearean fantasy and Chinese folklore, Nuwa In Fairyland is a story about the melancholy of separation and the child trafficking endemic in China.
Brandon Zang (he/him) is a playwright from Vancouver, British Columbia. His play, Ah Wing and the Automaton Eagle, is the winner of the Canadian Playwriting Competition Special Merit Award, the Olga and Paul Menn Foundation Prize, and a Wayward Voices Panel Favorite. Zang is currently an MFA playwright at Boston University and holds a double BA in anthropology and theater from the University of Chicago.