Live podcast episode recordings include live music and an interview with the playwright
Happy Birthday Angel Dearest
By Javier Rivera DeBruin (they/them/theirs)
Monday, May 15, 2023, 8:00 PM
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
Javier Rivera DeBruin is a queer-ass playwright and impact producer whose work explores gender, other-worldly bffs, family, and heritage. Their play LUCIÉRNAGAS was a NY Times Critic’s Pick during its World Premiere with National Queer Theater at the 14th St Y in 2021 and was a semi-finalist for the 2019 New Dramatists Princess Grace Award. Javi is a co-writer on a six-part podcast play THIS IS WHERE WE GO (MCC Theater/The Parsnip Ship) and a member of the Parsnip Ship’s inaugural Radio Roots Writers Group where their play HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANGEL DEAREST will stream soon. As an Impact Producer, they have developed audience engagement strategies with acclaimed documentaries including DISCLOSURE (Netflix), PHILLY D.A. (PBS/Topic), BEDLAM (PBS), and ROLL RED ROLL (Netflix).
SYNOPSIS
It's Angel's 33rd birthday and it's time to celebrate! As the party unfolds Angel and her sibling Girlie find themselves tangled in a mixed-tape of nostalgia, gender-euphoria, psychosis, and reality. Lured into the family basement by a time traveling pirate and a walkman, Angel and Girlie must confront their darkest and most secret memories. Will Angel and Girl free themselves from a time-knot and find the connection and liberation they seek?
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANGEL DEAREST is a Radio Roots Writers' Group radio play commission.
Sadboy Hours (this is a coping mechanism)
By Mary Harriman (they/them/theirs)
Monday, May 22, 7:30 PM
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
Mary Harriman is a playwright based in Rochester, NY. Her favorite past credits include Ollie/Bassoon in Julia May Jonas’ We Used to Wear Bonnets and get High All The Time, and as Nana the Dog and the Crocodile in Dake Jr. High’s production of Peter Pan. She graduated from Skidmore College in 2020.
SYNOPSIS
Sadboy Hours (this is a coping mechanism) is a series of funny, honest, and tender vignettes about queerness, weight, and moms, because Mary couldn't seem to write about anything else. This is an experiment in the “Theater of Self Care,” where writing prompts are more like wellness exercises, and performers are encouraged to write their own sadboy hours and follow the prompts! (Or not! That’s ok too <3)
MLM is for Murder (Or, Your Side Hustle is Killing Us)
By John Bavoso (he/him/his)
Monday, June 26, 2023, 7:30 PM
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
John Bavoso (he/him/his) is a Washington, DC-based playwright, book and theatre reviewer, marketer, and aspiring wrangler of unicorns. He mostly writes plays about women and queer people who are awkwardly attempting (and generally failing) to engage with serious subject matter using only dry wit and impeccably timed combative taunts. John is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, a Pinky Swear Productions company member, a 2019 Lambda Literary Fellow. More info at John-Bavoso.com.
SYNOPSIS
For Minerva, the way to escape the doldrums of her graphic design job is to write and narrate her own feminist true crime podcast. Meanwhile, across the country, Felicity, a Mormon stay-at-home wife and mother—and Minerva’s high school nemesis—has just started selling leggings for the multi-level marketing company Linen & Fate. But when mild-mannered Felicity suddenly snaps and realizes the only way to get ahead in a rigged pyramid scheme is to literally start killing off the competition, both women suddenly experience the kind of overnight success they’ve been so desperately craving.
Bird of Pray
By Darrel Alejandro Holnes (he/him/his)
Monday, September 25, 2023, 7:30 PM
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
Holnes is a playwright and screenwriter. His plays have received productions or readings at the Kennedy Center for the Arts American College Theater Festival (KCACTF), The Brick Theater, Kitchen Theater Company, Pregones Theater/PRTT, Primary Stages, and elsewhere. He is a member of the Lincoln Center Director’s Lab, Civilians R&D Group, Page 73’s Interstate 73 Writers Workshop, and other groups. His plays include Black Feminist Video Game, Bayano, Franklin Ave, The Burning Room, and others.
