Boston Playwrights' Theatre Continues 2018-19 Season of New Plays with LAUGHS IN SPANISH

Boston Playwrights' Theatre (BPT) continues its 2018-19 season with Laughs in Spanish by Alexis Scheer. Running from February 21-March 3, this fast-paced new comedy is directed by Sara Katzoff.

Set in Miami's Wynwood Arts District-known for its galleries, murals, craft breweries and bistros-Laughs in Spanish centers on the relationship between gallery owner Mariana and her movie-star mother Estella...with the pandemonium of the annual international art fair Art Basel as the backdrop.

"I'm excited for Laughs in Spanish because it's the first thing I've written that is unapologetically Miami," Scheer says. "And my hope is that the play diversifies the Latinx narratives we see onstage by celebrating 'LatinXcellence.'"

Miami-native Scheer credits Boston University's M.F.A. Playwriting Program with "giving me the space to stand and speak my truth for the first time. The advice I got was 'go home in your work.' I think of my writing as both an act of self-preservation and an excavation of identity."

A post-show conversation with Laughs in Spanish's playwright, director and cast members will follow the Feb. 23 performance.

Scheer is a member of the Boston University M.F.A. Playwriting Program class of 2019. She was named Rising Theater Star in The Improper Bostonian's 2018 Boston's Best Issue. Her play Our Dear Dead Drug Lord was a featured finalist at HowlRound's LTC Carnaval of New Latinx Work last summer, a finalist in the 2018 Bay Area Playwrights Festival and a semi-finalist for The American Playwriting Foundation's Relentless Award. Director Katzoff is currently an M.F.A. Directing candidate at Boston University. Katzoff's directing credits include Facing Our Truth (Colonial Theatre), Everywoman (WAM Theatre), The Motherf**ker With the Hat (Mass College of Liberal Arts), PASSAGE (Kickwheel Ensemble Theater) and The Clean House (Boston University).

All of this season's plays were written by the Boston University M.F.A. Playwriting Program class of 2019. These Actors' Equity Association productions are co-produced with the Boston University College of Fine Arts School of Theatre as part of the New Play Initiative.

BPT's season continues in April with Dead House by Beirut Balutis.

ABOUT BOSTON PLAYWRIGHTS' THEATRE

Founded in 1981 at Boston University by Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott, Boston Playwrights' Theatre (BPT) is an award-winning professional theatre dedicated to new works. At the heart of BPT's mission is the production of new plays by alumni of its M.F.A. Playwriting Program, the latter in collaboration with Boston University's renowned College of Fine Arts School of Theatre. The program's award-winning alumni have been produced in regional and New York houses, as well as in London's West End. BPT's productions have been honored with numerous regional and Boston awards, including numerous IRNE Awards for Best New Script and Boston Critics' Association Elliot Norton Awards.

ABOUT THE BOSTON UNIVERSITY NEW PLAY INITIATIVE

The BU New Play Initiative (NPI) expresses the Boston University College of Fine Arts' commitment to the School of Theatre's participation in the development of new work. This special initiative provides playwrights, directors, designers, and actors with a variety of developmental options to support the collaborative creation of new work for the theatre. Students, faculty, alumni and guest artists are given the opportunity to utilize the creativity of the rehearsal room to develop their plays, which are then presented through workshop productions. The life of these new plays doesn't end on the BU stages. Many New Play Initiative productions are often later fully produced by member companies of our Professional Theatre Initiative, including the School of Theatre's professional extension-Boston Center for American Performance. www.bu.edu/cfa/npi

INSTITUTIONAL BIOGRAPHY

Founded in 1839, Boston University is an internationally recognized private research university with more than 30,000 students participating in undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs. BU consists of 17 colleges and schools along with a number of multi-disciplinary centers and institutes which are central to the school's research and teaching mission. Established in 1954, Boston University College of Fine Arts is a top-tier fine arts institution. Comprised of the School of Music, School of Theatre, and School of Visual Arts, CFA offers professional training in the arts in conservatory-style environments for undergraduate and graduate students, complemented by a liberal arts curriculum for undergraduate students.

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT

ALEXIS SCHEER was named Rising Theater Star in The Improper Bostonian's 2018 Boston's Best issue. She is the playwright behind Our Dear Dead Drug Lord (featured finalist at HowlRound's LTC Carnaval of New Latinx Work, Relentless Award semi-finalist, and Bay Area Playwrights Festival finalist; developed at Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Off the Grid Theatre). She is a proud Miami native and New World School of the Arts alum and holds a B.F.A. in Musical Theatre from The Boston Conservatory. Alexis is in her final year of the M.F.A. Playwriting program at Boston University.

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

SARA KATZOFF is a theater maker and director who is passionate about new work, new voices, and access to the arts for all humans. She is delighted to be making her Boston Playwrights' Theatre debut with Alexis Scheer's Laughs in Spanish. Recent directing/devising projects include PASSAGE (Kickwheel Ensemble Theater); The Waypoint (MASS MoCA, artist in residence); Facing Our Truth (Colonial Theatre); Everywoman (WAM Theatre); RIOT, The Motherf**ker With the Hat (Guest Artist, Mass College of Liberal Arts); This Generation/My Generation, The Second Side (Barrington Stage's Playwright Mentorship Program); The Exonerated (Guest Artist, University at Albany); Beowulf: A Thousand Years of Baggage, Particularly in the Heartland, and The Clean House (Boston University). Sara is the Artistic Director of Bazaar Productions/The Berkshire Fringe, an international festival of new work where she has collaborated with more than 500 performers, choreographers, playwrights, and multimedia artists to radicalize the cultural landscape of Western Massachusetts. Sara is a graduate of Dell'Arte International, holds a B.A. in performance studies from Bard College at Simon's Rock, and is currently an M.F.A. Directing candidate at Boston University. This spring she will direct Natsu Onoda Powers' adaptation of the 1971 Ursula K. LeGuin novel The Lathe of Heaven at the Joan and Edgar Booth Theatre. For more information, visit sarakatzoff.com.