Metropolitan Playhouse
Virtual Playhouse
Presents
Evening Two of East Side Stories: Evolution

A Screened Reading
of

GRASSROOTS
Written by ROBIN ROTHSTEIN

Directed by JOHN LONG

Backgrounds by DANNY LICUL

Featuring
MAXWELL BARTEL, ALIA SHAKIRA, & KIM YANCEY-MOORE

June 27, 2020 8 p.m.

www.metropolitanplayhouse.org/virtualplayhouse

Like it or not, gentrification cometh to the East Village. Many have fought the change, but found it a losing battle. Money talks. Loudly enough to drown out the longtime residents, and the feel and touch of the thick tapestry of the place, a bit worn, perhaps, but still lovely.

On New Year’s Eve, two beat cops notice a lady tossing back a few at the local pub. Problem? It’s 5 a.m., well past closing time, she’s alone, and she doesn’t own the place. Patricia has lived in the neighborhood for thirty years and is enjoying her last night in a bar she loves, her second home. It’s not just closed. It’s closed forever. Soon it will morph into a poshed-up fern bar with tripled prices and a clientele of clueless yuppies.

The rookie officer wants her out, now. The more experienced officer smoothly talks him down. Cool it. Let’s hear her out. Patricia tells them she’s a retired 60-something with nowhere to go. Tonight is the end of life as she knows it. Happy New Year…for those who still believe in such things.

GRASSROOTS is based on the closing of the Grassroots Tavern on St. Mark’s Place. After 42 years in business, it shut down on New Year’s Eve, 2017, a victim of rising rents and associated costs brought on by gentrification. The building is now a high-end five-unit co-op.

-Karen D’Onofrio-