By Jennifer Maisel

Directed by Joseph Megel

When all you can do is hope

In a cramped apartment on the Lower East Side, a young refugee woman yearns to start a new life in the United States. As she works to vanquish the past that haunts her, she is accompanied by her father, husband, friends, daughter, and granddaughter. Set in a single apartment and spanning the years 1949–2016, Eight Nights tells the story of refugees from the past and present, taking disparate circumstances and laying bare their all too similar horrors. Life is brutal, but they live with the hope that a better future awaits.

AGE RECOMMENDATION

Due to language and content, this play may not be suitable for those under the age of 16.

Cast List

Lakeisha Coffey  Arlene, Lacey
Christopher Combemale  Steven, Inge
Elisabeth Corley  Anna, Rebecca
Arye Gross  Erich, Joram
Brandon Haynes   Benjamin, Matt
Jenny Latimer   Rebecca, Amy, Nina, Anna
Adam Poole  Aaron

Emily Bosco  Stage Directions
Amelia Jerden  Stage Manager

About the Playwright

Jennifer Maisel’s Pen West Literary Award finalist There or Here was workshopped at PlayPenn before critically acclaimed runs with New York’s Hypothetical Theatre and London’s Special Relationship Productions at The Park Theatre. Her The Last Seder premiered Off-Broadway after productions in Chicago, D.C. and LA. Plays include Goody Fucking Two Shoes (ATL’s Humana Festival), birds (Rorschach Theatre), Eden (Theatre of NOTE, Original Works Publishing) and Match (UArts New Play Festival, Berkshire Playwrights Lab). Awards: Kennedy Center’s Fund for New American Plays Award, Charlotte Woolard and Roger L. Stevens awards; SCR’s California Playwrights Competition; three time PEN West Literary Award finalist; five time Heideman Award finalist, STAGES International finalist. Jennifer received an Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P. Sloan foundation commission for Out of Orbit, which won the Stanley Award for Drama, made the 2016 Kilroy List for best unproduced plays by women and trans writers, and won the 2017/18 Woodward/Newman Drama award. Out of Orbit will premiere at Williamston Theatre and be produced by Bloomington Playwrights Project in 2018. Jennifer also writes for film and television; her Prodigal Son, was produced by Mar Vista Entertainment starring Virginia Madsen and she recently sold an original pilot with MomentumTV. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild, Ensemble Studio Theatre – LA Project, DogEar Playwrights Collective, Playwrights Union and the WGA. Eight Nights was workshopped at Berkshire Playwrights Lab and at Antaeus Theatre Company in Los Angeles. She is currently working on a new play as one of five playwrights invited into the prestigious Humanitas PlayLA Workshop.