The Landing Theatre Company Announces the Winners of the 2019 New American Voices

The New American Voices Play Reading Series is a national playwriting contest that annually showcases four top plays by American Playwrights. The winning plays are selected from blind reads of hundreds of submissions by emerging author from across the country. This year the weekend festival event will be held March 15-17 at Stages Repertory Theatre.

The 2019 winning plays are:

The Impossible Escape of Don Misterioso

by Hal Borden (Philadelphia, PA)

Directed by Jonathan Gonzalez

Friday, March 15 @ 7pm

In 1955, nine months after a CIA-backed coup, the warden of a Guatemalan prison agrees to an interview request from Maxine Whitman of Life magazine. When Max arrives at the prison, she reveals that her true agenda is to interview Francisco, a prisoner who she believes is the last living assistant of Harry Houdini. With the warden's grudging cooperation, Max urges Francisco to divulge Houdini's secrets before they're lost to history, but she ultimately becomes more interested in Francisco's own career as a magician. When he attempts a daring escape, Max plays an unexpected role in Francisco's final performance.

W for the Gilbster

by David Spence (Las Cruses, NM)

Directed by Eric Moore

Saturday, March 16 @ 1pm

Gilbert, the weird guy who sits outside all day watching the neighborhood, tells us his story. We pass through time but always stay in his neighborhood. From where he's sitting, the neighbors are everything. He has no family of his own. He has no job. He can't even drive a car. He's never had a girlfriend. Maybe all of that could change?

land of no mercy: un drama americana (en zvey aktn)

by Rae Binstock (Brooklyn, NY)

Directed by Stephen Miranda

Saturday, March 16 @ 7pm

The apartment sits on the corner of Monroe and Clinton, tucked away in Manhattan's Lower East Side. It's a cozy little place, just big enough for two-but which two? Yetta and Solomon, the Jewish immigrants from 1915, business owners fighting to get through each day and hold on to a world thousands of miles away, while they worry about starting a family in the Land of Opportunity? Or Maria and Alex, the millennial oddballs of the present who sweep into the neighborhood on a tide of gentrification, struggling to keep their college relationship viable in the face of new stressors, new ambitions, and new neighbors? A century apart but close enough to touch, two couples inhabit the same cramped apartment. Their stories weave together, contrasted throughout history, a collage of youth, hope, and uncertainty in what Tony Kushner calls "the melting pot where nothing melted".

Ms. Emma Mole

by Cecile Pace (New York, NY)

Directed by Jennifer Decker

Sunday, March 17 @ 2pm

When, in early 1950s Wyoming, three young women come together as Library volunteers, their lives fall apart. Ellis' husband disappears. Sally's husband collapses along with his lumber company. Ms. Emma Mole, the ugly, bitter 6th grade teacher, is aborted while unconscious. Told through interconnected monologues, three dissimilar women in a Wyoming city meet in the early 1950s, becoming friends and crossing barriers over the next twelve years.

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE:

Friday, March 15 @ 7pm

The Impossible Escape of Don Misterioso

by Hal Borden

Saturday, March 16 @ 1pm

W for the Gilbster

by David Spence

Saturday, March 16 @ 7pm

land of no mercy: un drama americana (en zvey aktn)

by Rae Binstock

Sunday, March 17 @ 2pm

Ms. Emma Mole

by Cecile Pace

**Talkbacks with the playwright, actors and director follow each reading.**

Stages Repertory Theatre

3201 Allen Parkway

Houston, TX 77019

FREE (Reservations recommended)

VIP EXPERIENCE (Support the Landing by donating $25 - and receive VIP Perks)

Order tickets at www.landingtheatre.org