(Feb. 16, 2021) - On February 26 and 27 at 7:00 p.m., the Shattered Glass Project will launch the second online reading in its Zoom series, with All New Cells by Orange County playwright Aliza Goldstein. Directed by Alison Kozar, this dark experimental comedy will star Christopher Schoaps, Stephanie Spohrer, Kay Taylor Yelinek, and Alex Kronz.

All New Cells follows the story of Nils, a twenty-something online role-player in a web forum set in a "kind of Dresden Files and kind of Vampire the Masquerade and just a little bit Anne Rice" world. When his ex-girlfriend dies suddenly, she drags him back into a toxic online role-play scene he swore he'd never return to. He'd been doing okay sticking to his seven-year plan for getting over their breakup - but now, everyone either blames him or expects him to have answers, and he's getting nasty anonymous messages that might be coming from beyond the grave. A nuanced examination of identity, trauma, assault, grief, and mental health through an online world.

Trigger and content warning: suicide, transphobia, child sexual abuse.

Playwright Aliza Goldstein holds a BFA in dramatic writing from New York University and has a day job editing scripts for mobile games. In addition to All New Cells, plays by Goldstein include Like a Dog in Space, Izzy Icarus Fell Off the World, and A Singular They. Goldstein has been awarded the 2013 John Golden Prize for Undergraduate Playwriting, the 2015 Ebell of Los Angeles Playwright Prize, the 2017 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Ted Schmitt Award, and the 2020 SETC/Stage Rights Ready to Publish Award.

From Aliza: "This is sort of a love letter to my childhood; a play by fans for fans that stands as a bit of an artifact now to the AIM/Tumblr era."

Alison Kozar is a rising stage manager making their directing debut with All New Cells. Alison believes in healing the world, feminist science fiction, and radical self-worth. Recent productions include Black Bois, Sheathed, The Events, Is God Is, and The Christians.

According to Kozar, "I think about my own past and the ways that which so many of us have been traumatized, have been abused, have been the bad guy in someone's story, have been complicit in that abuse of someone else - it's the experience so many of us have. I want people to walk away saying 'I have a new list of signs I can look for, I have a new way of how I can reach out to people, and how I can heal too.'"

Tickets and more information are at www.shatteredglassproject.org/all-new-cells .

The Shattered Glass Project is a theatre company working to amplify the unique voices of women, nonbinary, and trans theatre artists by offering unique opportunities to create and to grow professionally. All New Cells will be the second of three in an online series amplifying these voices. All Shattered Glass Project performances are pay-what-you-can to ensure that these readings are accessible to all interested parties.

Courtesy of the Shattered Glass Project