Artist-in-residence Peter Kim George presents a staged reading of his developing work Empire Liquor, a play that explores one of the primary causes of the Los Angeles riots on April 29, 1992.

A caustic satire about the beauty and absurdity of artmaking, a group of friends and actors come together in a drafty Scottish manor to process, via performance, the dimensions of history, empire, and race that made the civil unrest possible.

Empire Liquor Synopsis:

Winter 2021. A Korean-American playwright gathers friends in a borrowed Scottish manor to workshop a play about the 1992 LA riots. Part performance art and part spirited farce, the process grows and deepens, spurring humor and horror as these friends and actors confront difficult questions around race, history, empire, and how much is a ticket out of here? When the line between actor and role gets blurry, they wonder: What do we do with the anger we inherit? Empire Liquor’s caustic satire illuminates the beauty and absurdity of making art.

Stick around after the reading for a brief talkback with the playwright and the creative team in which theatergoers are encouraged to share their responses.

This daring play was the 2022 recipient of the Dr. Kerry English Award at the Ojai Playwrights Conference and was also developed at La Jolla Playhouse’s DNA New Work Series and at Circle X in Los Angeles.

The residency is a partnership between ArtYard and Brave New Works, a unique new work incubator that re-invigorates theater as a primary cultural influence by putting a new play “in conversation” with other art forms and artists. Brave New Works produce curated events with multi-disciplinary programming (cinema, dance, visual art, music, opinion, spoken word) that reflect the world of the play and its resonance in the culture at large.

This staged reading is geared towards audience members 14 and older, as it includes some adult language and inclusive content that addresses race and history. ArtYard is committed to supporting artists as they develop innovative, original art that opens pathways toward greater self-reflection, understanding, interaction, and imagination, and we believe that parents are the best people to make decisions for their families.

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Peter Kim George's Empire Liquor