Short Story Project's Inaugural Performance: Adapting "Taos" for the Stage

In this never-before-seen, one-night-only live theatrical performance, we'll bring to life Sally Helm's unpublished short story "Taos," a tender, funny portrait of a teenaged girl and her father facing a turning point in their lives.

Directed by Olivia Facini

Featuring Zachary Desmond, Layan Elwazani, and Nile Assata Harris

Produced by Undiscovered Works

Short Story Project Creators and Associate Producers: Zachary Desmond and Olivia Facini

Led by Zachary Desmond and Olivia Facini and supported by Undiscovered Works, the Short Story Project creates low-tech, high-creativity theatrical stagings of short stories. Our performances provide a fun, free way for audiences to encounter a new author and to experience in a new way the work of a writer they might know already. We host our events at independent bookstores around New York City to bring communities together in familiar, welcoming surroundings and to encourage further exchange between theater and literature, between avid theatergoers and devoted book lovers.

Undiscovered Works celebrates and builds community through storytelling of all kinds! Whether it's through an artist discussion and mingling at our monthly storytelling series or Mixology, engaging with our community blog, or taking in one of our productions, we foster dialogue around entertainment. Playwrights, filmmakers, actors, monologists, musicians, comedians, and artists of every variety explore and showcase their talents—they're what it's all about! In addition to our artist and theatre partners, we raise awareness of and funds for the local non-profit organizations who keep our communities thriving.

Zachary Desmond makes stories about the present, past, and future of migration. He is an actor, writer and director from Washington State whose work has been produced from New York City to Sitka, Alaska and is a member of several companies, including Mercury Store in Gowanus and the inaugural company at New American Ensemble. He is an O’Neill National Playwrights Conference semi-finalist, a Rattlestick Theater Incubator semi-finalist, and a two-time winner of the 59E59 Theaters SpaceLab grant. He recently completed a two-year Artistic Fellowship with Playhouse Creatures Theatre Company and is a resident playwright with No.11 Productions in NYC. MFA Juilliard.

Olivia Facini is a director, producer, and playwright based in New York. Her play Boys' Club (No Girls Aloud) was named a Finalist for the 2025 National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center. The Brooklyn Rail has described her work as "goofy and rigorous but never self-serious." Olivia has worked with large theater institutions, smaller ensembles, and freelance artists, including 600 HIGHWAYMEN, Atlantic Theater Company, Clubbed Thumb, Mercury Store, Moxie Arts, New Georges, Talking Band, The 24 Hour Plays, The Associates Theater Ensemble, and Williamstown Theatre Festival. With Julia Greer, Olivia co-runs The Hearth, a theater company dedicated to supporting the work of emerging artists of underrepresented genders. She is very proud to have received a New York State Assembly Citation for her contributions to arts activism. IG: @oliviafacini

Sally Helm is an independent radio producer and writer living in Brooklyn and pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing at Brooklyn College. She’s originally from Los Angeles, and has also spent time living in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Sitka, Alaska. Sally studied English in college, with a focus on political rhetoric and performance.

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Host or Publisher Supported by Manhasset Independent School District and YAYA Kids Theater