Sunday, May 31, 2020

Cost of Living
written by a Polish-American playwright
Martyna Majok
directed by Tyne Rafaeli
Part of Spring Weekend: The Unimaginable of Reality
Sunday, May 31, 2020, 7 PM EST
Free registration at eventbrite
(only 99 people will have a chance to see the online Zoom reading. Sign up fast!)

Cast:
Ani – Katy Sullivan
Jess – Xochitl Romero
John – Gregg Mozgala
Eddie – Felix Solis

“An honest, original work that invites audiences to examine diverse perceptions of privilege and human connection through two pairs of mismatched individuals: a former trucker and his recently paralyzed ex-wife, and an arrogant young man with cerebral palsy and his new caregiver.” — Pulitzer Board, 2018

The 2020 Spring Weekend is organized by the Vaclav Havel Library Foundation (VHLF) and Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association (BBLA), in partnership with Polish Cultural Institute New York and Untitled Theater Company #61. Spring Weekend is part of the annual Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival honoring the playwright and human rights activist Vaclav Havel. It showcases contemporary European plays through stage readings performed and directed by the US based actors and directors.

Cost of Living written by Polish-American playwright Martyna Majok, examines two separate relationships that develop from places of mutual need. The first is between John, a wealthy and handsome graduate student with cerebral palsy, and his caregiver, the overworked, under-qualified and nearly homeless Jess. The second relationship includes the quadriplegic Ani and her unemployed ex-husband, Eddie. In both of the stories, which eventually collide, the biggest handicaps are the universal ones: fear and disconnection. Cost of Living won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama as well as two 2018 Lucille Lortel Awards, including Outstanding Play. It premiered in Williamstown, Massachusetts at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in 2016, and had an Off-Broadway engagement in 2017.

MARTYNA MAJOK was born in Bytom, Poland and grew up in New Jersey and Chicago. She was awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Cost of Living (Williamstown Theatre Festival, Manhattan Theatre Club). Other plays include Sanctuary City (New York Theatre Workshop), Queens (LCT3/Lincoln Center, La Jolla Playhouse), and Ironbound (Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Round House, WP Theatre/Rattlestick, Geffen Playhouse, National Theatre of Warsaw, amongst other theatres in America and abroad). She is currently writing two musical librettos, developing an original series for HBO and writing a film, also for HBO. http://www.martynamajok.com/

TYNE RAFAELI is a British-American director based in New York. She directs new plays, classics and musicals in London and the US. Recent productions include Usual Girls by Ming Peiffer at Roundabout Theatre Company which was nominated for multiple Drama Desk Awards including Outstanding Direction. She also recently directed Power Strip by Sylvia Khoury at Lincoln Center Theatre. The Coast Starlight by Keith Bunin at La Jolla Playhouse and I Was Most Alive with You by Craig Lucas at Playwright’s Horizons. https://www.tynerafaeli.com/

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