Decade1990s
Year(s)1996-2014
Chapter / SubheadingPlaywright/Actor
Medium / GenreTheater
Production / Project / ActivityCO-OP
Name of Theatre / Venue / Vehiclevarious
About the Theatre / Venue / Vehicle

Theater for the New City, Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Downtown Urban Theater Festival, Lower East Side Festival of the Arts 2014 (excerpt)

Function / Type of JobActor/playwright
RoleMartha
Awards / DistinctionsBest Short Play: Downtown Urban Theater Festival
Important People
PlaywrightBarbara Kahn
Notes / Anecdotes

CO-OP compels the audience to meet one of the invisible homeless living on the streets of New York City since gentrification. Martha, a middle-aged native New Yorker, is forced by the police from the sidewalk in front of her home of twenty-eight years, where she attempts to sell some of her meager belongings. This is done at the bidding of “all the people who bought my apartment…who don’t want to know the kind of poor person who lived there before they renovated.” Martha resists desperation and fear and faces her plight with resilience and humor.

In 1996 CO-OP was written for and first produced as a solo at the Lower East Side Festival of the Arts at Theater for the New City.
In 1997 CO-OP The Next Generation was written for and produced at the Lower East Side Festival of the Arts with two added characters. This production went on to play the Philadelphia Fringe Festival.
In 2011 CO-OP was included in the Downtown Urban Theater Festival. It received the award for Best Short Play.
I played the main role of Martha in all the productions.

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Details / Credits
Title / Description Credits Additional Notes (Medium, Location, etc)
Photo credit Poster photo Joe Bly
2014 Performance photos Maria Lapachet
Poster Design Virginia Asman
Cast CO-OP: Barbara Kahn; CO-OP the Next Generation: Barbara Kahn, Marina Pulido, Jackie S. Freeman
Link (1)newplayexchange.org
Additional Notes

For the sequel, CO-OP: The Next Generation, I added 2 characters--a child and her mother who live in one of the co-op apartments. The child plays hooky constantly, spending time with Martha and listening to her stories of the time when the Lower East Side building were mostly rentals. She tries to convince the girl to go to school, but doesn't succeed. I wrote the roles for Marina Pulido and her mother Jackie S. Freeman. The ten-year-old already had acting training, and I did improvs with her to get some of the dialogue, giving her credit, of course.

Tags / Keywords
  • Lower East Side NYC, gentrification, the older homeless, role for middle aged woman

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