R&D: Vinyl Vanguard by Marcus Scott
Join us for a cold reading of Vinyl Vanguard by Marcus Scott, our first R&D of 2024!
Event Details:
Saturday, August 3rd
ART/NY Spaces @ 520
520 8th Ave, 3rd Fl - Bruce Mitchell Room
New York, NY
Free Admission! Doors open @ 4pm. We recommend coming early so folks can get comfortable and enjoy the complimentary refreshments! Reading will start within 15-20 minutes of doors opening. Due to limited space, we lovingly ask folks to please reserve your spot in advance.
Run time: approx. 90 min, followed by a brief Q&A with the playwright.
Synopsis:
When his father goes on a world tour, Heron Gregory is forced to leave Upstate New York and relocate to St. Simons Island to stay with his extended family and finish his education. Also staying with his family is Babatunde, a studious Nigerian foreign exchange student still getting accustomed to the way of life in their secluded town. Polar opposites, the pair of outsider teenage boys form a close friendship and start a rock band. Yet as their bond tightens and the pangs of first love blossom and blister, their uniquely complex cultural differences give way to misunderstandings and miscommunication. Vinyl Vanguard is a Southern Gothic coming-of-age romantic drama about making a home, creating a chosen family, of course rock 'n roll.
About the Playwright: Marcus Scott (He/Him/His)
MARCUS SCOTT is a dramatist & journalist. Selected works: TUMBLEWEED (finalist: 2017 BAPF & the 2017 Festival of New American Plays at Austin Playhouse; semifinalist: 2022 O’Neill NPC, 2022 Blue Ink Playwriting Award & 2017 Princess Grace Award Playwriting Fellowship; long-listed: 2023 Austin Film Festival Playwriting Competition - 2nd Rounder), SIBLING RIVALRIES (finalist: Normal Ave’s NAPseries, 2021 Seven Devils Playwrights Conference & 2021 Judith Royer Excellence In Playwriting Award; semi-finalist: 2022 Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival, 2021 Blue Ink Playwriting Award & 2021Princess Grace Award Playwriting Fellowship; long-listed: 2020 Theatre503 International Playwriting Award), THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD (finalist: 2023 Princess Grace Award Playwriting Fellowship, 2023 Blue Ink Playwriting Award, the 2019 Bushwick Starr Reading Series; semifinalist: 2023 BAPF, 2024 Fault Line Theater’s Irons in the Fire & 2024 O’Neill NPC) & CHERRY BOMB (recipient: 2017 Drama League First Stage Artist-In-Residence, 2017 NY Theatre Barn New Works Series). He was commissioned by Heartbeat Opera to adapt Beethoven’s FIDELIO (Librettist/Co-writer; The Met Museum; NY Times Critic’s Pick). Scott is a member of the Art House Productions INKubator Play Lab and the recipient of the WTP Rosalind Ayres-Williams Memorial Scholarship. Scott is a Dramatists Guild Foundation National Fellows Program, Many Voices Fellowship finalist, NYSAF Founders’ Award finalist and a Doric Wilson Independent Playwright Award semi-finalist. His articles appeared in Architectural Digest, Time Out New York, American Theatre Magazine, Playbill, Elle, Out, Essence, The Brooklyn Rail, among others. BFA: State University College at Buffalo, MFA: NYU Tisch School of the Arts.
What is R&D?
R&D (also known as "Reading & Drinking") is Step1’s co-reading series, created in 2017. It is a casual reading set-up where volunteer actors read a piece out loud that is either new or in development, followed by a brief Q&A feedback session with a small audience. We offer refreshments and beverages, both boozy and non-alcoholic. Each session is catered to the needs of the individual playwright, please reach out to us if you have any questions! There are four R&D sessions per season (Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall). R&D is always free to attend.
