Simpatico Theatre’s 2019/2020 Season: No Place/Like Home

15th season No Place/Like Home looks at how and where we live. This season asks the question, what happens when we find ourselves a stranger in our own home or neighborhood? All productions will take place at The Louis Bluver Theatre at The Drake and all performances are Pay What You Decide.

The season begins with NATURAL SHOCKS by Lauren Gunderson. Based on Hamlet's "To be or not to be," NATURAL SHOCKS is a new 65-minute, one-woman tour-de-force play that bursts to life when we meet a woman waiting out an imminent tornado in her basement. She overflows with quirks, stories, and a final secret that puts the reality of guns in America in the audience’s lap. The play is part confessional, part stand up, and part reckoning. The New York Times raved, “Gunderson’s Natural Shocks raises important points about the need to take action in times of crises.”

Simpatico’s production will star Philadelphia favorite award winning actress Amanda Schoonover and will be directed by Elise D’Avella of Svaha Theatre Collective. The production will run from December 4-22, 2019.

The season continues with the World Premiere of rising star Philadelphia playwright Stephanie Kyung Sun Walter’s ESTHER CHOI AND THE FISH THAT DROWNED.  Esther Choi is a favorite all-American, overachieving-Asian teen except she has a ghost. Anthony Gibson is Esther’s best friend and (spoiler alert) he’s dead. Mr. Choi is Esther’s grandfather and he owns a haunted dry cleaner on Cheltenham Ave. In an (un)likely turn of events, Esther must grapple with grief, loneliness, and winning first chair in high school orchestra, all while living up to her grandfather’s new expectations.

ESTHER CHOI AND THE FISH THAT DROWNED was developed through PlayPenn via The Foundry and will be directed by Cat Ramirez of Philadelphia Asian Performing Artists.  The production will feature performances by Claris Park, Daniel Kim and Aaron Bell.