IS CRY YOU CRY’N?
written by DHARI NOEL
directed by MARISSA JOYCE STAMPS
MAY 11 | 6:30 PM
LET’S TALK
Join us for a post-show RECEPTION to discuss the show with the creative team and MCC community.
Grace is staging a green-card wedding: Tashie–recently coming from Trinidad with her son Likkle–is marrying her Americanized “cousin” Nap. Nap is bringing his “friend” as a witness. Four fraternity pledges are preparing for their last night of hell week before becoming full-fledged brothers: they make dances, crack jokes, and test one another. Both stories take place in the same basement, blurring the lines of identity, time, and belonging. “If cat mek kitten in an oven does that make it bun?” is a Trini saying our mothers might tell us when we dare suggest we are not really Trini. Is Cry You Cry’n? is about the dream this proverb aspires to make real.
Tickets for IS CRY YOU CRY’N? are currently SOLD OUT. Join the waitlist above! You will receive a confirmation if we are able to accommodate closer to Playlabs day. If we are not able to confirm your request in advance, an in-person standby line will begin at the theater 1 hour to curtain time.
ABOUT THE JUDITH CHAMPION PLAYLABS READING SERIES
The Judith Champion PlayLabs Reading Series at MCC Theater helps foster the MCC artistic community by providing writers intensive dramaturgical support, as well as the opportunity to work alongside professional directors and actors to engage public audiences in the development of new work, with a goal of adding vibrant new works to the contemporary theatrical canon.
Each reading will be presented in the Susan & Ronald Frankel Theater at the Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater Space and followed by a small reception. All readings in the series are free and open to the public. Space is limited and seating is general admission. Reserve tix below.
The Judith Champion PlayLabs Reading Series is funded through generous support from the Judith Champion Charitable Fund and Mel Litoff.
THE SUSAN & RONALD FRANKEL THEATER
THE ROBERT W. WILSON MCC THEATER SPACE
511 W 52 ST | NY, NY 10019
All tix are free of charge.
RUN TIME
All readings will be under 2 hours, no intermission.
BOX OFFICE HOURS
MON thru FRI 12–6 PM
QUESTIONS? Please contact us at (646) 506-9393 or via email at boxoffice@mcctheater.org.
CREATIVE TEAM
DHARI NOEL
Playwright
DHARI NOEL (Playwright) is a Queer Black Caribbean Harlemite artist whose work explores the incoherence of race, failures of gender, and inherited performances. Recent plays include Paris. (CWP Reading Series), Black Ram//White Ewe (Classics in Color @ Dramatic Question Theater), Is Cry You Cry’n? (Brown University & Clubbed Thumb Showcase), Money Shot (Brown University, 2025 O’Neill NPC Finalist), Penguin Sex With Mr. Morgan (ANTfest/Ars Nova), Man Made (2024 O’Neill NPC Semi-Finalist), and Spirit Junkie (Cherry Picking, The Wild Project). Recent performances include Black Exhibition (Bushwick Starr) and In the Penal Colony (Next Door at NYTW, The Tank). Dhari was a 2025 semi-finalist for the Page 73 Fellowship and is a member of the 2026 Page 73 writers group. Additional honors include a Tennessee Williams Scholarship at the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and an Emerging LGBTQ Voices Fellowship at Lambda Literary. Dhari has a BA in Sociology from Columbia University and an MFA in Playwriting from Brown University.
MARISSA JOYCE STAMPS
Director
MARISSA JOYCE STAMPS (Director) is a Black, Haitian-American NYC-born and based director, playwright, performer, and educator who creates vortexes through an Afrosurrealist lens, often in dialogue with landscape dramaturgy. Award/Honors: Princess Grace Playwriting Award, Yale Drama Series Prize Shortlist, MacDowell Fellow, Caldera Artist-in-Residence, three-time O’Neill NPC Finalist, The Kilroys Web. Current Memberships + Affiliations: EST/Youngblood, Breaking & Entering Theatre Collective, The Kilroys, Lucille Lortel’s Alcove, and The New Georges Jam, and Immersive Design Academy. Past: Clubbed Thumb’s Early-Career Writers Group, Roundabout’s Directing Group, and Mercury Store. Marissa has directed, choreographed, and assistant directed the development of new work of playwrights and of herself through productions and workshops with The National Black Theatre, The Vineyard, BAM, New Dramatists, Exponential Festival, The Brick, Mercury Store, Conch Shell Productions, SFX Festival, Breaking & Entering Theatre Collective, The Makers’ Ensemble, Synecdoche Works, LPAC Rough Draft, 48 Hours… in Harlem, Brown University, Brooklyn College, NYU/Tisch, and more. MFA Playwriting: Brooklyn College. marissajoycestamps.com
