An evening with US/Armenian playwright Leslie Ayvazian, the author of eight full-length and seven one-act plays. Her play Nine Armenians won the John Gassner/Outer Critics Circle Award for best new American play, and was a runner-up for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.
The evening commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, also known as the Armenian Holocaust and, by Armenians, as Medz Yeghern or “Great Crime”, with a reading of Leslie Ayvazian’s new play 15/15, her second work about this legacy.
Part black comedy, part harrowing family history, 15/15 tells the story of patriarch John Saypian, an Armenian-American haunted by the long-denied genocide that displaced his family and decimated an entire generation. When the tormentor of his private visions manifests in his real life, John prepares to do battle with his historical nemesis in order to get answers before it’s too late. 15/15 is a portrait of the insanity that ensues in one family when a history is denied. Directed by Austin Pendleton, the cast features Steve Bakunas, Alma Cuervo, Linda Lavin, Mary McCann, and David Margulies.
The reading will be followed by a discussion with the playwright, Bianca Bagatourian, Nancy Kricorian, Peter Kougasian, Michael Menendian, and Pam Theilman.
Midtown, New York, NY