"Waiting for a Wake" by Roger Q. Mason
4PM
About the Play:
Meet the Brickstones, our modern Blasian family - fashionista Quentin, his nostalgic father Ovid, escapist mother Divinia and rageful younger brother Jason. As we spend one day in their house, once a beacon of social mobility, we see a family deferred from their American dreams by co-dependence, mental illness and mutual financial abuse. How will they survive their lives without destroying each other completely?
Inspired by the tradition of the American Family drama, Waiting for a Wake is a post-kitchen sink drama which will establish black and brown folks as the new protagonists of the American Dream and its struggles.
About the Playwright:
ROGER Q. MASON (they/them) is a writer and performer who uses the lens of history to disrupt the biases that divide rather than unite us. Their playwriting has been seen on Broadway (Circle in the Square Reading Series); Off and Off-Off-Broadway; and regionally. Mason’s World Premiere of Lavender Men was lauded by the Los Angeles Times as “evoking the mingled visions of Suzan-Lori Parks, Jeremy O. Harris and Michael R. Jackson.” As a filmmaker, Mason has been recognized by the British Film Institute, Lonely Wolf International Film Festival, SCAD Film Festival, AT&T Film Award and Atlanta International Film Festival. Their films have screened in the US, UK, Poland, Brazil, and Asia. Mason holds degrees from Princeton University, Middlebury College, and Northwestern University. They are a member of the Dramatists Guild of America and Ma-Yi’s Writing Lab, as well as an alum of Page 73’s Interstate 73 Writers Group and Primary Stages Writing Cohort. Mason has co-hosted the podcast Sister Roger’s Gayborhood and hosted This Way Out Radio’s Queerly Yours: Portraits in Courage. They are a lead mentor of The Marsha P. Johnson Institute’s Starship Fellowship, the New Visions Fellowship and the Shay Foundation Fellowship. Instagram: @rogerq.mason