playwright

please join me

The Thay Bay Play

February 20th, 2017 @ 7pm

Drama League | New York, NY

A new play by Ali Viterbi

Directed by Gabrielle Hoyt

Produced by Emma Hills

Please join me for the first public staged reading of my newest play, THE THAY BAY PLAY, at the Drama League (32 6th Ave, New York, NY). Following the reading, there will be a post-show discussion.

“There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women.” But to the sorority sisters of Theta Beta, the word “help” can mean a great many things. Eager freshman Joni learns this truth the hard way when her lifelong dream of acceptance into Theta Beta becomes a reality. Plunged into a world of Dirty Disney mixers, pancake bake-offs, reality TV shows that become restoration comedies, and bulimia dream ballets, Joni struggles to transform into the perfect Theta Beta sister–at great personal cost. Yet even while critiquing the highly traditional and inimitably American rituals of sorority life, The Thay Bay Play embraces the redemptive power of female friendships. At its core sits Joni’s burgeoning friendship with Kate, her cynical and struggling sorority ‘Big Sister’, who has long since given up on fitting in. Supported by an all-female “Greek Chorus”, Joni and Kate strive to please those around them while retaining personal autonomy; an all-too-familiar task for American women today. When an allegation of sexual assault shatters the sorority’s status quo, Kate and Joni must both decide who they are, what they want, and whether their blood really does run aquamarine-and-ivory. Spanning one academic year, the play explores whether institutions of sisterhood help or harm notions of female empowerment and raises the question: do sororities cause women to fall further behind in the gender wars or are they really women’s secret weapon? A stylized, surreal, and theatrical work, The Thay Bay Play mixes pop culture with pageantry, superficial with sacred, to create a searing portrait of life as a young, 21st century woman.