New Play Smashes the Binary in a "Historical Romp."

NEW YORK - Aug. 22, 2023 - PRLog -- SolFest 2023 and PlayPenn present visionary trans Philadelphia playwright eppchez yo-sí to premier a developmental reading of eir audacious creation "PUBLIKPrivate" for a New York audience!  "I'm excited to see what the big city will make of this bouncy house for earnest existentialism," eppchez said.

PUBLIKPrivate debuts at the sixth annual SolFest: A Latiné Theatre Festival, produced in partnership with Pregones/PRTT and PlayPenn. Admission is free and seats can be reserved at pregonesprtt.org.  The live performance will be presented at the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre in Manhattan, 304 West 47th Street New York, NY 10036 on August 29^th, 7pm,

eppchez yo-sí yes is a Quaker, gender-expansive, Cuban & Jewish Playwright, musician, mover, and inventor. In 2016 eppchez started up Alma's Engine; a production company and creative ministry developing eir playful and profound new work across a variety of mediums (They Extract, Training; a one-troll-show, Publik Private, Pollination, CODEx pt1). learn more about eir. various work at www.almasengine.com

PUBLIKprivate was first conceived as a solo show at (Re)Focus Fest 2018 in Philadelphia. The festival challenged a handful of small Philadelphia companies to create new work around the theme "reclaim".  This New York production has burst into a three person play.

With much collaboration, eppchez created PUBLIKprivate about the lives of two gender non-conforming historical figures, La Monja Alférez (The Lieutenant Nun) and the Publik Universal Friend.  Audiences called it a "historical romp", Award-winning Playwright MK Tuomanen said "the show smashes the binary in more ways than one: out and passing, chaste and carnal, pacifist and warmonger, hero and villain.  With a wry smile, eppchez dances between the polar opposites of these two trans lives, and joins them together in something tender, irreverent, and all too human."

The team for the New York presentation includes Santiago Iacinti (Director), Karina Batchelor (Dramaturg), Joseph Distl (Stage Manager), Mele Borges (Performer 1), Han Van Sciver (Performer 2), Jackie Rivera (Performer 3).

PlayPenn is a Philadelphia artist-driven organization dedicated to the development of new plays and playwrights who create risk taking, boundary-pushing work. (https://www.playpenn.org)  The Sol Project works in partnership with leading theaters to advocate and produce the work of Latiné playwrights and nurture a growing community of Latiné theater artists. eppchez declared "these organizations give flight to tomfoolery and earnestness and gives artists like me a safe space to create! To be heard is to survive!"