Primary Stages has announced playwright Alex Lin is the inaugural recipient of Liff Lab, the Off-Broadway company's new play development initiative. The company presented a reading of Lin's play Laowang January 10, with Joshua Kahan Brody directing.
Lin is a Lila Acheson Wallace Playwriting Fellow at Juilliard, and has had work developed at Roundabout Theatre Company, Second Stage Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, Ma-Yi Theater Company, Two River Theater, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and Manhattan Theatre Club, among others.
Laowang follows Chinese grandmother A-Poh, who owns a successful Chinatown restaurant. When a high-rise developer threatens to buy out her business, A-Poh gathers her three precious grandchildren from all corners of the country to plan their next mode of attack, even while her memory is rapidly failing.
The cast of the reading included Pun Bandu, Wai Ching Ho, Cindy Im, Brittany Liu, and Jon Norman Scheider. Avery Trunko served as stage manager.
The Liff Lab, named in memory of late theatre agent Samuel "Biff" Liff, provides an exceptional early to mid-career playwright with a 29-hour developmental workshop of an unproduced new work. The lab also combines Primary Stages’ Artistic and Educational Initiatives by inviting two ESPA students to participate in the workshop by observing rehearsals and assisting creative personnel. The workshop concludes with a private reading of the play for invited guests and the larger ESPA community.
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