Twelve unrelated characters (played by 5 performers) gather to share stories of a pandemic. As individual narratives unfold, relationships deepen and a community develops. “Elegy Play” moves beyond an exploration of what was into an invitation to collectively imagine what could be. Length: 80 minutes. Cast: Five performers. Identities are fluid.

DEVELOPMENT HISTORY
ELEGY PLAY is a commission from Mark Wing-Davey and NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in collaboration with New Dramatists. The play uses text from over 40 interviews conducted during 2020 and 2021. The play has been workshopped at NYU, New Dramatists (dir: Reena Dutt), Fishamble: The New Play Company (dir:Jim Culleton) in Dublin, Corcadorca Theater (dir: Fiona Quinn) in Cork, Ireland and through the “Process Series” at UNC-Chapel Hill (dir: Joseph Megel). ELEGY PLAY received an Irish Arts Agility Award in the 2022 cycle.

Corcadorca Photo Credit: Avril O’Sullivan
Corcadorca actors: Marcus Bale, Lisa Marie Murphy, Angela Newman, Kestiné Ugbodu, and Sinead Crowley

“As I began to read the script, I was disturbed at how much I’d already forgotten about the particulars: how alien and remote the isolation of that time already seemed. Reason enough to be reminded, in a work whose disarmingly direct address—from witnesses, ranging from an astronaut and a funeral director to a “mermaid” at a tourist trap—reminds me of The Laramie Project.” – Triangle Independent

OUTSTANDING PLAYWRITING
Best of Triangle Arts 2022 — Chatham Life & Style

Script