ARTISTIC LEADERSHIP

PLAYxPLAY was a free, staged-reading series that highlighted a singular emerging playwright by presenting an evening of that artist’s works as directed by a rotating group of directors and a company of collaborating actors. The series offered an audience the rare opportunity to see a wide range of a single writer's voice in one evening, while simultaneously allowing a writer to experience a variety of interpretations of their work by an array of artists.

The series was originally conceived and founded by directors Nik Aliye, Jake Beckhard, and Lauren Zeftel in 2015 and featured work of T. Adamson, Sam Corbin, Sofya Levitsky-Weitz, and Matthew Minnicino.

2018 resurrected PLAYxPLAY under the leadership of Jake Beckhard, Bryn Herdrich, and Lauren Zeftel who acted as co-producers as well as rotating resident directors alongside guest directors. The featured playwrights were Serena Berman, Megan Chan Meinero, Ren Dara Santiago, Jahna Ferron-Smith, Nazareth Hassan, Lily Houghton, Tom Nieboer, Celine Song, Lizzie Stern, Jona Tarlin, and Emily Zemba.

Unfortunately, the COVID-19 outbreak in New York City canceled the planned PLAYxPLAY programming for spring 2020 and the series came to a close. In the end, PLAYxPLAY facilitated collaborations between 15 playwrights, 23 directors, and over 200 actors in free events for the public.

DRINKING PLAYS AND READING WINE was a casual salon series, which read and discussed published plays as well as works-in-progress. The group was co-founded and run by Danielle Sierra and Lauren Zeftel with the intention to create opportunities to read, hear, and discuss theatrical texts we love in a low stakes environment with great company. New works featured the playwright in attendance with questions specifically curated to the material.

Over three years, Drinking Plays and Reading Wine presented 32 readings in various locations, including work in progress readings for playwrights: A.P. Andrews, France-Luce Benson, Stephanie Del-Rosso, Izzi D'Esposito, Charly Evon Simpson, Ryan Fogarty, Jason Furlani, Matthew Gasda, Sofya Levitsky-Weitz, Robert Emmet Lunney, Evan Twohy, and Richard Vetere. We were very lucky with the range of amazing actors who donated their talents for the evenings.

The series began in Danielle's living room and growing into a residency at Jimmy's No. 43 in the East Village. The name was something Danielle said once by mistake and it stuck.