Image courtesy The Bushwick Starr.
Tickets: FREE, RSVP required
RSVP here
Co-Presented with The Bushwick Starr
Tuesday, March 29, 2022 | 7:30 P.M.
Nkenna Akunna: cheeky little brown
*This performance is currently SOLD OUT online. A wait list will begin at the door at 7pm and we will do our best to accommodate everyone!
Additional Starr Reading Series programs:
Monday, March 28, 2022 | 7:30 P.M.
Ro Reddick: Throwback Island
Monday, April 4, 2022 | 7:30 P.M.
Amara Brady: the beautiful things are gonna kill you
Tuesday, April 5, 2022 | 7:30 P.M.
Ife Olujobi: MARKETPLACE
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 2022 Starr Reading Series will take place at, and is co-presented by, CPR – Center for Performance Research, uniting the process-oriented missions of both organizations, and celebrating 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.
cheeky little brown uses the whirlwind of a failed night out to explore heartbreak, one’s relationship to their own body, and the shifting realities of the city they call home. The story opens on Lady, who’s in the middle of crashing (and lowkey ruining) her best friend Gemma’s birthday party. The two haven’t spoken for six months, Lady’s presence is a surprise, and over the course of the play we untangle the reasons why.
Nkenna Akunna is an Igbo playwright and performer from London whose work primarily explores dimensions of Black femme life. Plays include Some Of Us Exist in the Future (Papatango Prize; Neukom Institute Literary Award for Playwriting second place; Women’s Prize in Playwriting shortlist; UK audio tour: Bush Theatre, Everyman Theatre Liverpool, Theatr Clwyd, Leeds Playhouse, Laurels Whitley Bay, Chichester Festival Theatre, Stephen Joseph Theatre, an Tobar & Mull Theatre, Theatre Royal Plymouth, Bristol Old Vic, Southwark Playhouse, Oldham Coliseum, Trinity Theatre Tunbridge Wells, Lyric Theatre Belfast), cheeky little brown, good god (VoxFest, Brown University), Good Fit (Rosa Parks Playwriting Award, Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award second place, Theatre Renegade, The Dare Tactic), and a meal (Polaroid Theatre). She has a BA in Economics and African Diaspora Studies from Dartmouth College and is completing an MFA Candidate in Playwriting from Brown University. nkennaakunna.com
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.
Important note about visiting CPR:
CPR requires all visitors, artists, and staff to provide documentation of full vaccination against Covid-19 as well as a vaccine booster (if eligible), along with a photo ID, to enter CPR. For more information about booster eligibility, please visit the CDC's website. Masks must also be worn at all times inside CPR.