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Working Theater and Broadway Advocacy Coalition present
with the support of CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies’ Murphy Institute and Leadership for Democracy and Social Justice
hosted by Playwrights Horizons
Stage Left is an innovative new play festival from Working Theater and Broadway Advocacy Coalition that brings the stories from the frontlines of progressive movements to center stage through six groundbreaking staged readings: La Dureza, Hit Machine, The Garbologists, Foot Wears House, The Hero You Took, and Date of Release. Each play is paired with a community partner —REI Soho Union, Worker’s Justice Project, and Releasing Aging People in Prison—to catalyze conversation and create pathways to immediate, meaningful action. By bridging theater and social change, Stage Left transforms performance into a site of solidarity, reflection, and resistance. Supported by the Murphy Institute and Leadership for Democracy and Social Justice and hosted by Playwrights Horizons, this new play festival will explore the power of collective action through storytelling and redefine what it means for art to be in service of justice.
by Ed Cardona
presented in partnership with LatinX Playwrights Circle’s Next Draft
Community Partner: Los Deliveristas Unidos/Worker’s Justice Project
La Dureza explores a day in the lives of the delivery cyclists who make our city run. Created in solidarity with Los Deliveristas Unidos (Worker’s Justice Project) and their courageous efforts to organize for fair wages, workplace safety, and human dignity, this piece serves as a powerful testament to the resilience and strength of workers in our city, shedding light on their struggles, and celebrating their triumphs.
by Jonathan Caren
Community Partner: TBD
Hit Machine is a raw, rhythmic new play about two brothers chasing a dream and hoping to find their way back to each other. As they struggle to make the next hit single their relationship unravels, revealing the myths they’ve made of each other.
by Pedro Jungo Rosario
Community Partner: Releasing Aging People in Prison
John Mackenzie is preparing for his tenth parole hearing. With the support of his incarcerated peers and mentors, he’s holding onto hope for release and for the chance to break free from a life sentence. Based on a true story.
by Laura Neill
Community Partner: REI Soho Union
Your neighborhood outdoor goods store is unionizing. The people who sold you your hiking boots are trying to figure out who’s down to strike—while helping sixteen customers at a time and hoping the store doesn’t flood again. Foot Wears House reveals the humor, camaraderie, and pure rage that exists at the intersection of no guaranteed hours and salaried managers who are Really Excited About Selling Memberships! Plus, the warehouse bays and alarm seem to have a life of their own… is the warehouse ghost unionizing, too?
by Lindsay Joelle
Community Partner: TBD
A heartwarming, funny, and deeply human play about finding connection in the most unexpected places. When a seasoned sanitation worker is paired with an eager new trainee their days of collecting trash become a journey through race, grief, resilience, and the surprising beauty hidden in what we throw away. Through sharp dialogue and tender moments, The Garbologists shows us that sometimes the things we discard hold the greatest meaning.
by Andrea Ambam
Community Partner: Releasing Aging People in Prison
Separated by incarceration, twin sisters Jade and Jasper make parallel attempts to get free, despite being on opposite sides of prison walls. One seeks somatic therapy at a wellness studio, the other prepares for her fourth parole hearing. What tethers them? The shared, aching anticipation of release
Working Theater believes the transformative experience of live theater should not be a privilege or a luxury, but a staple of every working person’s life. Now in its 40th season, Working Theater continues its mission to produce theater for, with, and about working people—the essential workers of any city or town—and to make play-going a regular part of our audiences’ cultural lives. Our mobile unit (Five Boroughs/One City), grassroots audience engagement efforts, and pioneering arts-in-education initiatives (TheaterWorks!) have set the bar for equity in the American theater. Our work remains relevant, accessible, and affordable to all, regardless of geography or socio-economic status. Working Theater has commissioned and produced over seventy culturally diverse world-premiere plays, with subjects and themes ranging from the struggles of women working in poultry plants (Lisa Ramirez’s TO THE BONE) to the plight of the uninsured in America (Michael Milligan’s Mercy Killers), to the shared journey of undocumented immigrants crossing the United States border, staged inside an actual 18-wheeler (Ed Cardona, Jr.’s La Ruta). The company has presented its work in 15 American cities, earned 2 Drama League nominations, 6 Drama Desk Award nominations, a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Ensemble for Rob Ackerman’s Tabletop, and 3 Audelco Awards. www.theworkingtheater.org
Broadway Advocacy Coalition (BAC) is an arts-based advocacy organization that unites artists and directly impacted advocates to develop story-based artivism that advances justice and drives systemic change. Founded in 2016 by Broadway artists in response to the nation’s pandemic of racism and police brutality, BAC is a multidisciplinary force using the power of storytelling to confront systemic injustice, particularly within the criminal legal system. Through our signature Theater of Change Methodology, we leverage arts and storytelling as powerful tools to imagine a world without systemic racism and the carceral state, inspire action across all levels of power, and replace harmful narratives, strengthening organizing efforts for lasting systemic change. In 2021, BAC received a Special Tony Award for providing an unparalleled platform for marginalized theatre artists and leading the theater industry toward a more equitable future. To learn more, get involved, or support our work, visit or support our work, visit bwayadvocacycoalition.org or follow us on Instagram.
The Joseph S. Murphy Institute focuses on education for workers and union members and serves as a research and resource center for publications and public programming. The Institute traces its roots to 1984 and in 2005 was named in honor of former CUNY Chancellor Joseph S. Murphy, a tireless advocate for labor and worker education. The Institute continues as an entity within the School of Labor and Urban Studies, with two specific goals: 1) offer public forums, publish material, and offer programs that will encourage public discourse and greater civic participation, and 2) partner with unions, employers, and other CUNY units to expand educational opportunities for union members and other adult learners seeking to attain the knowledge, skills, and credentials they need to achieve their career goals and improve their economic wellbeing.
Leadership for Democracy and Social Justice (LDSJ) is an institute of the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership at City College of New York and the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies. LDSJ was created and is led by movement leaders with experience and investment in grassroots organizing. Aiming to support diverse cohorts of leaders from the communities at the forefront of social justice movements, helping to foster understanding of how to build lasting power and use it for our collective liberation.
Playwrights Horizons is a writer’s theater committed to the advancement of bold and visionary contemporary playwrights, through the development and production of daring new work and the education of future theatermakers. In a city rich with cultural offerings, Playwrights Horizons’ 53-year-old mission is unique among theaters of its size; the organization has distinguished itself by a steadfast commitment to centering the voice of the playwright. It’s a mission that is always timely, and one that’s necessary in the ongoing evolution of theater in this country. By expanding the U.S. theater canon with a wider range of voices, Playwrights Horizons aims to be a home for the exploration of playwriting and an anti-racist center of curiosity, dialogue, and artistic risk.
Stage Leftis supported, in part, by the 21st Century ILGWU Heritage Fund
