Barbour Playwrights Award 2024

In June, EAG is partnering with Atlantic Pacific Theatre for our annual Barbour Playwrights Award! Together, over the course of three weeks, we will present readings of three new plays, with one writer being awarded a prize of $500.

Monday, June 10 at 7:00 PM

Princess Clara of Loisaida by Matt Barbot

With Mamá long gone and Papá catatonic (and only able to sing old sitcom theme songs), aspiring baseball player and high school super-senior José finds himself in charge of his video-game obsessed little sister, Clara. Scraping by together on the Lower East Side, the siblings try to stay distracted from their bleak reality through José’s fanciful stories: that she was a fairy princess of a magical realm, left in Central Park for their parents to find. Unbeknownst to him, Fefu, a magical fairy scout embedded in New York to keep an eye out for the lost princess when she comes of age, has identified her target to bring her home. When the siblings realize José’s stories might be true – that, in fact, he may be making them come true – Clara is faced with a choice, and José will fight a magical battle for his sister’s destiny.

Matt Barbot is a writer from Brooklyn, NY. His play El Coquí Espectacular and the Bottle of Doom received its world premiere at Two River Theater in January of 2018. Infallibility was selected as one of Indie Theater Now's Best of FringeNYC 2013. The Venetians was a winner of Roundabout Theatre Company's 2019 Columbia@Roundabout New Play Series. Recently, his short play A List of Some Shit I've Killed was published as part of the Red Bull Theater's anthology Red Bull Shorts Volume III. Matt's first play for young audiences, Stoo’s Famous Martian American Gumbo, was commissioned by Peppercorn Theatre and was produced there in Summer 2019, and again in 2021 as part of Hangar Theatre’s KIDDSTUFF series. Matt recently workshopped his play the beautiful land i seek (la linda tierra que busco yo) at Fault Line Theatre with director José Zayas. In 2022, Matt became the first winner of the Miami New Drama x The Black List New Play commission. Matt received his MFA from Columbia University, and was recently a New York Theatre Workshop 2050 Fellow and a member of The Civilians' R&D Group.

Thursday, June 20 at 7:00 PM

Eggs on Ice by Kristine M. Reyes

Denise is the top sales/marketing rep at Eggs on Ice, a premier egg freezing facility, who believes in the company’s mission to help give women more reproductive choices. Led by the enigmatic and cocksure Dr. Freeze, the company is in position to become a full-service facility for all fertility needs, second to none. As Denise takes the audience on a tour of the company and its clientele, she notices strange new policies being put into place and begins to question if something more sinister is at play.

Kristine M. Reyes is a Filipina-American playwright raised and based in New York City. Her work has been performed in NYC, Chicago, Minneapolis, Los Angeles and San Francisco, and has been presented by ABC/Disney Talent Showcase, Primary Stages, Queens Theatre, The Tank, Theater Mu, Leviathan Lab and Bindlestiff Studio, among others. Eggs on Ice was a semifinalist for The O’Neill Center’s National Playwrights Conference and the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, and was a nominee for the Cherry Lane Theatre’s Mentor Project. It received a workshop production at Hawai’i Pacific University in 2021 and a high school production at George Washington Carver Center for Arts and Technology in Maryland in 2022. She was a 2014-15 Fellow at The Dramatists Guild Foundation and is a proud member of The Dramatists Guild of America. www.kristinemreyes.com

Thursday, June 27 at 7:00 PM

The Elephant is Very Like by Ankita Raturi

"The Elephant Is Very Like " tells the story of a woman who cannot say any words that have not been spoken to her, and a man who tries and fails and tries again to help her. Together, they reach for multilingual poetry, canonical literature, drawing, and the South Asian dance form kathak in their pursuit of a language of her own.

Ankita Raturi (she/her) is a currently Queens-based writer and teaching artist who grew up in capital cities, pediatric gastroenterology offices, and the bisexual closet. New play development: Roundabout, Ma-Yi Theater Company, South Coast Repertory, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Playwrights Realm, Berkshire Theatre Group, Cygnet Theatre, Artists at Play, The COOP, Atlantic Pacific Theatre, Theater Masters, Hypokrit Theatre Company, New York Shakespeare Exchange, Pete’s Candy Store, Natyabharati, Wesleyan University. B.F.A. in Drama: NYU/Tisch. M.F.A. in Playwriting: UC San Diego.

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In 2007, EAG established this special award to honor the legacy of actor, playwright and EAG member Thomas Barbour (Arthur, Great White Hope) whose support for emerging artists was an inspiration to many. The Barbour Award was established and endowed by Janet Barbour Carhart, Alison Barbour Fox, and from a portion of the gift left to EAG by Mr. Thomas Barbour’s estate. All proceeds from the staged readings of the Barbour finalists’ plays go directly to supporting future Barbour Awards.

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The Episcopal Actors' Guild (EAG) (est. 1923) provides emergency aid and support to professional performers of all faiths who are undergoing financial crisis. We are also dedicated to helping emerging artists advance their careers through scholarships, awards, and performance opportunities. For over 100 years, we have been a safety net, providing crucial services to ensure the well-being of NYC's vital community of individual performing artists. ​www.actorsguild.org

Atlantic Pacific Theatre is an independent theater & creative storytelling company that crafts narratives for the theatre & cinema, public history programs, and community-engaged experiences for and with communities of color. Through formal experiments and partnership-driven projects, APT aims to enhance visibility, awareness, and understanding around POC histories and identities in local and transnational contexts. The company's underpinning values of cross cultural exchange and pluralism center our work on intimate polycultural experiences that reach across geographical and socially constructed borders. www.atlanticpacifictheatre.org

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EAG's Covid Safety Rules: Masks are strongly recommended but no longer required in Guild Hall. Please stay home if you are sick or if you have tested positive for covid. For more details, please visit www.actorsguild.org/covid-safety-protocols.

Directions: The Episcopal Actors’ Guild (EAG)/Guild Hall is located at 1 EAST 29th STREET, NYC 10016 (midblock between Madison and Fifth, between #3 and #9 East 29th Street) on the second floor of the Church of the Transfiguration (aka the Little Church Around the Corner). We are NOT the big church on the corner of Fifth Avenue; that's Marble Collegiate. When you arrive at the Little Church, enter through the main gate and go through the garden to the door marked Guild Hall (between the main doors into the church and the door to the parish office).

Getting Here: The closest subways are the R/W or 6 at 28th Street or the B/D/F/M or N/Q/R/W at 34th Street/Herald Square. If you are arriving by bus, take the M1, M2, M3, M5, M6, or M7.

Lobby: Guild Hall does NOT have a lobby or waiting area. You are welcome to enjoy the Little Church’s garden (weather permitting) if you arrive before the house opens.

Accessibility: Guild Hall is not a fully ADA-compliant venue. However, we do our best to accommodate all patrons. Guild Hall is located up one flight of stairs (20 steps). There is no elevator; however, a stair chair is available for those who need assistance making it up to or down from Guild Hall. EAG’s staff will be happy to assist you upon request.

Late seating: We cannot guarantee late seating.