DEVO: Checkmark's Inaugural Reading Series
When Checkmark was founded in October of 2017, we wanted to start small. Knowing that we wanted to build a foundation and family of underrepresented artists who believed in our mission and who needed space and opportunity, we decided a reading series would be the best way to begin our journey.
The Plays.
"Shiva347" by Sanaz Toossi
When Shiva’s daughter returns home to Iran determined to get a nose job, Shiva is determined to stop her. However, struggling to connect with her daughter, Shiva discovers the Internet and subsequently tailspins into chaos upon finding an email from an old flame. In this tale of passive-aggression and big noses, a mother desperately tries to show her daughter that she was a person once, too.
"Architecture of Rain" by Stefani Kuo
AOR is the story about the secondary death of a loved one through memory, and the mourning that comes with forgetfulness. From Scy's departure from the home to boarding school, to Silina's rebellion against her mother Sol's grief, the narrative follows the three living women as they struggle to reconcile their individual recollections of All-Grown-Up. This is a play about how we bring someone back to life over and over again in our minds, piecing them back together so many times they become someone else.
"From Another House" by Eliana Pipes
In From Another House, A woman finds herself making a “welcome to the family” dinner for the daughter that her husband fathered 21 years ago, but only recently learned about. The family's tenuous dynamics are strained as they work to welcome the girl into their established family, and when they learn the real reason behind her visit they're forced to confront secrets both new and old.
The Playwrights.
Sanaz Toossi is an Iranian-American playwright from Orange County, California. Her plays include the critically acclaimed, award-winning ENGLISH (co-production Atlantic Theater Company/Roundabout Theatre Company) and WISH YOU WERE HERE (Playwrights Horizons; Williamstown/Audible, released 2020). She is currently under commission at Atlantic Theater Company (Launch commission; Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation grant), Roundabout Theatre Company, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Manhattan Theatre Club, South Coast Repertory, and Oregon Shakespeare Festival (American Revolutions Cycle). In television, Sanaz recently staffed on INVITATION TO A BONFIRE (AMC); A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN (Amazon); FIVE WOMEN (Marielle Heller/ Big Beach); and sold an original idea, THE PERSIANS, to FX with Joe Weisberg & Joel Fields attached as Executive Producers. Sanaz is a member of Youngblood and the Middle Eastern American Writers Lab at the Lark, and an alum of Clubbed Thumb’s Early Career Writers’ Group. She was the 2019 P73 Playwriting Fellow, a recipient of the 2020 Steinberg Playwright Award, and the 2022 recipient of The Horton Foote Award. MFA: NYU Tisch.
Stefani Kuo (郭佳怡) is a playwright/performer and native of Hong Kong and Taiwan. She received her B.A. from Yale and is an MFA Playwriting Candidate at the Yale School of Drama. Currently based in the virtual world, Stefani has worked in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Berlin, Provence, and the U.S.
She has been an awardee of the Jerome Fellowship at PWC, Dramatist Guild Fellowship, finalist for the National Playwrights Conference, Jerome fellowship at Lanesboro Arts Centre, Many Voices Fellowship at PWC, the Working Farm with SPACE on Ryder Farm, Van Lier New Voices Fellowship, NAP Series, DVRF Playwrights' Program, BRIC Lab, semi-finalist for the Page 73 Playwriting Fellowship, Princess Grace Fellowship, Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep, Scratchpad Series at Playwrights Realm.
Her play, Wake, directed by Bobbin Ramsey, will be performed in November 2022 as part of the Langston Hughes Festival at Yale.
She is fluent in English, French, Mandarin, and Cantonese. Her work in translation and non-fiction involve all four languages, and have appeared in China Hands, and the New York Times. She has received commissions from the Rubin Museum, Roundhouse Theater Company, and Yangtze Repertory Theater Company.
She is represented by Jacob Epstein at Lighthouse Management.
Eliana Pipes is a writer, filmmaker, and performer based in her home town of Los Angeles. Her plays include DREAM HOU$E (world premiere co-production Alliance Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, and Baltimore Center Stage, published by Concord Samuel French); BITE ME (world premiere WP Theater); HOOPS (commissioned, world premiere Milwaukee Chamber Theater); LORENA: a Tabloid Epic (New York Theatre Workshop Dartmouth Residency, The Playwright's Realm Scratchpad Series); COWBOY AND THE MOON (Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellowship, NNPN MFA Playwright's Workshop); UNFUCKWITHABLE (Old Globe Powers New Voices Festival, Drama League DirectorFest); STAND AND WAIT (The Fire This Time Festival) and more. She holds commissions from Two River Theater and South Coast Repertory, and she’s a member of the 2023 Boston Court Playwright’s Group. Her writing awards include the Alliance Kendeda Prize, KCACTF Harold & Mimi Steinberg Award, KCACTF Ken Ludwig Scholarship, Leah Ryan Fund Prize for Emerging Women Writers, Arizona Theatre Company’s National Latine Playwright Award, UCSD Floyd Gaffney National Playwriting Competition on the African American Experience, and a four-time finalist selection for the Eugene O'Neill National Playwriting Conference.
More at www.elianapipes.com.