SYNOPSIS
Shaquille's attempt at suicide is disrupted when Jem, the ghost of a fellow soldier killed for being gay, suddenly appears and makes a proposition: Shaq must share his body with Jem's soul instead of sacrificing it to the vultures in exchange for absolution. With an impending hurricane forcing his hand, Shaquille must quickly choose between saving a fellow soldier he failed to save at war or escaping his worldly problems by starting over in the afterlife.
Horror Night with Radio Roots
By Javier Rivera DeBruin (they/them/theirs) and Nina Ki (xe/she/they)
Monday, October 30, 2023, 8:00 PM
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHTS
Javier Rivera DeBruin is a queer-ass playwright and impact producer whose work explores gender, other-worldly bffs, family, and heritage. Their play LUCIÉRNAGAS was a NY Times Critic’s Pick during its World Premiere with National Queer Theater at the 14th St Y in 2021 and was a semi-finalist for the 2019 New Dramatists Princess Grace Award. Javi is a co-writer on a six-part podcast play THIS IS WHERE WE GO (MCC Theater/The Parsnip Ship) and a member of the Parsnip Ship’s inaugural Radio Roots Writers Group where their play HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANGEL DEAREST will stream soon. As an Impact Producer they have developed audience engagement strategies with acclaimed documentaries including DISCLOSURE (Netflix), PHILLY D.A. (PBS/Topic), BEDLAM (PBS), and ROLL RED ROLL (Netflix).
Nina Ki is a Queerean (Queer + Korean) American playwright who was born and raised in Los Angeles, but currently lives in Brooklyn. Xe graduated from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in 2008 with a BFA in Dramatic Writing, and xer plays have been read, recorded, and presented nationwide, including with Via Brooklyn, Yale Summer Cabaret, Queens Theatre, and The Parsnip Ship. Xer play “Moon Bear” was given special consideration for the Relentless Award, and xer play “Taemong (Birth Dream)” was a finalist for the Van Lier Fellowship. Xe was also an inaugural member of The Parsnip Ship's Radio Roots Writer's Group. To contact xer or learn more about xer work, please visit xer website at www.nina-ki.com
SYNOPSIS
The Parsnip Ship presents a special night of horror to get you spooked and ready for Halloween with short horror audio plays by Javier Rivera DeBruin and Nina Ki, commissions of the Radio Roots Writers’ Group.
UNSTUCK: A One Woman Show About Growing Up With OCD
By Olivia Levine (she/her/hers)
Monday, November 13, 2023, 7:30 PM
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
Olivia Levine is a queer actor, comedian and writer based in NYC. Originally from San Francisco, she moved to NYC for college, and received her B.A. in Theatre from Barnard College. Other training includes The Studio/NYC, UCB, and RADA. Other recent theatre credits include SF Playhouse’s The Daughters (dir. Jessica Holt) and the world premiere of Honors Students at Wild Project (dir. Leta Tremblay).
SYNOPSIS
UNSTUCK explores the evolution of my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and how it has engaged particularly with my sexuality and identity as a queer woman. Using elements of standup, storytelling, and movement work, the show explores the impact of my OCD on my romantic, platonic and familial relationships.
Trenzas
By Jei Lawrence (they/them/theirs)
Monday, December 11, 2023, 7:30 PM
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
Janelle // Jei is an interdisciplinary artist that investigates communal and individual strength with stories. They have had their works at various Theaters in the NYC area such as Club Cumming, Teatro La Tea, and Joe’s Pub. They are the Co-Moderator of Musical Theatre Factory’s Women/Trans/Gender Non-Conforming Roundtable and a 2020 Recipient of NBT's Soul Series Lab - Playwriting Micro-Development Session. www.janellelawrence.com
SYNOPSIS
Assimilation can be difficult. So can growing up in an Afro-Latinx home with a mother who is holding on to her distorted nationalist Dominican past. Alisha and Carmela both have to learn to navigate their color-influenced worlds with the knowledge and outlook their mother has given them. Assimilation is based on societal influence, but what do we call the expectations passed down by our culture? And what do we do with those messages?