TOMORROW AT 2PM: "Is This Beauty" at the Neurodivergent New Play Series
Bailey Jordan Garcia's romantic dramedy will be directed by Em Hausmann as part of Piccione Arts's ongoing play series dedicated to neurodivergent empowerment
Poster design: Em Hausmann | Press contact: neurodivergentplays@gmail.com
This April, the Neurodivergent New Play Series continues with a reading of Is This Beauty - written by Bailey Jordan Garcia and directed by Em Hausmann - at A.R.T./New York’s South Oxford Space, located at 138 South Oxford Studio, Brooklyn, NY on April 20th at 2pm EST.
Tickets are available at www.ticketleap.events/tickets/neurodivergentplays/the-neurodivergent-new-play-series, with a minimum $10 donation for limited in-person seating & pay-what-you-can for at-home for at-home livestreaming up to two weeks after the live performance. Regular updates are available at www.linktr.ee/neurodivergentplays and on Instagram & Facebook @neurodivergentplays.
Is This Beauty looks at what a change in time, success, sexuality, gender, and love can do to a couple. Anthony and Emma are two college freshman who, very quickly, start to fall in love -- while simultaneously, their older selves, Tony and Charlie face their crumbling marriage. According to playwright Bailey Jordan Garcia, “[T]his piece was originally just the prologue -- an 8 minute autobiographical poetry play about being 18 years old, in the snow, and possibly starting to fall in love for the first time - or, at the very least, falling in love with the idea of falling in love. A bit later, I was commissioned by PlayGround-NY to turn those 8 minutes into a full length. It forced me to dust off an old piece and examine not only the message of it then, but how I felt about it now -- how beautiful I once thought it was and how much that had changed. I hated holding those two truths so much that I knew that, artistically, the right thing to do would be to explore it.”
“As a TGNC director I'm really interested in trans+ stories, and I've been a big fan of Bailey's work for a while now,” says director Em Hausmann. “[S]o I was so excited to see that they'd submitted for the series! Is This Beauty gives the perspective of a relationship over the course of 15 years, with one partner coming out as trans during that time, but what's especially unique about this piece is that it plays with time constructs by showing both partners at the beginning and the end of the relationship simultaneously.”
On the topic of neurodivergent empowerment, Garcia also added that “[w]ithin the performing arts, I feel as though neurodivergent artists bring so much to the table in ways that the neurotypical arts world often doesn’t acknowledge for what it is. The way we experience time, space, and the world differently from neurotypical folks, gives us this lens of exploring art differently which I think is so insanely beautiful and something that should be more celebrated. The truth is, there are tons of brilliant, decorated artists who are neurodiverse, but don’t advertise as such due to the stigma within our society. I also would LOVE to see more neurodivergent characters who simply get to exist -- though plays centering around being neurodivergent are important, sometimes I just want to see someone with ADHD and someone with Autism fall in love or go on a road trip or just like sit in a room and eat cold spaghetti. Because at the end of the day, we’re just people -- I’d like to see more of that.”
Founded in 2023 by award-winning autistic playwright and producer Anthony J. Piccione, the Neurodivergent New Play Series is dedicated to presenting matinee readings on the 3rd Sunday of every month - with seasonal breaks in December, January, July, and August - of plays written entirely by neurodivergent and disabled playwrights (i.e. autism, ADHD, dyslexia, OCD, Tourette syndrome, etc.) as part of a growing resident company of playwrights whose interests and specialties span a wide range of subjects, genres & structural approaches, with each play personally selected from a neuroinclusive resident company of directors. Learn more at www.linktr.ee/neurodivergentplays or by following @neurodivergentplays on Instagram and Facebook.
The Neurodivergent New Play Series is sponsored, in part, by the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by Brooklyn Arts Council.