NEW YORK CITY: Working Theater and the Broadway Advocacy Coalition (BAC) have announced the first Stage Left festival, a new-play celebration that will take place at the Judy Theatre at Playwrights Horizons across two weekends, June 13-15 and June 20-22. Supported by the Murphy Institute and Leadership for Democracy and Social Justice and hosted by Playwrights Horizons, Stage Left aims to unite New York’s arts and advocacy communities to spotlight the power of collective storytelling in building a more just and equitable world.
Stage Left will feature six readings of new plays inspired by frontline fights for racial and economic justice, including La Dureza by Ed Cardona Jr. (previously presented as a reading by Working Theater), Hit Machine by Jonathan Caren (which recently received a reading at L.A.’s IAMA Theatre), The Garbologists by Lindsay Joelle (after a recent Theater Alliance production in Washington, D.C.), Foot Wears House by Laura Neill (developed by Working Theater in a reading this past February), The Hero U Took by Pedro Rosario, and Date of Release by Andrea Ambam (previously developed by BAC’s Artists in Action Festival and SigWorks at Arlington’s Signature Theatre). Each play will be paired with an advocacy coalition working at the frontlines of the movement to catalyze conversation and create pathways to immediate and meaningful action following the reading. These include REI Union Soho, Los Deliveristas Unidos/Workers Justice Project, and the Releasing Aging People in Prison (RAPP) Campaign. Ambam wrote the first iteration of Date of Release after conversations with the RAPP Campaign.
“I’m honored to be involved in the Stage Left Festival, especially knowing that, first and foremost, my play Date of Release will be used as a tool to advocate for fair and timely parole,” Ambam said in a statement. “Director Jose Saldana described the carceral system as creating an ‘epic of trauma’ for families to untangle. It’s easy to underestimate, but if theatre were not a powerful and meaningful weapon, we wouldn’t be seeing such incessant federal attempts to silence and defund artists and arts organizations.”
The festival was born of conversations among Working Theater, BAC, and the Leadership for Democracy and Social Justice, an institute at CUNY’s School of Labor and Urban Studies devoted to training, connecting, and supporting leaders at the frontlines of movements for justice and liberation. In the face of a federal government that is currently rolling back racial justice initiatives, protections for workers, and arts programming, all three organizations identified a need to re-energize New Yorkers around the fights for racial and economic justice and to remind them of the extensive legacy of resistance that the city has supported. By bridging theatre and social change, Stage Left transforms performance into a site of solidarity, reflection, and resistance. Events will include readings, community conversations, action sessions, and a culminating celebration.
“Theatre is uniquely positioned to function as cultural organizing,” Working Theater artistic director Colm Summers said in a statement. “Stage Left is about bringing together our city’s creative and activist communities to do just that. By putting new plays in conversation with some of the most urgent organizing work in the country, we’re creating a space where the rubber meets the road. It’s intended as a direct response to our current moment.”
“As an organization that trains and equips the next generation of social justice leaders, we believe that cultural organizing is an irreplaceable tool for building power and countering the narratives that have landed us in the present state of our country,” Jennifer Disla, co-executive director of Leadership for Democracy and Social Justice, said in a statement. “This creates the power to inform and reframe while also celebrating the joy and relationship building that makes us human.”
Additional information about the festival lineup and talent will be announced in the coming weeks.
Broadway Advocacy Coalition (BAC) is an arts-based advocacy organization that unites artists and directly impacted advocates to develop story-based artivism that advances justice and drives systemic change. Founded in 2016 by Broadway artists in response to racism and police brutality, BAC is a multidisciplinary force using the power of storytelling to confront systemic injustice, particularly within the criminal legal system.
Working Theater believes the transformative experience of live theatre should not be a privilege or a luxury, but a staple of every working person’s life. Now in its 40th season, Working Theater continues its mission to produce theatre for, with, and about working people—the essential workers of any city or town—and to make playgoing a regular part of audiences’ cultural lives.
