April 23 – May 18
Fully staged production – Second Stage
Co-produced with Geva Theatre Center
Directed by Sean Daniels
Tickets range in price from $45-$72 each
Genetic anthropologist Jillian has devoted her life to finding a cure for early-onset Alzheimer’s, the inherited disease that took her mother, and will soon overtake her and perhaps eventually her own daughter. When Jillian is brought on to conduct a study on diabetes in the isolated Havasupai tribe, she runs a series of unauthorized tests. Jillian’s hopes to discover information that will aid her battle against Alzheimer’s soon clashes with the Tribe’s beliefs. As Jillian’s ethics are thrown into question, this world premiere play asks: Are we defined by our biology or by our memories? And when is knowledge actually power?
About Deborah Zoe Laufer
Deborah is a recipient of the Helen Merrill Playwriting Award and a Lilly Award. Her play End Days was awarded The ATCA Steinberg citation in 2007. Its NYC premiere was at Ensemble Studio Theatre through an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Grant. It has received over thirty productions and been translated to German, Russian and Greek. It was produced in Halberstadt, Germany and, through the New American Plays for Russia Initiative will be produced in St. Petersburg this year (2012). It is listed in The Burns Mantle Yearbook as one of the best regional plays of 2008, and is published by Smith and Kraus in The Best Plays of 2008.
Sirens premiered at The Actor’s Theatre of Louisville Humana Festival in February 2010 and has received nine productions since. Deborah is currently adapting it into a musical with composer Benjamin Velez.
Out of Sterno received its world premiere at Portland Stage in ME in 2009 with a grant from The Edgerton Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Deborah is currently adapting it into a musical with composer SoHee Youn.
The Last Schwartz premiered at Florida Stage (as did End Days and The Gulf of Westchester) and enjoyed a six-month run at The Zephyr Theatre in Los Angeles. It was published by Smith and Kraus, Women Playwrights, the Best Plays of 2003.
Deborah was one of six playwrights commissioned in 2009 by Actors Theatre of Louisville to write Brink, for their Apprentice Company. Other short works include The Record, commissioned for Juilliard’s Centennial celebration (published by Smith and Kraus, The Best 10 Minute Plays of 2005), Saturday, which premiered at the City Theatre’s Summer Shorts Festival, and The Prom, City Theatre’s Short Cuts School Tour.
Deborah is a graduate of The Juilliard School and a two-time recipient of the LeCompte du Nouy grant from The Lincoln Center Foundation. Her plays have been developed at Florida Stage, The Eugene O’Neill Playwrights Conference, Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Ojai Playwrights Conference, The Missoula Colony, The Cherry Lane Alternative, The Dramatists Guild Fellowship Program, New Georges, The Lark Play Development Center and Geva Theatre Center. She’s received a National New Play Network rolling premiere and commission. She is a member of The Dramatists Guild and is currently in her second year of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop as a lyricist.