Updates

Monthly Public Event Features Immigrant Stories, Told in Their Own Words, Performed by Actors

 

When: 

Beginning April 16, at 7pm (house opens at 6:45), recurring monthly

 

Where: 

Theatre Row, Theatre 2, 410 W 42nd St

 

Who: 

The American Playwriting Foundation, a program of Building for the Arts;

Directed by Scott Illingworth, with April 16 performances by actors Joshua David Robinson, Yiling Luo, and Dela Meskienyar

 

April 14, 2025, New York, NY — The American Playwriting Foundation—a program of the multifaceted, cultural accessibility-focused nonprofit organization Building for the Arts (BFA)—in collaboration with director Scott Illingworth, begins The Verbatim Salon, April 16, 2025 at 7pm (house opens at 6:45pm). In this new monthly public event, actors share stories from interviews recorded with people interacting with the US immigration system.

 

Stories are performed using an in-ear verbatim technique: Actors listen in real time to the recordings via headphones as they speak the words aloud in front of the audience. This technique protects the anonymity of the interview subject, allows stories to be recorded in more intimate one-on-one settings, and includes people who might not be able or willing to share their story in front of an audience. 

 

The salon is directed by Scott Illingworth, the Associate Chair of the Graduate Acting Program at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, whose directing credits include new play collaborations with Lucas Hnath, Mona Mansour, Christina Anderson, Stefanie Zadravec, Padraic Lillis, and Bill Bowers. The inaugural salon features performances by Joshua David Robinson, Yiling Luo, and Dela Meskienyar.

 

The Verbatim Salon takes place in BFA’s nonprofit-focused, multi-theater complex on 42nd Street, Theater Row. Each month, rather than paying admission, audiences will be encouraged to donate to a rotating list of organizations supporting immigrants and refugees with a range of services. The first salon directs audiences to the Esperanza Immigrant Rights Project, a public interest legal organization serving some of the most vulnerable immigrants in the Los Angeles area. 

 

About The American Playwriting Foundation

 

The American Playwriting Foundation grants the country’s largest prize for playwriting, the $65,000 Relentless Award, founded in memory of Philip Seymour Hoffman, and now likewise honoring the legacy of Adam Schlesinger with the Relentless Musical Award for musical theater writers. Led by Artistic Director David Bar Katz, with a team of Artistic Advisors and annual Relentless Award Selection Committees both brimming with contemporary theater visionaries, the Foundation identifies and uplifts the writers who will define theater’s next chapter. 

 

The Foundation is a program of Building for the Arts (BFA), a multifaceted nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding access to the performing arts. Founded in Hell’s Kitchen in 1976 to create a vibrant performing arts hub for the neighborhood, BFA has since grown toward a holistic and national approach to cultural accessibility, offering multiple pipelines toward deepened artistic engagement.