Ellen McLaughlin’s Penelope to Be Workshopped at NYU and Princeton

Ellen McLaughlin will present a workshop of her new play, Penelope at New York University’s Labowitz Theatre, October 29-November 1, followed by performances at Princeton’s Taplin Auditorium, November 4 and 5. Lisa Rothe will direct.

This music-theater piece involves a woman whose ex-husband appears at her door after an absence of 20 years, suffering from brain damage. She reads him The Odyssey, which helps them to find a way into his memory and the terror and trauma of war. The workshop will feature McLaughlin and a string quartet, with original music by Sarah Kirkland Snider.

McLaughlin is best to known for originating the part of the Angel in Tony Kushner’s Angels in America. Her plays include Days and Nights Within, A Narrow Bed, Infinity’s House, Iphigenia and Other Daughters, Tongue of a Bird, The Trojan Women, Helen, The Persians, and Oedipus.

The creative team will include M. L. Geiger (lighting), Eliza Brown (set), and Marilys Ernst (video).