Daniella De Jesús. Image courtesy the artist.
Free with RSVP
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*In the event that advance tickets are sold out, an in-person wait list will open at 7 P.M.
Co-Presented with The Bushwick Starr
Since 2010, The Bushwick Starr’s annual Starr Reading Series has cultivated a diverse group of writers at all stages of their careers, who approach writing for the theater in thrilling and unexpected ways. Selected through an invited submission process by a rotating committee of curators, currently Jehan O. Young, Elizagrace Madrone, and William Burke, 4-8 playwrights are selected each year, and receive developmental support for a public staged reading of a new, usually unfinished, work. With The Bushwick Starr’s new permanent home currently under renovation, the 2023 Starr Reading Series will take place at, and is co-presented by, CPR – Center for Performance Research. Now in its second year, this collaboration unites the process-oriented missions of both organizations, and celebrates the incubation of new, experimental work in performance. The Starr Reading Series has previously supported new plays by writers including Whitney White, Clare Barron, Phillip Howze, Jackie Sibblies Drury, Haruna Lee, and many more.
Daniella De Jesús: GOOEY’S TOXIC AQUATIC ADVENTURE at Wasteland!™ (presented by amazon)
Gooey Pudín is a Nuyorican mermaid from the Gowanus Canal who’s dreams of stardom are compromised when billionaire Beff Jezos buys the canal with plans to develop it into a resort, casino and amusement park and offers her a job as a showgirl. But also, she’s hellbent on avenging her mother’s death by capturing and punishing the mafia boss who murdered her. And maybe the mafia boss and Beff Jezos are in cahoots? And also it’s a musical…or a cabaret! Or a guided tour of the polluted waters of the canal? OR an amusement ride attraction at Wasteland™ called Gooey Pudín’s Toxic Aquatic Adventure and Gooey’s forced to wear an electric collar and the folks at Amazon Zanamon give her a little zap when she goes off script because they have a story to maintain.
Daniella De Jesús is a Puerto Rican & Dominican actor/writer/siren from (pre-gentrified) Bushwick, Brooklyn. A member of the Public Theater’s 2018-19 Emerging Writers Group, her plays include Get Your Pink Hands Off Me Sucka and Give Me Back (FKA Columbus Play) (2022 finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, 2020 winner of the Burman New Play Award), Mambo Sauce (The New Group Off Stage, semi-finalist for Clubbed Thumb’s 2018 commission), Pa’ Ti Tengo De Todo (The Public Theater’s Spotlight Series), Untitled Puppet Show (or On The Other Side of Anchovy Avenue) (commissioned by the Public Theater for Play At Home) and The Thief Cometh (United SoloFestival). As an actor, she is best known for her role as Zirconia on Netflix’s Orange is the New Black, for which she received a nomination for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series by the Screen Actors Guild Awards. De Jesús is a graduate of NYU Tisch School of the Arts with a BFA in Drama and is a current fellow at Juilliard’s Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program.
Additional Starr Reading Series programs:
Mon, March 27 at 7:30 P.M.
Marissa Joyce Stamps: Letiche and The [Wondrous] Pursuit of Elvis
Tues, March 28 at 7:30 P.M.
Alba Delia Hernández: I've Been Giving Puerto Rican History Lessons for Free
Weds, March 29 at 7:30 P.M.
Divya Mangwani: The Nation Needs to Know
Tues, April 4 at 7:30 P.M.
Maya Lawson: For Du
Weds, April 5 at 7:30 P.M.
Jesús I. Valles: untitled table play
The Bushwick Starr is grateful to partner with CPR in co-presenting and hosting the annual Starr Reading Series as they build their new permanent home in Bushwick! The grand opening of The Bushwick Starr’s new venue will take place in about a year, but you can be a part of the celebration today! Please consider joining the Starr Giving Galaxy, a community of donors, friends, and audiences making an ongoing commitment to the Starr's future. Your support will help our artists create groundbreaking new performances, and establish a lasting home for the arts and culture in North Brooklyn for all to enjoy.