The Julie Lutz
COLD READ FESTIVAL
OF NEW AMERICAN PLAYS
COLD READ 2022 COHORT.
COLD READ 2025
FEATURING FESTIVAL PLAYWRIGHT-IN-RESIDENCE ESPERANZA ROSALES BALCÁRCEL and “WRITE HERE” PLAYWRIGHT ZIZI MAJID | CONCURRENT WITH THE NATIONAL PASTIME by ROGELIO MARTINEZ
JUNE 11- 29
Syracuse Stage is thrilled to present the return of the biennial Cold Read festival by hosting talented writers and professional actors for events that center the playwriting process, allowing audiences to peek behind the curtain and witness artists at work. For the first time, the Julie Lutz Cold Read Festival of New American Plays surrounds the world premiere production of Rogelio Martinez’s The National Pastime, which was commissioned and incubated as part of Cold Read 2022.
Curated by Associate Artistic Director Melissa Crespo, Cold Read 2025 features Festival Playwright-in-Residence Esperanza Rosales Balcárcel and Central New York's own Zizi Majid.
“Every play was once a new play. Cold Read is all about giving our audiences a fun and engaging up-close view to exciting new works for the stage, access to the writers who dare to create it, and a better understanding of the creative process.“
-Kyle Bass
Syracuse Stage Resident Playwright and founder of the Cold Read Festival
WHAT IS COLD READ?
A phrase used in the theatre for when an actor reads a script out loud—often for the first time—with little to no preparation, the term “cold read” evokes the early stages of the artistic process when intuition, improvisation, and a sense of play help drive creation. Embracing that spirit, the Cold Read Festival was created to celebrate works in progress by providing a dedicated space for audiences and artists alike to experience brand-new plays in the making.
The first Cold Read Festival was produced in the 2016/2017 season as the brainchild of then Associate Artistic Director Kyle Bass, who aimed to "demystify the playmaking process and the idea of new plays so that audiences leave with a hunger and a thirst about new work.” When Kyle transitioned to become Syracuse Stage’s first ever Resident Playwright, curation of the Cold Read Festival was passed on to Associate Artistic Director Melissa Crespo, who has proudly championed new work throughout her career.
Writers are selected to participate based on their body of work. A playwright is invited to the Cold Read Festival not on the merit of a single piece, but rather with the recognition of them as artists with distinct and exciting theatrical voices.
COLD READ PLAYWRIGHTS
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Rogelio Martinez
PLAYWRIGHT - THE NATIONAL PASTIME
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Zizi Majid
“WRITE HERE” PLAYWRIGHT
-
Esperanza Rosales Balcárcel
FESTIVAL PLAYWRIGHT-IN-RESIDENCE
THE NATIONAL PASTIME
June 11 - 29, 2025
By Rogelio Martinez
Directed by Johanna McKeon
Commissioned by Syracuse Stage
Cuba, 2016. A mysterious illness rips through the American embassy in Havana. America, 2017. The Houston Astros are stealing signs, on their way to a World Series win. With tensions heightened from the lead-up and aftermath of an election year, the two nations play a dangerous game in the shadows, with their shared national pastimes–baseball and espionage–as their weapons of choice.
The National Pastime Talkback
Thursday, June 12, immediately following the 7:30 PM performance
Join us as we discuss the play’s journey from the 2022 Cold Read Festival to this fully realized production with playwright Rogelio Martinez and Cold Read Festival Curator Melissa Crespo and Syracuse Stage Resident Playwright Kyle Bass.
Rogelio Martinez (he/his) is an award-winning playwright whose plays have been workshopped and produced in theaters across the country and abroad. His play, Born In East Berlin, was first performed at the Stasi Museum, Berlin, in both English and German and then premiered at San Francisco Playhouse in February 2020. More recently, Martinez worked on The Seven Deadly Sins project for Miami New Drama. It was the largest theatrical production allowed by Equity during the pandemic. It won the Drama League Award - Outstanding Interactive or Socially-Distanced Theater. In 2021, Martinez worked on a new television project for Tom Fontana, based on the book, Year of Dangerous Days. His play, Blind Date, was produced at the Goodman Theatre under the direction of Tony-nominee Robert Falls, with Tony Award-winning actress Deanna Dunagan playing the role of Nancy Reagan, and was awarded an Edgerton Foundation New Play Award. Martinez is a recipient of a 2017 Guggenheim Fellowship, Princess Grace Award, and a Mid-Career Fellowship at the Lark Theater Company. His work has been workshopped and commissioned by various theaters across the country including the Public Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Mark Taper Forum, South Coast Repertory, Atlantic Theater Company, Arden Theater, Asolo Repertory, and Ojai Theater Company, and many more. Martinez’s plays include Illuminating Veronica, Arrivals and Departures, All Eyes and Ears, Blind Date, Born in East Berlin, and I Regret She’s Made of Sugar (Princess Grace Winner). He is an alumnus of New Dramatists. Martinez teaches undergraduate playwriting at NYU and has also written for children’s television. Martinez was born in Sancti-Spiritus, Cuba, and came to this country on the Mariel boatlift.
