THE BABY KILLER PLAY by Dominique Cieri

On June 3, 2000, 18-year old Martita G. dropped her 17-month old son into the Passaic River. In this intense and probing play, the story leading up to this inexplicable act is set side-by-side with a forty-two year-old woman who is desperately trying to have her first child. Cieri’s play explores the impulses that lead to childbearing and raises questions about the motivations behind having children. Based on a true story.

Dominique Cieri is a playwright, teaching artist, and member of the Dramatists Guild. She is the recipient of the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation and New Jersey State Council on the Arts Individual Playwriting Fellowship 2003, and 2009.  A graduate of Rose Bruford College in Kent, England, and the recipient of the State University of New York Chancellor’s Medal of Excellence for Scholarship and Creative Activities, Ms. Cieri holds an MFA in Creative Writing at Goddard College, Vermont. Ms. Cieri’s plays: Pitz & Joe, For Dear Life, Last Kiss, Count Down, Safe, and The Baby Killer Play, under development at Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey. Her plays have been produced and developed in New Jersey, New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles.  Pitz & Joe is currently under contract with Warner Brothers with Josh Brolin. Her Essays on Arts and Education have been published in the New York Times, and Teaching Artist Journal. Dominique received the New Jersey Theatre Alliance Applause Award, 2010, for her artistry and dedication.  Current projects include the implementation of her work for addressing bullying through the art of playwriting; a year-long commitment to the development of new work from grant monies received by Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey through the New Jersey Arts Council for the program ‘Women’s Playwrights Project.’

Dominique is one of the New Jersey Emerging Women Playwrights as well as a Literary Artist Fellowship recepient.

This reading will be begin at 7:00pm and will be held at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Dreyfuss Theatre, 285 Madison Avenue, Madison, NJ. Click here for directions. Click here for a printable map of the campus (the Dreyfuss Theatre is located in Building 9).

Be sure to check out our 5 Questions with Dominique Cieri interview!

Directed by James Glossman

Cast:
Martita Gonzales - Alicia Rivas
Judge/Geoffrey/Alberto/Bill/Freschi - Clark Carmichael*
Male Passerby/Fusco/Policeman/Alberto/Goldstein/Pro-Lifer 1 - John Pietrowski*
Mob 1/Karen/Women/Woman 4/Pro-Lifer 2 - Sahirah Johnson*
Mob 3/Milagros Santana/Women/Penelope/Maria/Social Worker - Siouxsie Suarez
Tony/Young Man/Fabio/Jose - Walter Rodriguez**
Margaret/Ceilia/Dilma/Women - Laura Eckstrand*
Mob 4/Eveline/Women/Julia/La Llorona/Mother/Mrs. Pinchot. Woman 1/Abortion Counselor - Natasha Yannacanedo*
Mob 2/Wanda/Woman/Devorah/Maria/Mrs. Whitestone/Woman 3/Pro-lifer 3 - Lori McNally*

*Members Actors' Equity Association
**Equity Member Candidates

This reading made possible in part by funds from the Puffin Foundation. The Puffin Foundation Ltd. has sought to open the doors of artistic expression by providing grants to artists and art organizations who are often excluded from mainstream opportunities due to their race, gender, or social philosophy.  www.puffinfoundation.org    

The NJ Literary Artist Fellowship Showcase, now in its thirteenth year, is a partnership between the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and Playwrights Theatre. Part of the NJSCA long-range plan to promote the work of New Jersey artists through performance and exhibitions, its intention is to present public showcases of the winners of  the prestigious NJSCA Literary Artist Fellowships in poetry, prose and playwriting. This year’s series is featuring the works of the 2009 Fellowship winners. The playwrights are being featured as part of Playwrights Theatre’s Forum Reading Series. Prose writers and poets will be featured in future readings in Hoboken, Long Beach Island, and at the Arts on Division Festival in Somerville, NJ.      

The New Jersey Emerging Women Playwrights Project (NJEWP) is part of Playwrights Theatre’s larger ongoing effort to provide meaningful support to playwrights through an authentic development process that focuses on the specific and individual needs of the writer. New Jersey has an abundance of talented and
committed women playwrights, but there are very few opportunities for these artists to form relationships with organizations that will make a long-term commitment to developing both their work and their presence in the community. The NJEWP  puts into place a process that will identify writers, provide a long-term writer-driven development process, and provide connections for the writer to other writers, informed audiences, and the larger
theatrical community, both in New Jersey and nationwide.   

For the pilot year of NJEWP, Playwrights Theatre has selected four women playwrights for a yearlong development process of a work-in-progress. There is no
 requirement for what stage the work is in, some writers are starting almost from scratch, some are further along in their writing. None of the plays are
commissioned, their future remains in control of the author throughout the process, including the ability to workshop the piece at another theatre at any time.   This evening’s reading is the fourth reading of the play, each writer has had three additional readings over the course of the past year. These plays are probably not yet finished, and we are grateful for your assistance in helping them along.

The writers for 2011-12 were Dominique Cieri, Carrie Louise Nutt, Dania Ramos, and Lia Romeo. Writers for 2012-13 have been selected, they are:
E.M. Lewis, Claire Porter, and Yasmine Rana.

This program is made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.