FEB 15th: PLUCK - written by Jan Rosenberg & directed by Daniella Caggiano
This February, Neurodivergent Plays - previously known as the Neurodivergent New Play Series - will continue its 2025-26 Season with a reading of Pluck - written by Jan Rosenberg and directed by Daniella Caggiano - at Studio Two at Brooklyn Art Haus, located at 24 Marcy Avenue, Brooklyn, New York, on February 15th 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.
Set in the year 2003, fourteen-year-old Cleo and Bea are twins. Cleo can’t stop running away from womanhood. Bea can’t stop running away, period. When we don’t have the words for what we’re becoming, we make up myths instead, in this dramedy about gender identity, dysphoria, twins, and monsters in the age of AOL.
“I had writer's block during [the COVID] lockdown and didn't think I was capable of writing anymore,” says playwright Jan Rosenberg on how she was inspired to write the play. “I literally thought I'd never write another play. Then one night I had a dream about discovering dark, thick hairs on my body that were growing faster than I could pluck them out. That turned into the bathroom scene, which was originally the opening scene of the play. I was forced to examine why the idea of body hair was freaking me out so much, which prompted thoughts about gender identity and presentation, which somehow brought me back to middle school and high school. I have so much love for these characters, particularly Cleo. I think about how Cleo would thrive within a community that understood her. I'd like to think she finds her people, eventually.”
“To me, Pluck really captures the strangeness of coming of age while masterfully balancing horror and whimsy,” according to director Daniella Caggiano. “That’s what my adolescence was like too! There are so many depictions of teenage girls as palatable and consumable, but this is the male gaze and has never felt true to my experience. I’m inspired to direct this play because I see my feral teen self in Pluck in all her monstrous beauty and I want to give her some air time.”
“Discovering I'm neurodivergent is what has empowered me as an artist,” says Rosenberg, explaining that “[f]or a long time, I thought I was doing everything wrong and that there was a better way to be an artist. A better way to write, a better way to structure my plays, a better process. For years (and admittedly, still) I compare myself to other writers and often wish my brain worked differently. What I've discovered is that I don't get to pick and choose. If I eliminate my neurodivergence, there goes everything else. I am creative because I am neurodivergent. I am a playwright because I'm neurodivergent.”
Caggiano adds that “I resent the stereotypes of neurodivergence– the “computer whiz”, the “manic pixie dream girl”, etc.-- because they become society’s default understanding of a huge population and that is reductive at best, harmful at worst. When I was seeking a neuropsych evaluation, even mental health professionals would rely on these outdated tropes to tell me who I was. Imagine being told you are “too successful” or “too empathetic” to be neurodivergent? Furthering neurodivergent empowerment in the performing arts means empowering neurodivergent artists to tell their truth in all its complexity, allowing neurotypical folks to see the multitudes we contain and neurodivergent folks to see ourselves more fully rendered and reflected.”
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.