Symposium

Saturday, November 5 at 4 PM
following the matinee performance of A Life

Moderated by Obie award-winning writer Adam Bock
Featuring fellow acclaimed writers Susan Cheever and Ren Dara Santiago

Take part in our Symposium, where the playwright asks the questions. Adam Bockand a panel of unique experts delve into topics surrounding the disarming world of A Life, followed by an audience Q&A session. 

Following the discussion, Adam Bock will be signing copies of A Life, available for purchase at the event.

TICKETS
General Admission: $15
Season Package Holders: $5 / Guests: $10

BUY TICKETS

NOTE: The event takes place between matinee and evening performances of A Life. Doors for the event will open at 3:50 PM.

Live Streaming

Can't make it to Saturday's event? Don't worry, we're live streaming it! Tune in at 4 PM EST to catch the conversation, and chat with us on Twitter @phnyc#SymposiumPH about how it's going.

About Symposium

The Symposium Series was inaugurated to explore the works we produce in a broader cultural context and allow writers to lead big-picture conversations with panels of unique experts. By addressing topics surrounding our plays, we hope the Symposium Series extends the conversations elicited by our productions beyond the stage and into the community.

About the Panel

Adam Bock (moderator) is a playwright best known for A Small FireThe ReceptionistThe Drunken CityThe Thugs, and Swimming in the Shallows. He writes both comedy and drama, blending whimsical surrealism with dark and painful exploration of character. Charles Isherwood described A Small Fire as “a theatrical combo plate that proves unusually satisfying ... raucous, funny and unexpectedly touching.” Adam has had more than ten plays produced at prestigious theatres including Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons, Soho Rep., Second Stage Uptown, Rattlestick, and Yale Rep. He has received the Obie Award, BATCC Award, Clauder Prize, Glickman Award, and Guernsey Award, and been nominated for the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards. Adam has been a resident playwright at New Dramatists and an artistic associate at Shotgun Players and Encore Theater. (As of February 2016)

Susan Cheever (panelist) is an acclaimed, best-selling author whose 15 published books and dozens of essays have built on the brilliant legacy of her father, the novelist and short story writer John Cheever. Her book about American history as seen through the lens of alcoholism Drinking in America: Our Secret History was published in 2015. Her biography of the poet E. E. Cummings was published in 2014, and her biography of Louisa May Alcott was published in 2010. She has published five memoirs and three additional biographies including the best-selling American Bloomsbury: Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel HawthorneandHenry David Thoreau: Their Lives, Their Loves, Their Work and My Name is Bill, Bill Wilson — His Life and the Creation of Alcoholics Anonymous, and five novels.  She has written for many magazines and newspapers including The New YorkerThe New York Times, and Newsday where she contributed to winning a 1997 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news. She has also taught at Yale, Sarah Lawrence, Brown University, the New School and Bennington. Her other awards include a National Book Critics Circle nomination, the Associated Press award for investigative reporting, Boston Globe’s Winship Medal, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She’s on the board of the Yaddo Corporation and the Author’s Guild Council.

Ren Dara Santiago (panelist) is a Harlem-based playwright and actor of Filipino and Puerto Rican descent. She writes inclusive, current, empathic stories that breed bravery and compassion in conversation. She has been nominated for the Doric Wilson Independent Playwright Award both in 2015 and 2016 for her family drama, The Siblings Play, which has been workshopped at Labyrinth Theater under a playwright's apprenticeship, at MCC Theater (PlayLabs), and also with with Middle Voice at Rattlestick.