I’m thrilled to invite you to Philadelphia’s first public reading of my unproduced play The Great Age, a racy romantic comedy — about Emily Dickinson. Set in Amherst, MA, the play is a time-jumping, supernatural romp about Amherst College undergrad Leah, an Emily-obsessed young writer and idealistic Wiccan who’s having an affair with her married English professor, Michael.
When she and her classmate Ashiq, a young Saudi prince, steal Emily’s famed white dress from the Dickinson Homestead and hold a seance to contact Emily’s ghost they they stir up a heap of multidimensional trouble and incur the wrath of junior English department faculty, Mary Beth.
The reading of this work-in-progress is connected to my current PDC @Plays & Players Artists Residency. It’s directed by the amazing Mark Kennedy and features an incredible cast including–
Laurel Hostak, outgoing president of the Drexel University Players, as the brazen young Leah
Anthony Adair as Leah’s friend Ashiq
Kaki Burns, most recently seen in Tom Stoppard’s Travesties at Plays & Players, as Emily Dickinson
Kevin Bergen as Emily’s randy brother Austin Dickinson
Mike Hagan is Emily’s long-distance lover Judge Otis Lord
Bethany Ditnes as 19th century social climber and Dickinson family groupie Mabel Loomis Todd
Eric Wunsch, last seen as Dadaism founder Tristan Tzara in Travesties, as Mabel’s swinging husband Prof. David Todd
Sarah Schol as the frustrated and desperate-to-land-a-husband-before-she-gets-any-older Prof. Mary Beth Hodder
Tina Brock, artistic director of Philadlphia’s premiere absurdist theatre the Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium (They Bring Good Nothingness to Life) in a variety of madcap roles.
Don’t miss it! Q&A of this work-in-progress afterward with myself, the director, and much of the cast.
WHEN: Thursday, July 12 @7:00pm
WHERE: the 1st floor main stage of Plays & Players Theatre, 1714 Delancey Place, Philadelphia, PA
COST: FREE
See you there.
[images via poetryfoundation.org and massreports.com]