OMEN ROAD TO STARRVILLE by Erik Champney
       
     
Workshop/Broadway Virtual: Adam Magnacca (left) as Kendle and Maureen O'Boyle as Ellen in OMEN ROAD TO STARRVILLE.
       
     
Staged Reading/La MaMa (New York, NY): standing, from left, Misha Osherovich and Maureen O’Boyle; seated, from left, Alison Walter, Elizabeth Inghram, Sawyer Spielberg, and Michael Gnat.
       
     
Staged Reading/La MaMa (New York, NY): Misha Osherovich as Kendle in OMEN ROAD TO STARRVILLE by Erik Champney.
       
     
Staged Reading/La Mama (New York, NY): Misha Osherovich (left) as Kendle and Maureen O’Boyle as Ellen in OMEN ROAD TO STARRVILLE by Erik Champney.
       
     
Staged Reading/La MaMa (New York, NY): Erik Champney (left) and Misha Osherovich.
       
     
Staged Reading/La MaMa (New York, NY): director, Glory Kadigan (left), with playwright, Erik Champney, and stage manager, Vanna Richardson, during rehearsals for OMEN ROAD TO STARRVILLE.
       
     
Workshop/NYU: Olivia Briggs as Ellen in OMEN ROAD TO STARRVILLE by Erik Champney.
       
     
Workshop/NYU: Olivia Briggs as Ellen in OMEN ROAD TO STARRVILLE by Erik Champney.
       
     
Workshop/NYU: Tori Keenan-Zelt as Sarah in OMEN ROAD TO STARRVILLE by Erik Champney.
       
     
Workshop/NYU: Ethan Chia (left) as Kendle and Olivia Briggs as Ellen in rehearsal for OMEN ROAD TO STARRVILLE by Erik Champney.
       
     
Workshop/NYU: Ethan Chia as Kendle in rehearsal for OMEN ROAD TO STARRVILLE by Erik Champney.
       
     
Workshop/NYU: Ethan Chia (left) as Kendle and Olivia Briggs as Ellen in rehearsal for OMEN ROAD TO STARRVILLE by Erik Champney.
       
     
Workshop/NYU: co-director Wesley Aroozoo (center) with Ethan Chia (left) and Olivia Briggs in rehearsal for OMEN ROAD TO STARRVILLE by Erik Champney.
       
     
OMEN ROAD TO STARRVILLE by Erik Champney
       
     
OMEN ROAD TO STARRVILLE by Erik Champney

Ellen Ward relinquishes the physical world, falling prey to a war of obsession and dark sexuality with a man she has never met. Omen Road to Starrville is a psychological examination of our addiction to the Internet, the death of privacy, and artificial delusions of love.

Finalist, 2021 Neukom Institute Literary Arts Awards, Dartmouth College

Finalist, Ashland New Play Festival

Semi-finalist, National Playwrights Conference, The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center

Top Ten, The Stanley Drama Award, Wagner College

Workshop / Staged Reading, Broadway Virtual; dir. Erik Champney

Workshop / Staged Reading, La MaMa; feat. Misha Osherovich, Sawyer Spielberg, Elizabeth Inghram; dir. Glory Kadigan

Concert Reading, NYU Tisch Asia; dir. Drayton Hiers

Workshop, NYU Tisch Asia; dir. Wesley Aroozoo & Erik Champney

Workshop/Broadway Virtual: Adam Magnacca (left) as Kendle and Maureen O'Boyle as Ellen in OMEN ROAD TO STARRVILLE.
       
     
Workshop/Broadway Virtual: Adam Magnacca (left) as Kendle and Maureen O'Boyle as Ellen in OMEN ROAD TO STARRVILLE.

Workshop and reading of the re-imagined version of Omen Road to Starrville, written and directed by Erik Champney for Broadway Virtual,

Staged Reading/La MaMa (New York, NY): standing, from left, Misha Osherovich and Maureen O’Boyle; seated, from left, Alison Walter, Elizabeth Inghram, Sawyer Spielberg, and Michael Gnat.
       
     
Staged Reading/La MaMa (New York, NY): standing, from left, Misha Osherovich and Maureen O’Boyle; seated, from left, Alison Walter, Elizabeth Inghram, Sawyer Spielberg, and Michael Gnat.

Rehearsal for the staged reading of Omen Road to Starrville, presented by La MaMa. It was written by Erik Champney and directed by Glory Kadigan.

Experiments 17: Omen Road to Starrville

Staged Reading/La MaMa (New York, NY): Misha Osherovich as Kendle in OMEN ROAD TO STARRVILLE by Erik Champney.
       
     
Staged Reading/La MaMa (New York, NY): Misha Osherovich as Kendle in OMEN ROAD TO STARRVILLE by Erik Champney.

Misha’s Kendle was malevolent. It was a cunning, stable performance, making it all the more clear the diverse choices an actor can make with this character. This Omen Road to Starrville was chilling.

Written by Erik Champney and directed by Glory Kadigan for La MaMa.

Staged Reading/La Mama (New York, NY): Misha Osherovich (left) as Kendle and Maureen O’Boyle as Ellen in OMEN ROAD TO STARRVILLE by Erik Champney.
       
