The Pool Plays 3.0, the independent, pop-up theatre collective now led by playwrights Jessica Charles, Andrea Stolowitz, and Naren Weiss, are thrilled to announce casting for The Pool Plays 3.0.
 
Now in its third producing season, this year’s Pool Plays boasts a stellar cast. Oregon Book Award-winning playwright Andrea Stolowitz’s The Berlin Diaries will feature six-time Obie Award winner (and DG member) David Greenspan* opposite Rebecca S’manga Frank*. Both actors also appeared in The Pool’s second season in 2021. Naren Weiss’ Two Brown Porters will see South Asian stalwarts Omar Maskati* (Lincoln Center’s Disgraced) and Sathya Sridharan* (Broadway’s Life of Pi) onstage together for the first time, in a two-hander. karen EiLbacher* (First Broadway National Tour of Fun Home) and Davon Williams* (For Colored Boyz…) will appear in Jessica Charles’ Antiquated F*ckery.
 
Directors Cristina Angeles, Rajesh Bose, and Will Steinberger will join the core team in presenting the three productions in repertory at 59E59 Theaters this fall. Creative Producer Janae Beaver and Producing Consultant Adrian Alea round out the core group. Joining them are a number of award-winning designers, including lighting designer Reza Behjat, sound designer Brian Hickey, set designer Zoe Hurwitz, costume designer Rodrigo Muñoz, and more.
 
“When we found each other, we each had very specific stories to tell,” the core playwriting trio says, “And yet, in our specificity, we found a cultural unity connecting all of our communities. How they meld, we leave up to each viewer. But we somehow saw cultures past, present, and future unfurling within our collective worlds. And we knew this fit was more important, more authentic, than anything any of us could’ve ever prepared for.”
 
The Pool Plays started in 2017 as a sustainable, artist-driven theater collective designed to place playwrights at the helm of their creative and production processes - while simultaneously removing the traditional gatekeepers present in the American theatre today. Past Pool playwrights include Susan Bernfield, Kate Cortesi, Peter Gil-Sheridan, Lynn Rosen, Brenda Withers, and Emily Zemba.
 
The plays will run in repertory from October 8 - 28, 2023. Weekends will see all three shows performed on the same day: October 8, 14, 15, 21, 22, 28.
 
This year, The Pool Plays is receiving generous support from The New Group’s New Works program through artistic and in-kind resources. Additional support for The Pool Plays 3.0 has been generously provided by Jill Hunter Matichak, Shelby Jiggetts-Tivony, New York Foundation for the Arts/Women’s Fund, Piper Theatre, Venturous Theater Fund and more:  www.thepoolplays.org.
 

*Actors appear courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association (AEA).