Mission to (dit)Mars is thrilled to present the first Launch Pad reading of 2020 with FAITH BASED, FUTURE FOCUSED, a new play by Tim Errickson and directed by Antonio Minino. This free reading will be performed on Monday, February 10th at 7pm at The Broom Tree Theatre located at 23-35 Broadway in Astoria, NY.
In FAITH BASED, FUTURE FOCUSED, Mal and Dennis both return to their Catholic High School alma mater on the day it closes for good. Did they ever become the people the school tried to make them into, and do they like who each other are today?
Playwright Tim Errickson explains “I was inspired to write the play because I wanted to examine people who seemed to come from the same upbringing and set of values, but have now in their adult lives diverged wildly from each other politically, culturally and religiously.“ Tim offers “I hope that people will think about the places that are sacred to them…theaters, churches, gymnasiums where you made the shot, the bridge where you proposed or broke up…and investigate the universality of those spaces.”
The evening is presented by Mission to (dit)Mars co-founders Kari Bentley-Quinn, Don Nguyen, Meredith Packer, and Laura Pestronk.
To attend the reading, please make a reservation.
The Broom Tree Theater at
Astoria First Presbyterian
23-35 Broadway,
Astoria, NY 11106
Directions: Take the N/W to Broadway.
About the Launch Pad Reading Series
The Launch Pad is a free reading series of new plays by Queens playwrights. The mission objective of The Launch Pad is to serve as a testing ground for Queens based playwrights who need to hear their plays out loud. Because Mission to (dit)Mars was co-founded by playwrights and directors, we understand implicitly how to answer those needs. Through this program, the utmost care is taken to foster a safe and productive environment in order to propel the play forward.
Born and raised in Edison, NJ, Megan started performing and writing from a young age. She attended Kean University, where she minored in theatre and received her MA in Speech Pathology. After college she traveled the world performing in Japan, Hawaii, China, and the Eastern Caribbean. She now resides in Astoria and currently works as a private accent reduction coach with AccentsOff in midtown Manhattan. Her play Talk to Me has had two professional staged readings and was named a finalist for the 2016 Bauer-Boucher Playwriting Award through Premiere Stages. She is dedicated to writing new works centered around communication, in hopes of starting difficult, weird, and fun conversations. 
Tim is a playwright and stage director based in New York City. He is the Founder and Artistic Director of Boomerang Theatre Company, an award-winning nonprofit theater. His play Endless Summer Nights premiered with Boomerang, and was a “Pick of the Week” by 
Christopher Moncayo-Torres is an Ecuadorian-American playwright and live storyteller, born & bred in Queens, NY. He first practiced creative writing at John Jay College of Criminal Justice while pretending to study for his forensic psychology degree. He is an alumnus of Playwrights Horizons’ Perspectives on Playwriting Core Workshop. He wrote the short play “We Come Here” (Astoria Performing Arts Center / 2016 New York Innovative Theater Award for Original Short Script nomination), full-length play “Hablas y Te Salvas” (Staged reading: Astoria Performing Arts Center, 2017) and co-wrote the hip-hopera “A Sunnyside Mixtape” (Working Title Theater, 2016) which was performed under the 7 train in Sunnyside, Queens. His work has been read at InViolet Theater’s “Second Monday Social” and INTAR Theatre’s Steep Salon. He also volunteers as a dramaturg and playwright for 52nd Street Project. He is the co-founder and Managing Director of the developmental collective, Fail Better NYC.
Sasha Sharova is a playwright and artistic administrator based in Astoria. Her plays include The Great Russian Expedition, (developed at Gallatin Summer Theatre Lab, The Lark Apprentice Roundtable and Fail Better Reading Series), and Rabbit Hunt, (developed at Fail Better). A bi-lingual writer and a native of Russia, Sasha has served as an interpreter for The Lark’s Russia-US Play Exchange Program and as a translator and dialect coach for ABC’s Quantico. Sasha studied at NYU Gallatin under Kristoffer Diaz and Kristin Horton (BA 2016). Sasha has a passion for shinning the light on female characters and exploring their complexities, as well as exploring cross-cultural relationships. As an artistic administrator, she has focused her work on new play development and making theater accessible across the country by working with companies like The Lark, The Playwrights Realm, and Dramatists Play Service.
