Your VetRep Saturday Review

Edie Falco Stars, Bob Balaban Directs Multiple Readings of BRAT at Penguin Rep April 14-16

[Note: You always hope that your press release says it all. In this case, we think it does. But we’ll still do this little note just to say, we’re thrilled that Edie and Bob signed on to help us further develop Jason Pizzarello’s outstanding play. It’s been a pleasure collaborating with our friends at Penguin Rep Theatre (and county-next-door-neighbors) to bring this to life. Do not wait to get tickets - they’re already selling out and we’d love to see you all there.]

Penguin Rep Theatre (Joe Brancato, Artistic Director and Andrew M. Horn, Executive Director) and Veterans Repertory Theater (Christopher Paul Meyer, Artistic Director) announce multiple workshop readings of Brat, a new play by Army veteran Jason Pizzarello. The readings take place at Penguin Rep Theatre in Stony Point, NY from April 14-16.

Directed by Bob Balaban (The Exonerated, Gosford Park, The French Dispatch), the readings will star Edie Falco (The Sopranos, Nurse Jackie, Avatar: The Way of Water). Pizzarello is a multiple-times finalist for Arts in the Armed Forces’ Bridge Award and was the winner of VetRep’s 2022 Full-Length Playwriting Competition for Brat.

Set in 2012 and 2016, Brat is a two-person play set in an apartment in Elizabeth, NJ, where a military mother and her neglected, misfit son try to cope with lovers, loss, heartache, and each other before her last deployment and after his first deployment to Afghanistan. Brat captures the fraught relationship between the two as he grows into the soldier she was, mirroring her life in more ways than she wanted for him – including deployments to a multigenerational war in Afghanistan.

Pizzarello said, “Writing Brat was a cathartic experience – because the play is not just about reconciling – it’s about trying to defy history’s attempts to always repeat itself. How do you accept where you came from and who you came from - but transform the results into a better version? How do you escape from the shadow of your parents? Especially with deployments to Afghanistan looming over Brat’s mother-son relationship – Afghanistan being a country with its own seemingly unending cycle. My hope is that everyone can relate to the struggle to break free, evolve, shed baggage - or simply embrace our own actions with all their consequences."

Workshop readings are scheduled Friday, April 14 at 7 p.m., Saturday, April 15 at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m., and Sunday, April 16 at 2 p.m. Seating is limited.

Tickets are $35 ($30 for veterans) and can be purchased online at penguinrep.org or by calling the Penguin box office at (845) 786-2873.

Penguin Rep Theatre is co-producing with Veterans Repertory Theater.

Bios:

Edie Falco (Nora) Best known for her roles as Diane Whittlesey on the HBO series Oz, Carmela Soprano on The Sopranos, and the title role of Showtime’s Nurse Jackie, Edie has received multiple Emmy, Golden Globe, and SAG Awards, as well as the American Film Institute’s Award for Female Television Actor of the Year.

Bob Balaban (Director) is an actor, author, comedian, director and producer. He was one of the producers nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture for Gosford Park, in which he also appeared. He is well known for his appearances in the Christopher Guest comedies Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, and For Your Consideration, and in the Wes Anderson films Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Isle of Dogs, and The French Dispatch. Balaban's other film roles include Midnight Cowboy, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Altered States, and Capote. Balaban has directed three feature films, in addition to numerous television episodes and films.