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With the Alliance Theatres Festival of New Works postponed due to the coronavirus (COVID-19), the Midtown venue is bringing those works to the masses through a new free online series, the Virtual Play Club.

The festival, which was to take place March 30 through April 30, was to include a presentation of the four finalists from the Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition and the Reiser Atlanta Artists Lab.

While the Reiser lab presentation is still to come, the Alliance/Kendeda contests finalists scripts are being showcased in a series of events April 16 through 24, where the public is invited to a live conversation with the playwright to discuss the script. Also, the finalists scripts will be posted to the theaters website for view April 9 through 24.

According to a news release, the Virtual Play Club series will end with an artists roundtable discussion moderated by Rachel Karpf, former artistic producer with the WP Theater in New York and featuring all four finalists, as well as Atlanta playwrights Will Power, Steve Coulter, Kimberly Belflower, Mary Lynn Owen and Mark Kendall.

The schedule is as follows:

April 16 at 4 p.m.: Unkindness by Logan Faust (NYU Tisch), a conversation with the playwright, director Matt Torney and associate producer Amanda Watkins. Unkindness tells the story of Bonnie, a grieving mother, and Elijah, a would-be prophet, as they struggle to survive after their only motivations for survival, their son and faith, respectively, are taken from them, the release stated.

April 17 at 7 p.m.: Djarum Vanilla by Cary J. Simowitz (UCLA), a conversation with the playwright, director Keith Bolden and associate producer Amanda Watkins. According to the release, Djarum Vanilla is described as follows: November 2014. Missouri. The Darren Wilson verdict is imminent. Protests are becoming a daily part of life in Ferguson. The nascent Black Lives Matter movement is gaining national traction as racial tension in Missouri reaches a boiling point.

April 23 at 4 p.m.: Monster by Ava Geyer (UCSD), a conversation with the playwright, director January LaVoy and associate producer Amanda Watkins. When self-help guru Drew Capuanos compulsive masturbation comes to light, he retains the services of the only person who will still represent him: his power hungry 24-year-old female assistant, the release stated.

April 24 at 4 p.m.: Stitched with a Sickle and a Hammer by Inna Tsyrlin (Ohio University), a conversation with the playwright, director Lauren Morris and associate producer Amanda Watkins. According to the release, the play is described as follows: Aleksandra, a political prisoner at a Gulag camp and part of the camps theater troupe, is forced to help Soviet authorities disguise the existence of the camp in front of a visiting American delegation.

April 24 at 5:30 p.m.: Artists roundtable discussion

All virtual events are free and open to the public, but RSVPs are required so each link to the live conversation may be emailed to participants. For more information, to view the scripts or to RSVP for the events, visit http://www.alliancetheatre.org/virtualplayclub.

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Alliance Theatre spotlighting playwriting contest's scripts online through Virtual Play Club - MDJOnline.com