     
Staged Reading/La Mama (New York, NY): Misha Osherovich (left) as Kendle and Maureen O’Boyle as Ellen in OMEN ROAD TO STARRVILLE by Erik Champney.

Rehearsal for the staged reading of Omen Road to Starrville, presented by La MaMa. It was written by Erik Champney and directed by Glory Kadigan.

Staged Reading/La MaMa (New York, NY): Erik Champney (left) and Misha Osherovich.
       
     
Staged Reading/La MaMa (New York, NY): Erik Champney (left) and Misha Osherovich.

Rehearsal for the staged reading of Omen Road to Starrville, presented by La MaMa. It was written by Erik Champney and directed by Glory Kadigan.

Staged Reading/La MaMa (New York, NY): director, Glory Kadigan (left), with playwright, Erik Champney, and stage manager, Vanna Richardson, during rehearsals for OMEN ROAD TO STARRVILLE.
       
     
Staged Reading/La MaMa (New York, NY): director, Glory Kadigan (left), with playwright, Erik Champney, and stage manager, Vanna Richardson, during rehearsals for OMEN ROAD TO STARRVILLE.

For a play as disturbing as Omen Road to Starrville, this company was having a jolly good time.

Written by Erik Champney and directed by Glory Kadigan for La MaMa, New York, NY.

Workshop/NYU: Olivia Briggs as Ellen in OMEN ROAD TO STARRVILLE by Erik Champney.
       
     
Workshop/NYU: Olivia Briggs as Ellen in OMEN ROAD TO STARRVILLE by Erik Champney.

Omen Road to Starrville, written by Erik Champney and directed by Wesley Aroozoo and Erik Champney. NYU Tisch Asia, Singapore.

Workshop/NYU: Olivia Briggs as Ellen in OMEN ROAD TO STARRVILLE by Erik Champney.
       
     
Workshop/NYU: Olivia Briggs as Ellen in OMEN ROAD TO STARRVILLE by Erik Champney.

This was a beautiful and unnerving workshop of Omen Road to Starrville. Experimenting heavily with projections and a tense soundscape, both created by the magnificent genius, Wesley Aroozoo, this was the first time the play started to reveal what it was capable of doing.

Written by Erik Champney and directed by Wesley Aroozoo and Erik Champney. Workshop at NYU Tisch Asia, Singapore.

Workshop/NYU: Tori Keenan-Zelt as Sarah in OMEN ROAD TO STARRVILLE by Erik Champney.
       
     
Workshop/NYU: Tori Keenan-Zelt as Sarah in OMEN ROAD TO STARRVILLE by Erik Champney.

Tori Keenan-Zelt always brings such a perfect, subtle harmony to every collaboration, which fit so well against this workshop’s unhinged backdrop.

Written by Erik Champney and directed by Wesley Aroozoo and Erik Champney. Workshop at NYU Tisch Asia, Singapore.

Workshop/NYU: Ethan Chia (left) as Kendle and Olivia Briggs as Ellen in rehearsal for OMEN ROAD TO STARRVILLE by Erik Champney.
       
     
Workshop/NYU: Ethan Chia (left) as Kendle and Olivia Briggs as Ellen in rehearsal for OMEN ROAD TO STARRVILLE by Erik Champney.

Omen Road to Starrville was workshopped off and on for more than a year in Singapore. Olivia Briggs delivered Ellen’s spirit and oceans of subtext. She was also gracious enough to play the role many, many times as Erik worked on the play. And, of course, when Ethan Chia took on Kendle, intense meaning was infused into those workshops.

Written by Erik Champney and directed by Wesley Aroozoo and Erik Champney. Workshop at NYU Tisch Asia, Singapore.

Workshop/NYU: Ethan Chia as Kendle in rehearsal for OMEN ROAD TO STARRVILLE by Erik Champney.
       
     
Workshop/NYU: Ethan Chia as Kendle in rehearsal for OMEN ROAD TO STARRVILLE by Erik Champney.

Omen Road to Starrville is dedicated to Ethan Chia. He wouldn’t learn this until late in his collaboration with Erik Champney, near the end of the rehearsal period for a concert reading. It would be the culmination of more than a year of working together.

Written by Erik Champney and directed by Wesley Aroozoo and Erik Champney. Workshop at NYU Tisch Asia, Singapore.

Workshop/NYU: Ethan Chia (left) as Kendle and Olivia Briggs as Ellen in rehearsal for OMEN ROAD TO STARRVILLE by Erik Champney.
       
     
Workshop/NYU: Ethan Chia (left) as Kendle and Olivia Briggs as Ellen in rehearsal for OMEN ROAD TO STARRVILLE by Erik Champney.

Omen Road to Starrville, written by Erik Champney and directed by Wesley Aroozoo and Erik Champney. Workshop at NYU Tisch Asia, Singapore.

Workshop/NYU: co-director Wesley Aroozoo (center) with Ethan Chia (left) and Olivia Briggs in rehearsal for OMEN ROAD TO STARRVILLE by Erik Champney.
       
     
Workshop/NYU: co-director Wesley Aroozoo (center) with Ethan Chia (left) and Olivia Briggs in rehearsal for OMEN ROAD TO STARRVILLE by Erik Champney.

Omen Road to Starrville, written by Erik Champney and directed by Wesley Aroozoo and Erik Champney. Workshop at NYU Tisch Asia, Singapore.