GRIT 2023
Playreading Festival featuring the work of the inaugural cohort of our GRIT playwriting program
About the Playreading Festival
Celebrate the works of four emerging playwrights at Exit 11’s GRIT 2023 Playreading Festival. Developed as part of our GRIT playwriting program, the plays traverse a multitude of themes, including menstruation, marriage, love, ghosts, identity, and aspiration. The festival streamed via Zoom on Saturday, July 1, and is now available to watch on demand.
GRIT is Exit 11’s playwriting program for new and emerging writers wanting to share untold stories. It serves as a platform to amplify emerging and traditionally marginalized voices, including but not limited to: the global majority, LGBTQIA+ communities, immigrants and descendants of immigrants, women, and members of the working class.
GRIT 2023 Plays
Image courtesy of Alexander Girard
King and Bird
by Peri Desai
Love, loss, limitations, and expectations all collide one evening in the life of a married couple.
Image courtesy of Alexander Girard
Image courtesy of Milo Sharafeddine
How to Become a House
by Milo Sharafeddine
Haze is anxious. After his friend implies that he hops from persona to persona, he feels that he is failing. He wants so badly to feel at home in his own self, but it seems to be too far out of his reach. In a moment of distress, he is suddenly made aware of a presence in his house. Difficult to comprehend, impossible to catch, but incredibly comfortable. He is desperate to embody it and its indifference to definition. How to Become a House follows Haze’s journey as he comes to terms with the fleeting and multitudinous nature of the self.
Image courtesy of Milo Sharafeddine
Image courtesy of Matthew Tan
Stall
by Matthew Tan
Stall, set in contemporary Malaysia, portrays the love story of Kai and Nazra, a Chinese boy and Malay girl, as it starts to crumble when Nazra chooses to study overseas. Taking place entirely at Kai and his father’s hawker stall, the play delves into their relationship during their final “in-person” month together. Should they brave a long-distance arrangement or end things to explore life without the constraints of a relationship? The longer their decision-making stalls, unresolved and new issues stemming from their ethnic, religious, socioeconomic, and gender disparities emerge, intensifying the complexities they must confront.
Image courtesy of Matthew Tan
Image courtesy of Yeonshin Kim
Please Come, Please Go
by Yeonshin Kim
Yujin’s peaceful life is, again, disrupted when Taeri unexpectedly shows up at their house. The unwelcomed return of the worst suitemate reignites arguments and tensions within the household. Yujin finds herself increasingly frustrated by Taeri’s incessant noisy work, prompting her to seek revenge and help. Just when it seems it is impossible for them to reach a compromise and coexist peacefully, they finally engage in a heartfelt conversation. Their bond strengthens as they navigate their shared living space.
Image courtesy of Yeonshin Kim
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