Untitled Adoption Play: Dramatic Reading with PlySpace Resident Adrienne Dawes

Photo credit: Deborah Cannon

PlySpace’s first playwright-in-residence, Adrienne Dawes (Heckle Her), will share the first draft of her new play Untitled Adoption Play, written during her residency with PlySpace in Summer 2019. The reading will take place on Friday, July 12th, at 7 PM at the PlySpace Gallery. This event is free and open to the public, but RSVP is appreciated (Link to Eventbright). Doors open at 6:30, and light refreshments will be served. Please plan to be in your seats at 7 PM for the start of the show. There will be a short intermission during the reading. This play has some mature content and language so is not recommended for children under the age of 16.

Untitled Adoption Play is a dark comedy that explores “adoption disruptions” and the evils of well-intentioned people. Audiences are invited to join a free dramatic reading of the play-in-progress. Dawes will be joined on stage by three local actors, Tyler Rainer, Zarah Shejule, and Jakob Winter. Following the reading, she will lead a short discussion and ask for audience feedback.

About the Actors:

Adrienne Dawes (reading the role of VERA/STAGE DIRECTIONS) is a mixed-race AfroLatina playwright originally from Austin, TX. Her plays include Casta, Denim Doves, Am I White, Teen Dad, and more. She received her bachelor’s degree from Sarah Lawrence College and studied sketch and improv with Second City in Chicago, IL. Adrienne has been a Literary Fellow in the Tulsa Artist Fellowship (George Kaiser Family Foundation), a NALAC Fund for the Arts grantee, a selected playwright in the 2018 Fornés Playwriting Workshop with Migdalia Cruz (University of Notre Dame), a recipient of the Stanley and Evelyn Lipkin Prize for Playwriting (Sarah Lawrence College), and received a scholarship to attend the 2018 Kenyon Review Playwrights Conference, directed by Wendy MacLeod. Her play Am I White won the David Mark Cohen New Play Award from the Austin Critics Table and an award for Outstanding Original Script by the B. Iden Payne Awards. She has a been a finalist for the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, B Street Theatre New Comedies Festival, and a semifinalist for the Princess Grace Award. Her work has been published by Vintage Books, Playscripts, Heartland Plays, Heuer Publishing, and Applause Theatre & Cinema Books. Her full-length work has been produced at Salvage Vanguard Theater (Austin, TX), Sacred Fools (Los Angeles, CA), and American Theatre Company (Tulsa, OK). Adrienne’s work has also been developed at TheatreSquared, Teatro Milagro, National Black Theatre, National Winter Playwrights Retreat (HBMG Foundation), North Carolina Black Repertory, English Theatre Berlin, Live Girls! Theater, and Echo Theatre (Dallas, TX). Adrienne is a member of the Dramatists Guild, ScriptWorks, and a company member of Salvage Vanguard Theater.

Jakob Winter (reading the role of HAIRY SPEYER) is an incoming Senior Acting Major at Ball State University. He has previously been involved in several Ball State Theatre and Dance productions. He has also just finished his second season performing at Richmond Shakespeare Festival. Jakob is excited to start this new process and collaborate on a brand new script.

Zarah Shebuje (reading the role of SHERRI SPEYER) originally hails from the wee village of Warrington, IN. She works as a Marketing Manager for an elevator interior company in Middletown. Zarah has appeared in many productions, some of her favorites being “Florinda” in Into the Woods, “Vivienne” in Legally Blond, “Kathleen” in All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarden, “Aida” in Over the River and Through the Woods, “Trish Mahoney” in The 25TH Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and “Miss Lana Sherwood” in It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play.

Tyler Rainer (reading the role of RYSHI SPEYER) is an actor/playwright originally from New Castle, Indiana and a recent graduate of Ball State University’s BFA Acting program. He most recently wrote, produced, and directed a one-person show titled Some Kubrick Shit as his senior capstone, a sci-fi project that he hopes to continue expanding. He was also recently seen in the Richmond Shakespeare Festival’s 2019 season where he played “Trinculo” in The Tempest. Other favorite credits include Veronica’s Room (Conrad), Twilight Los Angeles 1992 (Paul Parker), and Macbeth (Donalbain).

Muncie Arts and Culture Council is a nonprofit organization and the designated Arts partner for the City of Muncie. PlySpace is a program of the MACC in partnership with the City of Muncie, Ball State University School of Art and Sustainable Muncie Corporation. PlySpace is supported in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts