*free* POP-UP PLAY READING: Paletas De Coco

Join us for a pop-up reading of Dallas-based national Playwright and Netflix's 13 Reasons Why writer Franky Gonzalez's new experimental play Paletas De Coco or The Letter Unspoken or The Christmas Eve Play: (Paletas de Coco for short): an experimental mash-up of theatre, storytelling, and participatory theatre, in the tradition of White Rabbit/Red Rabbit and Nassim. Franky, reading his story as a first person account, will recount 3 significant events all taking place on Dec 24th over his lifetime, and will enlist members of the audience, who have never read the play before and know nothing about it, to participate in reading as cold-readers. This story riffs on themes of Latinx culture, fatherhood, suicide, mental health, toxic masculinity, what's passed down in the DNA, hope, self-care, art, holidays, and engaging with one's past in order to make a brighter future--radical transformation. The form of this play is meta and experimental mashed with storytelling, and the playwright will be performing this work around the country in the hopes of finding his long-lost father. The reading will begin at 7pm. It's free to the public. Audience should understand that they might be picked to read, on-the-fly. The performance will be followed by a community conversation about the work: themes, ideas, artistic responsibilities, and meta-theatrical form.