WRITE HERE
Saturday, June 14, 5:30 PM
Presented in the Storch Theatre
Enjoy a reading from a Central New York playwright
Milk
By Zizi Majid
Reading will be immediately followed by a talkback with the playwright and director.
Sofia, a Syrian woman who whilst on a makeshift iron vessel on the Mediterranean Sea, meets Sarah, a woman from South Sudan who’s similarly seeking a better life. Sofia confides her deepest wishes as she considers returning to her home in Syria and a future life with a partner of her own choosing. Milk is a play written as an empathetic response to the global migration crisis.
Zizi Majid is a playwright whose plays advocate for a shared humanity. She is the inaugural recipient of the Julia Miles Playwriting Residency (WP Theatre) during which she wrote the play Milk. She was a 2022-23 Playwriting Fellow with the Dramatists Guild Foundation and is a proud alumni of the WP Lab. She won the Pacific Rim Prize for Playwriting (Kumu Kahua Theatre/University of Hawaii Manoa Playwriting Contest), has been a finalist for the Princeton Arts Fellowship, a finalist for the Blue Ink Playwriting Award; a thrice semi-finalist for the O'Neil National Playwrights Conference and a finalist for the Columbia@Roundabout New Play Reading Series. Plays include They Came in the Night, Return to Fall, The Rejects, and How to Gild an Eagle. For five years, Zizi was the Artistic Director of Teater Ekamatra (Singapore) garnering multiple awards during her tenure. She teaches playwriting and drama in context at Syracuse University. MFA: Columbia University. Website: zizimajid.com
FESTIVAL PLAYWRIGHT-IN-RESIDENCE
Esperanza Rosales Balcárcel is a trans Guatemalan playwright, born in Guatemala and raised in Connecticut. Her works are spiritual, hypertheatrical narratives that give Black & Brown Queer/Trans voices a space to interrogate core wounds and offer them a path towards healing. Esperanza’s plays have been supported by TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Roundabout Theatre, the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, the Kennedy Center, the Tank, Breaking the Binary Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, and New York Theater Workshop. Esperanza is the recipient of the Princeton Ward Prize for Fiction and Outstanding Achievement in Theater Prize, the Eugene O'Neill Memorial Scholarship from the Yale School of Drama, and the Paul Greene Award from the National Theatre Conference. Her play, Color Boy, received the Kennedy Center's Latinx Playwriting Award and Paula Vogel Playwriting Award (finalist), an Honorable Mention from the 2024 Relentless Award, a nomination for the 2025 Venturous Playwright Fellowship from the Playwright’s Center, and was named the Connecticut State Winner for the Clauder Prize from Portland Stage. Her play Lupe Finds Me in the Garden of Dreams was a finalist for the 2024 Leah Ryan Prize, the O’Neill Playwrights Conference, the Van Lier Fellowship for New Voices at Rattlestick Theater, and is also a current finalist for the Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep and the Bay Area Playwrights Festival. Lupe Finds Me was developed through New York Theater Workshop’s 2024 Summer Dartmouth Residency, and was presented at the 2024 Breaking the Binary Theatre Festival at Playwrights Horizons. She is a two time finalist for the O’Neill Theatre Conference and nominee for the Ollie Award, a one time nominee for the L. Arnold Weissberger New Play Award at the Williamstown Theater Festival and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, and is a contributor to the second volume of Methuen Drama’s Anthology of Trans Plays. She is currently a Teaching Artist for the Public Theater, an IB Theater Advisor at Brooklyn Prospect Charter High School, and a Lecturer in Playwriting at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale, where she produced and mentored the playwrights working on the 2024-2025 Carlotta Festival and the Langston Hughes Festival of New Plays. BA: Princeton, MFA: Yale