Public Studio

Two new plays by emerging and up-and-coming playwrights presented as pared-down productions.

Pretty Hunger:
Lea is a biracial kid with a big imagination. But her wildest dreams can’t prepare her for the day when her mother brings home a stranger to babysit. With the help of her imaginary friend, Bette Davis and the Classic Movie Channel, Lea must navigate the space between her mother’s savage love and her father’s wandering heart. Martha Banta directs Public Theater Emerging Writers Group alum Patricia Ione Lloyd’s moving and hilarious new play about growing up, carrying our parents’ baggage, and what it means to be a woman of color.

Teenage Dick:
A brilliantly hilarious take on Shakespeare’s classic tale of power lust, Teenage Dick reimagines the most famous disabled character of all time as a 16-year-old outsider in the deepest winter of his discontent: his junior year at Roseland High. Picked on because of his cerebral palsy (as well as his sometimes creepy Shakespearean way of speaking), Richard is determined to have his revenge and make his name by becoming president of the senior class. But as he manipulates and crushes the obstacles to his electoral success, Richard finds himself faced with a decision he never expected would be his to make: is it better to be loved or feared? Tony-nominee Moritz von Stuelpnagel directs Mike Lew’s devastatingly funny, sharply written new play about perception, disability and the lengths we’re willing to go to rise above our station in life… and high school.