Wed 3/24 @ 7PM
While live theater has been shut down, Playwrights Local, founded to help aspiring playwrights develop their scripts through various stages, has kept busy presenting free online readings of scripts in development, giving them an airing which helps the writer discern what’s working and what isn’t.
This week it’ll be offering The Canvas by Justin Lazor, a Cleveland native who is in his second year in the NEOMFA program as a playwriting candidate. His short play, First to Die Wins, debuted last February at convergence-continuum theater as part of the annual NEOMFA Playwrights Festival.
The Canvas, which appears build on some of the ideas explored in the 1994 play Art, involves an art-school outsider named Deborah whose pretentious classmates look down on her.
The play’s synopsis tells us, “When their flamboyant teacher, Professor Poisson, unveils his latest masterpiece, a completely blank canvas, Michelle and Gabriel fawn over his genius, but Deborah feels compelled to call “bullshit” and point out the fact that the emperor has no clothes. This sets into motion a heated battle of wits between teacher and student, which ultimately culminates in Deborah creating a shocking work of art that none of the others will ever forget.”
Melissa Crum directs a cast of four in this Zoom presentation. To watch, go here.