3:00 PM // Rehearsal Hall A – Third Floor
Alliance Theatre presents The Agency, one of four free, staged readings during the 2024 Alliance/Kendeda Week.
The Agency
By Lia Romeo, The Juilliard School
Directed by Lauren Morris
Ani has always wanted to be an actress, and she's finally managed to save up and move to New York City. But now she's not getting cast, and she's almost out of money. So, she takes a job at a "rental agency," where lonely clients can hire actors to serve as surrogate friends and loved ones. It seems like the perfect job - it pays well, and she's good at the work. But what will it do to her real-life relationships? A play for a world where we can buy whatever we want... if we're willing to pay the price.
BIOS
Lia Romeo is a recent graduate of the Juilliard playwriting program. Her plays have been developed at the O’Neill, La Jolla Playhouse, the Lark, and elsewhere, and have been produced off-Broadway at 59E59 and ART/NY as well as regionally at venues such as Dorset Theatre Festival, Laguna Playhouse, Unicorn Theatre, New Jersey Repertory Theatre, and others. Four of her plays have been recognized by the Kilroys List. Her plays are published by TRW, Broadway Licensing, and Broadway Play Publishing. She is the associate artistic director with Project Y Theatre Company and the co-founder of the Parent-Caregiver Playwrights Group, and she teaches playwriting at Primary Stages/ESPA and in the M.A. program in creative writing at Fairleigh Dickinson University.
Lauren Morris is an Atlanta-based theatre maker thrilled to be back at the Alliance for Kendeda Week. Elsewhere in Atlanta, Lauren has worked with Synchronicity Theatre (The Little Prince), Stage Door Theatre (Peter and the Starcatcher), Actor’s Express (A Third Way, upcoming fall 2024); Savannah Rep (Prisontown, upcoming spring 2024), Theatre du Reve (Code Noir; Je Ne Suis Pas Evangeline), Horizon Theatre (The Cake; Apprentice Company Co-Leader), Theatrical Outfit (Unexpected Play Festival), Georgia Shakespeare (Managing Director), Seven Stages (Curious Encounters), Woodstock Arts (Company), and the SheATL new play festival. Lauren also produces new play workshops for playwrights she loves, and recently directed a new opera. She came to Atlanta by way of her native Indiana (Indiana Repertory, Indy Shakes, Phoenix Theatre, Crossroads Repertory, Brown County Playhouse, Shawnee Theatre) and several years in California (South Coast Repertory, Chance Theatre, CalRep, Long Beach Playhouse). Lauren was honored to be a member of the Lincoln Center Theater 2018 Directors Lab.
