Our 2024 Reading Series
THE PERFECT WAY TO REOPEN
When we decided to reopen our doors, we knew the best way to do so was to welcome as many new artists into the Checkmark fold as possible. That’s why we produced a reading series in the Summer of 2024 of three new plays by La Daniella, francisca da silveira, and Audley Puglisi.
Each piece was provided with 29 hours of rehearsal culminating in a public, industry presentation, and every artist involved was paid the New York City Living Wage of $26/hour.
The 2024 Reading Series is dedicated to our friend
Ron Simons.
The Writers
La Daniella (she/her) is a performer, playwright, story consultant and model falling back in love with herself. A native of Bushwick, Brooklyn, her work is focused on New York City’s history, environmentalism, generational trauma, science fiction, surrealism/absurdism and genre-blended epics with large ensembles that center queer Black/Latine women and femmes.
As a playwright, her work has been supported by The Public Theater, Bushwick Starr, New York Theater Workshop, The New Group Offstage, Barrington Stage Company and San Diego Repertory Theater. Her play Get Your Pink Hands Off Me Sucka and Give Me Back (FKA Columbus Play) won the 2020 Burman New Play Award and was a finalist for the 2022 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. She's a member of The Public Theater’s 2018-19 Emerging Writers Group, a staff writer on the upcoming narrative podcast FLIPPED! (produced by echoverse and Neal Baer) and acts as a story consultant on the upcoming one-man show, The Illio Snow Story (written and performed by rapper Civil). As an actress, she is best known for her role as Zirconia on Netflix’s Orange is the New Black.
Currently, La Daniella is experimenting with puppetry and burlesque while working in retail on the weekends and teaching playwriting at the Harbor School with Big Green Theater/ SuperHero Clubhouse. She is a graduate of Juilliard’s Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program and NYU Tisch School of the Arts with a BFA in Drama.
https://danielladejesus.com
francisca da silveira (she/her) is a Cape Verdean-American playwright and Boston native whose work has been featured in ArtsBoston, The LA Times, The Boston Globe and American Theatre Magazine. Her play CAN I TOUCH IT? was featured in the National New Play Network’s 2020 National Showcase of New Plays and enjoyed a Rolling World Premiere at Company One Theatre (Boston), Rogue Machine Theatre (Los Angeles), and Cleveland Public Theatre (Cleveland) in 2023. Her play PAY NO WORSHIP is a 2023 Finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and received a World Premiere at InterAct Theatre Company (Philadelphia) in April 2023. Her play NOT-FOR-PROFIT (OR THE EQUITY, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION PLAY) was featured in The Playwrights’ Realm’s INK’D Festival in April 2021 and in La Jolla Playhouse’s DNA New Works Series in July 2021. da silveira was a 2020-2021 Playwrights Realm Writing Fellow, a member of The Public Theater’s 2020-2023 Emerging Writers Group, a 2022-2023 Jerome Fellow with the Playwrights’ Center and is currently a member of The Apollo Theater’s 2023 New Works Initiative Cohort. She is working on commissions from the University of Virginia’s Drama Department, the Brooklyn-based theater Colt Coeur, and Grammy Award-winner Christopher Lennertz. In TV land, da silveira was in the writers’ room for HBO's Season 3 of INDUSTRY and is in development with HBO. She holds a BFA in Dramatic Writing from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and an MSc in Playwriting from the University of Edinburgh. https://frandasilveira.com/
Audley Puglisi (any pronouns) is a playwright and poet. Fellowships include The Playwright’s Realm Writing Fellowship, VONA/Voices, and Lambda Literary. They are a member of the Page 73 Writer’s Group, EST/Youngblood, and have been a resident at Djerassi and Blue Mountain Center. Plays have been developed with Playwrights Horizons, Skylight Theatre, The Playwright's Realm, Page 73, Mile Square Theatre, and the New York State Council on the Arts. Their writing has been published in Garage Magazine, Color Bloq, and elsewhere. Audley received a BA in Africana Studies from Oberlin College and an MFA in playwriting from the Yale School of Drama. https://www.audleypuglisi.com/
The Plays
Malcriada: Formerly Known as Castillos de Plástico
By La Daniella
Directed by Cristina Angeles
Within a brownstone in Brooklyn lives a multi-generational, multiracial, (mostly) working class Puerto Rican and Dominican-American family of 12: The Castillos. On the morning of Noemi’s 18th birthday, a long-held secret spills that unearths decades of her family’s wounds and biases forcing them to confront the colorism, classism, exceptionalism and sexism that have long-ruled their household. It all comes to a head the night of her birthday party upon the arrival of their wealthier (and whiter) cousins from Westchester.
pay no worship
By francisca da silveira
Directed by Chika Ike
On the tiny island of Fogo in the Cape Verde archipelago, cousins Martin and Jose struggle to make a living in their family’s wine business. Martin, an academic with big dreams, seeks a way off the island, while Jose, content with the quaint life he’s built, seeks a way to hold onto their culture. "pay no worship" is a touching comedy about immigration, home and the ultimate act of love: letting go.
The Misplaced Saints
by Audley Puglisi
Directed by abigail jean-baptiste
Six friends gather for a birthday in an apartment under the J train. Petty fights break out. Old wounds resurface. And there’s something in the bathroom. Is somebody knocking on the door? Strange things keep happening, leading the guests to believe they’re not alone.