Lola Tung and Daniel Bravo Hernández to lead Sanctuary City benefit reading in New York

Sanctuary City follows two immigrant teenagers in post-9/11 Newark who become each other's sanctuary

The Summer I Turned Pretty and Hadestown star Lola Tung and Romeo + Juliet actor Daniel Bravo Hernández are set to lead a benefit reading of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Martyna Majok’s Sanctuary City in New York.

The reading will take place on October 9 and is being staged by Level Forward and producer Colt Coeur. Proceeds will benefit RAICES, a nonprofit organisation supporting immigrants and refugees seeking asylum.

Sanctuary City follows two immigrant teenagers in post-9/11 Newark, New Jersey, who become each other’s source of sanctuary as they navigate friendship, ambition and the uncertainty of their futures.

Majok expressed her excitement about bringing the play back to New York while supporting RAICES, describing the production as “a love letter to friendship and ambition despite the odds, and the working class immigrant’s dream of a full, expansive life in their own homes.”

New York Theatre Workshop originally produced Sanctuary City Off Broadway in 2020. The upcoming reading comes as the theatre company, Level Forward and the creative team seek to revisit the play at a time when immigration remains a major issue in the United States.

“Because stories change the world, we’re bringing ‘Sanctuary City’ back, at a time when change is desperately needed,” Level Forward said. “Together, through imagination, creativity and collective action, we rise.”

Tung rose to prominence playing Belly in Prime Video’s The Summer I Turned Pretty and has also appeared on Broadway in Hadestown. Her recent screen credits include Forbidden Fruits and Chasing Summer. She recently completed filming The Young People, directed by Osgood Perkins and co-starring Nicole Kidman and Nico Parker, and is currently filming Halina Reijn’s upcoming A24 film Please, alongside Gracie Abrams and Connor Storrie.

Hernández is a New York stage veteran whose credits include Off Broadway productions of Much Ado About Nothing and Spread, as well as Romeo + Juliet through Shakespeare in the Park.