What’s Up with Rachel – Introducing our 2013 Resident Playwright for The Writers’ Room
Our second installment of The Writers’ Room, >salve our playwright residency program, began last week when playwright Rachel Bonds arrived in Philadelphia from Brooklyn. As we did last year with resident writer Wendy MacLeod, we’ll provide you with regular updates from Rachel as she explores Philly and works on her new play. This entire experience will culminate in a developmental production of this new work in July.
Without further ado, here’s our first update from What’s Up with Rachel
Here's Rachel!
Rachel moved into a B&B in Northern Liberties. Leaving her bike at home in Brooklyn has left her to explore her new neighborhood on foot. She said “It’s amazing to me how quiet this neighborhood is. I was admiring all the lovely little apartments, but it’s so strange to me how I saw nearly nobody out on the street until we hit 2nd Street. In NYC, you are always confronted with mobs of people.”
Rachel’s fiancé visited over the weekend, and they took the bus to the Italian Market. The mobs of people at DiBruno’s Brothers didn’t stop them from sampling a variety of cheeses. “We proceeded to buy everything we tried, “ Rachel says, “including these sugared cashews with black lava salt, which are the most addictive things ever created. There is a similar shop in Williamsburg called The Bedford Cheese Shop, which is actually only similar because it also sells cheese; today I discovered that the DiBruno Brothers’ staff puts the Bedford Cheese Shop to deep, dark, terrible shame. “ A shout out to Michael, the DiBruno’s staffer that assisted Rachel in her sampling and purchases!
But what about Rachel’s play, you ask? Well she wants to keep that as her secret for a little while longer. She can tell you that her research included: popular last names and census data in Richmond, Virginia; and Modern American poets particularly Frank O’Hara and Robert Frost.
Check back again soon to see what else Rachel is up to!
And if you want to know even more, you can become and passholder for Inside The Writers’ Room, a behind-the-scenes look at the rehearsal process of Rachel’s new play. Click here for information on this exclusive program, which kicks off next month.