CORKSCREW THEATER FESTIVAL is a brand-new festival coming to NYC this August that aims to increase access to production opportunities for a varied set of early-career artists, especially those who are redefining traditional creative roles and developing work through unusual collaborative models. The 2017 festival includes five new plays with eight performances each, plus a reading series of five plays in development. The festival is presented by The Brewing Dept. and Fortress Productions.

Five stars for False Stars! Fast-paced, heartfelt and precise, the writing, acting and direction of this piece by Nora Sørena Casey, presented at the inaugural Corkscrew Theater Festival, come together to form a riveting production. Set in a university town in the South, the play centers around Larry (whom we never see), a neuroscientist stricken by stroke while six young people gather in his home during a hurricane. The six are a motley crew, each embroiled in their own issues. And what issues they have… There is Mac (Ryan Molloy), a together caregiver who is having an affair; Peg (Jules Forsberg-Lary), a doctoral student who is Larry’s protegee; Mychal (Ashton Muñiz), Larry’s grown child visiting his father from New York City; Lillian (Marissa Carpio) and Jorge (Felipe Bonilla), an unhappily married couple who are both brilliant researchers; and Victor (Jonathan Iglesias), Mychal’s childhood friend whom Larry always favored. Jealousy is a running theme between all of these characters, some of their jealousies uncovered from long ago, some yet to be discovered; all of them worry that they are somehow being replaced. Add to that professional jealousy when a notebook containing La …Read more