Porcupine Girl

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Written & Performed by Leslie Ayvazian

June 7, 2026—June 7, 2026

Runtime: approximately 50 minutes, no intermission

Read Synopsis

This piece was inspired by questions and uncertainties. What is necessary to create a theatrical event? How spare can we be? How can we make a play happen entirely in the imaginations of the audience? What if people didn’t have to look at the performer? What if we stripped the story of all production values: no lighting scheme, no movement? The performer stands at a music stand and reads a story. Nothing is memorized. The lights are dim. There are no slides or images, no music.

Maybe the show happens only one night a week. Maybe the writer/performer is 77 years old. Maybe her students of many years help out.

Maybe the original idea of the story is a young girl – 12 – who lives in a building next to a zoo. Maybe the zoo is abandoned due to a virus or a war. Maybe the only animal left is a porcupine. Maybe the girl stands at her window and converses with him from dusk until dawn. And maybe she hopes that the porcupine can see that she, in fact, has quills too. Can they be compatriots?

RADICAL ACCESS & THEATRE INFO

PORCUPINE GIRL will be presented in NYTW’s Fourth Street Theatre at 83 E 4th Street.

The theatre is accessed by climbing eight steps from street level. Unfortunately, the building is not equipped with an elevator. Seating in this theatre is general admission unless you book a reserved seat. Large print programs will be available. Learn more about accessing our buildings and contact us with questions at LetsChat@nytw.org.

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CAST / CREATIVE

Leslie Ayvazian

Writer & Performer

Leslie Ayvazian is the author of 8 full-length plays and seven one-act plays, published variously by Samuel French and Dramatists Play Service. Some have been included in annual anthologies of best plays. Nine Armenians won the John Gassner/Outer Critics Circle Award for best new American play, The Roger L. Stevens Award, and second place for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Rosemary and I received an honorable mention from the Susan Smith Blackburn jury. Leslie has received commissions from the Manhattan Theatre Club, Windancer Productions and South Coast Repertory Theatre. Make Me, directed by Christian Parker, was produced in New York by the Atlantic Theatre Company. High Dive was produced at the Long Wharf Theatre and the Manhattan Class Company, directed by David Warren, and went on to be produced in Poland and Slovakia. Her short film Every Three Minutes starring Olympia Dukakis was produced by Showtime and won a Telly Award. Her play Deaf Day was produced as a short film in Syria by Rana Kaz Kaz, and was included in the 2012 Palm Springs International Short Film Festival. Her latest short film, The Favor, stars Olympia Dukakis, Margaret Colin, and John Pankow. A theatrical version of The Favor ran at City Theatre in 2013 and also had a production in The Ensemble Studio Theatre’s Spring festival of one-act plays. A current play Out of the City has received workshops at the Manhattan Theatre Club and the Southampton Writers’ Conference. It will receive its first production in 2014 at the Merrimack Repertory Theatre in Lowell, Massachusetts. Her one-act play Above it All recently toured the Miami FL school system. Her latest play, 100 Aprils, recently received a workshop at the Atlantic Theatre in NYC. Leslie is an Adjunct Professor of dramaturgy at the Columbia University Graduate School of the Arts. Her credits as an actress include a recurring role on Law & Order – SVU and roles on Broadway in Lost in Yonkers and Naked Girl on the Apian Way.

Leslie Ayvazian

Leslie Ayvazian / Writer & Performer

Leslie Ayvazian is the author of 8 full-length plays and seven one-act plays, published variously by Samuel French and Dramatists Play Service. Some have been included in annual anthologies of best plays. Nine Armenians won the John Gassner/Outer Critics Circle Award for best new American play, The Roger L. Stevens Award, and second place for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Rosemary and I received an honorable mention from the Susan Smith Blackburn jury. Leslie has received commissions from the Manhattan Theatre Club, Windancer Productions and South Coast Repertory Theatre. Make Me, directed by Christian Parker, was produced in New York by the Atlantic Theatre Company. High Dive was produced at the Long Wharf Theatre and the Manhattan Class Company, directed by David Warren, and went on to be produced in Poland and Slovakia. Her short film Every Three Minutes starring Olympia Dukakis was produced by Showtime and won a Telly Award. Her play Deaf Day was produced as a short film in Syria by Rana Kaz Kaz, and was included in the 2012 Palm Springs International Short Film Festival. Her latest short film, The Favor, stars Olympia Dukakis, Margaret Colin, and John Pankow. A theatrical version of The Favor ran at City Theatre in 2013 and also had a production in The Ensemble Studio Theatre’s Spring festival of one-act plays. A current play Out of the City has received workshops at the Manhattan Theatre Club and the Southampton Writers’ Conference. It will receive its first production in 2014 at the Merrimack Repertory Theatre in Lowell, Massachusetts. Her one-act play Above it All recently toured the Miami FL school system. Her latest play, 100 Aprils, recently received a workshop at the Atlantic Theatre in NYC. Leslie is an Adjunct Professor of dramaturgy at the Columbia University Graduate School of the Arts. Her credits as an actress include a recurring role on Law & Order – SVU and roles on Broadway in Lost in Yonkers and Naked Girl on the Apian Way.