APRIL 19th: LOVE LETTERS - written by Sofia Ghassaei & directed by Jamie Lazan
New musical written by nonspeaking autistic playwright Sofia Ghassaei to be presented as a reading for World Autistic Empowerment Month
Press Contact: neurodivergentplays@gmail.com
This year for World Autistic Empowerment Month, Neurodivergent Plays - previously known as the Neurodivergent New Play Series - will present a reading of Love Letters: A True-ly Short Epistolary Romance (Giving Voice to Autistic Nonspeakers - written by Sofia Ghassaei and directed by Jamie Lazan - at Brooklyn Art Haus, located at 24 Marcy Avenue, Brooklyn, New York, on April 19th at 4:30pm.
Tickets are available at www.eventbrite.com/e/neurodivergent-plays-tickets-1980419719693, with a minimum $17.85 donation for limited in-person seating. Regular updates are available at www.neurodivergentplays.com and on Instagram & Facebook @neurodivergentplays.
Love Letters is the first musical play written by an autistic nonspeaker. Its author, 19-year-old award-winning poet, Sofia Ghassaei, has difficulty controlling her speech and body movements due to apraxia, and had no reliable means of communication until age thirteen, when she learned to share her thoughts by pointing to letters on a letterboard. Her one-act play is augmented with original songs by herself and autistic nonspeakers. Two autistic nonspeakers, Melody and Luke, fall in love via email, only to struggle with sensory realities when they meet in person. Love Letters is a universal story of first love - found and lost – and of expectations not matching reality. Five (speaking) actors conjure the world of autistic nonspeakers and their communication aides. The actors playing the aides double as nonspeakers for some songs. With an informal coffee house vibe, performers at times use direct address and may play an instrument.
“I wasn’t always a writer,” says Ms. Ghassaei on her journey as a playwright. “For my first 15 years I was a composer. Lacking a means of decent communication, I spent my lonely hours inventing witty comebacks, poetry I could never share, stories with happy endings, and countless songs. My mind has infinite storage. Once I was taught to spell on a letter board, I was able to transmit my compositions. Having been given a stage to share my Words Unheard made me realize how much people can learn when the lesson is disguised as art.”
According to Ms. Lazan, “I felt immediately drawn to lift these words off the page and help share the inner world of these beautiful, complex characters full of dreams, fears, and love. Love Letters invites us to lean outside our own perspective and witness someone else’s truth, to step into another person’s shoes. For me, that is the heart of storytelling.” She adds that she “grew up familiar with disability and with the understanding that every person holds an entire inner world we often do not see from the outside looking in. It has always felt important to me to help others unlock and share their voice. Storytelling gives us a pathway to explore and understand empathy, connection, and compassion. As someone who found my own voice through creative expression, I am deeply grateful to help bring greater awareness to the inner worlds of non-speakers.”
Ms. Ghassaei adds that she “wrote this play for all Nonspeakers. I hope to reach those who never see themselves on stage or screen and to show people that we must not be denied all the opportunities that others have. This includes romantic relationships, which look different than many, but are still valid. I want the rest of the world to know how we are really all the same, as far as our desire for connection. Nonspeakers are struggling to find their place in the world. We shouldn’t have to settle for a life of loneliness. Once you know we are in here, everything shifts.”
Founded in 2023 by autistic playwright and producer Anthony J. Piccione, Neurodivergent Plays is dedicated to presenting matinee readings on the 3rd Sunday of every month - with seasonal breaks in December, January, July, and August - of plays written entirely by neurodivergent and disabled playwrights (i.e. autism, ADHD, dyslexia, OCD, Tourette syndrome, etc.) as part of a growing resident company of playwrights whose interests and specialties span a wide range of subjects, genres & structural approaches, with each play personally selected from a neuroinclusive resident company of directors. Learn more at www.linktr.ee/neurodivergentplays or by following @neurodivergentplays on Instagram and Facebook.