Hedda by Franky Gonzalez

NY Classical invites you to a free public reading of Hedda by Franky Gonzalez, a finalist in Cycle 2 of New Visions, our play development program dedicated to bold new works in conversation with the classical canon.

Following a two-day developmental workshop, Hedda will be shared in a public reading on Monday, May 19 from 7:00–9:00pm at Church of the Epiphany. The event is free and open to all with RSVP.

Inspired by Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler and reimagined in a contemporary Dallas suburb, Hedda follows the unraveling of a carefully constructed domestic life. Hedda, the white daughter of a late Christian college founder, lives with her Black husband George, a tenure-track hopeful at the very institution her father helped establish. When Elliot, Hedda’s former lover and a Latino writer in recovery from alcoholism, returns to town as a rival for the same academic position with his new partner Talia, old tensions begin to resurface.

As past relationships reemerge and unspoken resentments come to the surface, the play explores the fragile structures of privilege, ambition, race, gender, and artistic identity within institutions built to uphold a particular version of success. Hedda is a sharp, contemporary examination of respectability—especially Southern respectability—and the emotional and existential costs of trying to maintain it.

About the Playwright

Franky D. Gonzalez is a Dallas-based playwright of Colombian descent who serves the DFW region as a Dramatists Guild Regional Representative. His work has been developed and presented by organizations including The Lark, Sundance Institute, Ojai Playwrights Conference, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, NNPN, Sol Project, Ars Nova, Dallas Theater Center, Goodman Theatre, Repertorio Español, and many others. He is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Charles Rowan Beye New Play Commission, the Judith Royer Award for Excellence in Playwriting, an MTC/Sloan Commission, the Risk Theatre Modern Tragedy Prize, and the Crossroads Project Diverse Voices Playwriting Initiative Award. His work received Chicago’s Non-Equity Jeff Award for Short-Run Production in 2024, and he is currently Bishop Arts Theatre Center’s Playwright-in-Residence and a board member of the New Harmony Project.

Event Details

Public Reading:
Hedda by Franky Gonzalez
Date: Monday, May 19
Time: 7:00–9:00pm
Location:
Church of the Epiphany
Admission:
Free and open to all

About New Visions

New Visions is NY Classical’s multi-year play development program supporting new works that reimagine and respond to classical stories, themes, and structures. Through readings, workshops, and ongoing artistic development, the program creates space for playwrights to engage the past while speaking urgently to the present.