Phoenix Theatre Ensemble Presents Young, Hot & Dickensian - Contemporary Remixes Of Charles Dickens

Phoenix Theatre Ensemble, a nonprofit theatre company now in its 15th season, announces a unique-and unpredictable--evening of readings of new commissioned short plays about Charles Dickens on Saturday, December 15 at Downtown Arts, 70 E 4th Street, NYC. The world-premiere plays will be read impromptu by a group of assembled actors whose roles will be determined, regardless of age or gender, by drawing names out of a hat. Actors will be given their script and 5 minutes of prep time.

Commissioned plays are by Rachel Bublitz, Topher Cusumano, Ashley Lauren Rogers, and Matthew James Sowell.

-Rachel Bublitz Mom's Ham--A ten-minute adaptation of A CHRISTMAS CAROL, Mom's Ham follows a woman's desperate attempt to make a perfect Christmas feast in honor of her mother's recent passing.

-Topher Cusumano The Artful Dodger Turns a Trick -- Nicki is a queer youth and freshman theatre major at the local community college. When their scholarship money is reallocated to fund the school's new prayer center (a decision Nicki and their fellow theatre majors protested vigorously), Nicki turns to sex work so they can stay in school long enough to star in their department's production of Oliver Twist, in which they're cast as the Artful Dodger. That's when Nicki meets Jeff. Jeff is a real estate executive and local "power gay" who grew up in one of the town's most prominent families. When his husband is accused of sexually harassing his employees, Jeff books an evening with Nicki as a way to unwind and briefly escape the scandal. What's meant to be easy money for Nicki and a cheap thrill for Jeff turns into confrontation of emotional labor, unbalanced power dynamics, and fake English accents.

-Ashley Lauren Rogers How to Get Away With The Mystery of Edwin Drood--A holiday play is in danger when an actor goes missing and the semi-prominent actor who has been brought in to portray Charles Dickens goes deep into "The Method," and believes they ARE Charles Dickens and cannot be reasoned with any other way. As the play's director attempts to get the production back on the rails they find there might be something sinister at play.

-Matthew James Sowell Scenes from the Unpublished Sequels to Dickensian Classics--In a last-minute attempt to cover his medical bills, Charles Dickens wrote a series of cheap sequels to his most popular works. Unfortunately, he died before they could be completed and they never saw the light of day - until now.

Actors who will be reading include: Craig A. Bannister, Ariel Estrada, Amelia Fowler, Eileen Glenn, Beth Glover, Gerry Goodstein, Josh Moser, Attilio Rigotti, Elise Stone, and Josh Tyson.