Part 1 - Jan 2
Series participants will meet at the Unicorn Theatre to attend the first meeting with the playwright, the cast, director, and creative team and be present during the first read-through of the script, presentation of set and costume design, hear comments from the playwright and director. This is a great opportunity to see how a team works together. Take note of the different presentation styles. How are ideas being presented and how are people responding? Do the actors have the freedom to make suggestions or do they mainly follow direction from the director. Who is the leader of the project, the director, or the playwright? How do we know this?

Part 2 - Jan 17
Series participants will return to the Unicorn Theatre to attend a rehearsal and see how the show has progressed. How does the set look? Was it similar to plans presented at the first meeting? Are there costumes yet? Are they what was expected based on the presentation at the first meeting? Again the participants will see how a team of different people with different skills, talents, and experiences work together for the success of the project. Do the actors feel like a cohesive team yet? How is the director leading? What tools are they using that you may use in your job?

Part 3 - Jan 26
Series participants will return to Unicorn Theatre for the opening night performance and reception with playwright, cast, directors and creative team. This will give the participants the opportunity to engage with the team and finally see the finished project. Were there any major changes from the first meeting to the rehearsal, to opening night? Was the final product the vision of the playwright and/or director presented at the first meeting?

Ripped from today’s headlines. 
Hidden Homelessness & Hope.
 

NOMAD MOTEL
by Carla Ching
 

On the not-so-sunny side of California, teenage Alix bounces between motel rooms while taking care of her brothers for her absent mother. Her classmate, Mason, is a budding songwriter sent to America for high school by his father in Hong Kong. Together, they must learn to scrape by without giving up their dreams. This Rolling World Premiere is a coming-of-age tale about motel kids and parachute kids making something out of nothing in the land of plenty.

Ching’s Nomad Motel brilliantly depicts the intersection between these two groups of children who would seem to represent diametrically opposed communities, but rather, find themselves interconnected in ways that profoundly alter and unify them.

"Nomad Motel explores family, inclusion, and understanding."
- CHRISTOPHER RAWSON Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Carla Ching is an American playwright, television writer, and teacher. Ching has written for multiple television shows including, USA’s series, Graceland (TV series), AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead, Amazon’s I Love Dick (TV series), Hulu’s The First, and AMC’s The Preacher. She has also written many of her own full length and one-act plays: Nomad Motel, The Two Kids That Blow Shit Up, Fast Company, The Sugar House at the Edge of the Wilderness, Dirty and Big Blind/Little Blind and eight one-act plays. Ching has taught numerous workshops at New York Victory Theatre, Lincoln Center Institute, The Public Theatre, The Women’s Project, American Palace Theatre, TDF, Young Playwrights, The Wallis Annenberg Center, and Center Theatre Group. Ching received a Bachelor of Arts from Vassar College and a Masters in Fine Arts from The New School of Drama. Ching taught playwriting at Pace University in New York City and is a member of the Kilroys and New Dramatists.