The Alcove
New Play Development Program
Digital Stage
Public-facing, global streaming readings of new works-in-progress either commissioned by the Alcove program and/or showcasing the works of affiliated artists.
Apocalypse: A Love Story
By Sunny Drake
Directed by Will Steinberger
In this darkly surreal comedy, an unconventional family absurdly navigates their big life moments in a civilization undergoing total collapse. We follow them from their wedding vows (what can you promise when the world is tanking?) all the way through to their “golden years”. The family keeps collecting surprising new members of their motley crew, since it turns out that navigating an apocalypse is kind of a lot.
Digital Reading Premiere: February 1-16, 2026
Highlights from the Digital Stage:
Racist Actor
The Alcove at the Lucille Lortel Theatre presents a clip from “Racist Actor” by Daniel York Loh.
‘I tried really hard to be an actor I tried really hard to be a writer Then I just talked about food and myself But I was always an ‘actor’ This is my story Asking again Who can be an actor…’ Where representation is an industry When activism is an act Where grifters and graspers and chancers and chasers play snakes and ladders on the gravy train of social justice… A fierce and dark satire on what’s fraught and fake in the frenzy of today’s media landscape.
Developed by The Alcove at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, directed by Lucy Jane Atkinson. Performed by Siu-see Hung and Daniel York Loh, and produced by Caridad Svich.
Cast: Siu-see Hung and Daniel York Loh Digital Reading Premiere: October 16, 2023
PAST READINGS
Caridad Svich (Artistic Director of New Musical Development) is a playwright, translator, screenwriter, and lyricist whose recognitions include a 2012 OBIE for Lifetime Achievement and a 2018 Ellen Stewart Career Achievement Award from ATHE. Her signature plays include 12 Ophelias, Iphigenia Crash Land Falls on the Neon Shell That Was Once Her Heart, Red Bike (NNPN Rolling World Premiere), Guapa (NNPN Rolling World Premiere), Spark (National Latino Playwriting Award), and The House of the Spirits (ATCA Primus Prize). Currently running at Repertorio Espanol in NYC are her plays Eva Luna (world premiere: 2022) and In the Time of the Butterflies. Among her projects in development is a new musical about Pablo Picasso with director Gordon Greenberg, composer Stephen Schwartz and actor Antonio Banderas for Trafalgar Entertainment.