How about an HPT Virtual Play Slam to start 2021?

Our quarterly Play Slams--a kind of open mic for playwrights, in which writers signed up to read five minutes from an original play (no ad-libbing, no actors) before a friendly audience--had quickly become one of our favorite events.

The pandemic tried to ruin that for us like it's ruined everything else, but HPT Literary Manager Megan Thornton refused to be thwarted. So welcome to our first Virtual Play Slam. One Austin playwright will participate daily, through the first ten days of this new year.

Curating the slam is Jesús I. Valles, a queer Mexican immigrant writer-performer based in Austin, Texas, originally from Cd. Juarez, Mexico. They are currently a first year MFA student in Brown's playwriting program.

Here's a list of the five-miute pieces you can see on the HPT YouTube channel (note: order may change):

• January 1: Jesús I. Valles
• January 2: Christine Hoang
• January 3: Raul Garza
• January 4: Laura Neill
• January 5: Gabriel Crawford
• January 6: Anne Boyd
• January 7: siri gurudev
• January 8: Lisa Thompson
• January 9: Jesús I. Valles

Stay safe and sane and as cheerful as possible. HPT loves you.

Hyde Park Theatre is located at 511 W. 43rd Street. Covered off-street parking for the patrons of HPT is available during performances in the lot at 4315 Guadalupe Street, just north of The Parlor. You can drive through The Parlor's parking lot to reach it. Evening HPT parking also available at the Hyde Park Church of Christ on the northeast corner of 43rd & Avenue B. We are grateful to them both for their generosity.

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