Pep Talks For A New World PlayCo and William Burke

Welcome to Pep Talks for a New World.

Gut?  Trust it.

Becca Blackwell is an NYC-based trans actor, performer & writer. Existing between genders, and preferring the pronoun "they," Blackwell works collaboratively with playwrights & directors to expand our sense of personhood & the body through performance. Some collaborations have been with Young Jean Lee, Half Straddle, Jennifer Miller's Circus Amok, Richard Maxwell, Erin Markey, Sharon Hayes, and Lisa D'Amour. Film/TV includes: “High Maintenance,” “Ramy,” “Marriage Story,” “Shameless,” and “Deadman's Barstool.” They have toured their solo shows They, Themself and Schmerm and Schmermie's Choice across the US. Recipient of the Doris Duke Impact Artist Award, the Creative Capital award, and the Franklin Furnace award.

Ramiz Monsef is a LA-based actor and writer. Regional: Berkeley Rep (Eurydice, Arabian Nights, Fete de la Nuit), Yale Rep (Eurydice), The Mark Taper Forum (Archduke), The Kirk Douglas (Vicuna), The Geffen Playhouse (Guards at the Taj, Mysterious Circumstances), & The Oregon Shakespeare Festival (The Unfortunates; premiere/co-writer). New York: SecondStage (Eurydice), The Culture Project (Betrayed), and New York Theatre Workshop (All the I Will Ever Be). TV: NCIS, Training Day, SWAT, Kidding, Shameless, Modern Family, and Young Sheldon. Ramiz is a member of the 2019 Geffen Writers Room and is currently workshopping his newest show, THE ANTS, at the Ojai Playwrights Conference.

Lorraine Currelley: poet, spoken word artist, Bronx Beat Poet Laureate 2020-2022, multi-genre writer, Pearls of Wisdom storyteller, educator, art/literary curator & visual artist. She is executive director for Poets Network & Exchange and has curated exhibits for Mom Egg Review (VOX), Studio Theater in Exile, & Hudson Valley MOCA. In 2017, she became the first female executive director for the Bronx Book Fair.

MS in Mental Health Counseling, Certification in Thanatology. An activist, she writes & works to change the present negative societal image and narrative on aging and mental health to a healthy paradigm on mental health and age. She resides in New York City.

Contact: https://www.pw.org/directory/writers/lorraine_currelley

Napping is a portal.

Carolina Đỗ is an actor, playwright, producer and proud daughter of Vietnamese freedom fighters and refugees. She’s a community organizer and advocate for art that facilitates healing in marginalized communities. Broadway: NYT’s Critics’ Pick LINDA VISTA (u/s), GRAND HORIZONS (u/s). She’s worked with numerous NYC theater companies, including: PlayCo, The Tank, New Dramatists, New Collectives. Her play, MY MOTHER’S DAUGHTER, was a semifinalist for Space on Ryder Farm and a 2020 finalist for BRICLab. Co-founder & co-Artistic Leader of The Sống Collective. @carolinakaydo, www.carolinado.com

For Jeanette.  11/11

William Burke is a playwright, director and curator living in BrooklynHis productions include "the food was terrible" (The Bushwick Starr), Is it Supposed to Last(Playco) PIONEERS!#goforth (JACK), COMFORT DOGS: Live from the Pink House (JACK) and FURRY! (JACK) FURRY!/LA FURIA! (The Bushwick Starr). With Target Margin Theater: I Made a Mistake, EXPLODITY! and DAY!Night?fuck (The Stahl Center at Stony Brook University. Co-Chair of the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab with Jackie Sibblies Drury, Head of Artistic Development and Co-Curator of the Starr Reading series at The Bushwick Starr, and a co-curator for Little Theatre at Dixon Place. William studied playwriting at Brooklyn College with Mac Wellman, Anne Washburn and Erin Courtney.