Neurodivergent New Play Series Resumes Schedule for 2024

The Neurodivergent New Play Series, produced by Piccione Arts, is set to resume its regular third Sunday of the month spot this Sunday, February 18th at 2pm at spit&vigor‘s tiny blackbox theater, located at 115 MacDougal Street, 3C, New York, NY. The first production of 2024 is Axioms by playwright Aubrey Clyburn and presented by director Abigail Gabor, who both identify as autistic. This Sunday’s reading will feature actors Jeninka Zee, Katie Blu, Sophie Pulver, Veronique Hurley, and Seeni Chandran.  Autistic playwright and producer, Anthony J. Piccione, founded the Neurodivergent New Play series in 2023 to foster the work of other neurodivergent playwrights. During COVID, when theaters were shuttered, Piccione produced a virtual play festival, he shared in an interview. “But I wanted to have a space that’s specifically dedicated to new plays by neurodivergent playwrights because when I look back to my the beginning of my days as a playwright, there wasn’t really a space like that,” and “at the end of the day my heart is in presenting new works.” The NNPS is dedicated to producing one reading each month, for 8 months each year. The series takes a break in December/January and in July/August, to allow Piccione to pursue his own writing projects. Piccione hopes that the new play series will continue to present new work in perpetuity for as long as possible, and is still accepting new works for consideration. The only requirements for submission: the playwright must identify as neurodivergent (autistic, ADHD, dyslexia, Tourette’s, OCD, etc.), and the play must not have been published or been given a full production in New York. Playwrights can be at any stage of their career, and Piccione especially encourages BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and female-identifying neurodivergent playwrights to apply. Directors for each month’s reading are selected from a neuroinclusive resident company. Playwrights are asked to submit no more than one play per 30 days during the recurring submission process. For more information about applying as a playwright, and to submit your play for consideration: https://form.jotform.com/223378604825057 This month’s play is Axioms by Los Angeles-based “actor, writer, and amateur mathematician” Aubrey Clyburn. The play explores the way Eliza, a hyper-logical mathematician, faces the potential loss of her relationship with her only friend. While attempting to apply mathematical tactics to solve the social-emotional problems she faces in life, Eliza begins to wonder whether her equations can be solved. Clyburn says, “When I wrote Axioms originally, I didn’t realize it was an autistic play. It was just a play about the way I experience the world, without considering the lens of neurodivergence at all. But then a few lovely friends read the play and pointed out to me that some other people think like that too.” As she begins to become more comfortable with her new autistic identity, Clyburn finds connecting with other neurodivergent artists “so comforting and validating.” It is also important to Clyburn that the audience understand that Axioms is her “love letter to math.” She says, “if nothing else, I’d like people to take away the idea that math is beautiful, too.” Due to limited time this week, director Abigail Gabor, referred me to a recent podcast that Gabor and Clyburn recorded recently with permission to take quotes from her discussion there: Whisper in the Wings from Stage Whisper, Episode 348 (9 February 2024), with Andrew Cortes and Hope Bird. Gabor said she was “immediately hooked on this script,” because Clyburn “writes about autism in a way that’s authentic and was not a stereotype.” Gabor echoes the sentiment portrayed in the character, Eliza, relating to the way she “wish[es] there was a manual for how to be a human, a how-to act like a normal person.” This sentiment is shared by most autistic people at some point in their lives, especially when neurotypical social conventions become confusing and contradictory.  Tickets for Axioms and all currently-scheduled future NNPS presentations are available here: https://www.spitnvigor.com/neurodivergent-plays. The price is $15 in person, and pay-what-you-can for livestreaming at home. All presentations begin at 2pm (EST) on the third Sunday of the month.  Upcoming productions offered by the Neurodivergent New Play Series include: 

• March 17, 2024 – No Entrance by Courtney Taylor, directed by Abby Davis
• April 21, 2024 – 1st Annual Neurodivergent Open-Mic Night in Support of the NNPS
• May 19, 2024 – My Brother Jake by Dave Osmundsen, directed by Allen MacLeod
• June 16, 2024 – An Interpretation of Anna by Natalie Sacks, directed by Ashley Adelman

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