Unreconciled

[NoHo Arts District, CA] –  Moving Arts presents Unreconciled by Jay Sefton, co-written by Mark Basquill, and directed by Gerladine Hughes as part of their Arts Expanded Series. 

A portion of the box office receipts from the performance on Friday, March 28 will be donated to the Entertainment Community Fund for entertainers who have been affected by the wildfires in LA. On Sunday, March 23rd, Steven Leigh Morris of Stage Raw is set to moderate a panel discussion after the performance with another after show discussion planned for March 30th.

Show Synopsis

Unreconciled is the true story of an adolescent actor cast as Jesus in a school play directed by a parish priest. The story chronicles a survivor’s journey as he confronts his past, navigates a victims’ reparations program set up by the Catholic Church, and discovers the courage to use his voice. This 80-minute piece is a poignant and at times humorous exploration of family, place, and the meaning of reconciliation. 

Unreconciled was recently named an official selection for opening weekend at the Belfast International Arts Festival in October 2025. The show received its world premiere at Chester Theatre Company in Chester, Massachusetts in July of 2024, and has since played in Belfast, Ireland, New York City, and will be in the 2025 season at Bare Bones Productions in Pittsburgh before coming to Los Angeles. Unreconciled won the Berkshire Theatre Critics Association awards for Outstanding Solo Performance, Outstanding World Premiere of a Play, and was nominated for Outstanding Production of a Play.      

BIOS

Jay Sefton [he/him] (Playwright/Performer) is an actor and licensed mental health counselor, originally from Philadelphia, and currently based in Easthampton, Massachusetts. Selected theatre credits include: Unreconciled (Writer/Performer, Chester Theatre Company), What the Constitution Means to Me (WAM Theatre/Berkshire Theatre Group and Capital Rep, Albany), Honor Killing, Paradise (WAM Theatre, Fresh Takes Reading Series), A Moon for the Misbegotten, The Lady Slipper, Million Dollar Quartet, Outside Mullingar (The Majestic Theater), Two Rooms (Silverthorne Theatre Company), The Most Mediocre Story Never Told (Writer/Performer), A Life in the Theatre, Dark Rapture (Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre), King Lear (Theatricum Botanicum, Los Angeles). Jay is the recipient of the LA WEEKLY Award for Best Solo Performance for The Most Mediocre Story Never Told. Film/TV: The Wire, Grey’s Anatomy, The Shield, Summerland, Providence. He is a member of Actors’ Equity and SAG-AFTRA.

Mark Basquill [he/him] (Playwright) was raised in South Philadelphia and practices clinical psychology in Wilmington, NC, where he helps veterans recover from the wounds of war, often using writing to promote healing.  Recent essays, stories, and poems can be found in Cirque: A Literary Journal for the North Pacific Rim; Consequence Forum; and Snapdragon: A Journal of Art and Healing.  Mark has also written two full-length dramas about his own family’s unfinished struggles to heal from the impact of childhood clergy abuse. Each play was produced locally and well-received.

Geraldine Hughes [she/her] (Director) received the Los Angeles Ovation, Garland and Drama Critics Circle Awards and a Drama League Award Nomination for Outstanding Performance for her solo play Belfast Blues, which she also wrote and performed. Theatre acting credits: Harry Potter And The Cursed Child, as Professor McGonagall, Jerusalem, (Broadway and West End), Particle Of Dread (opposite Stephen Rea), Cyrano De Bergerac (Broadway), Translations (Broadway), Molly Sweeney (Irish Repertory Theatre), Pumpgirl (MTC), Orson’s Shadow, The Cripple of Inishmaan and The Weir. TV acting credits: Tokyo Vice, Your Honor, Kevin Can Wait, Law and Order OC and SVU, The Blacklist, Blue Bloods, Nurse Jackie, Mercy, The Good Wife, Law and Order CI, Law & Order, Murder, She Wrote: The Celtic Riddle and ER. Film acting credits: Rocky Balboa, Gran Torino, Nine Days, The Book Of Henry, Time Out Of Mind and Killing Lincoln. Geraldine is a Producer on the film In The Land Of Saints And Sinners, starring Liam Neeson and Ciarán Hinds, and is an Executive Producer on the film The Last Rifleman, starring Pierce Brosnan. She recently produced and starred in the short film CLAY. Geraldine is a 2023 and 2024 recipient of the Irish American Partnership’s Nollaig na mBan women’s leadership award and is a patron of Integrated Education in the North of Ireland and has received honorary doctorates from Queens University, Belfast and the University of Ulster. 

Quotes:

“Sefton put on an acting clinic. It all added up to one of the most amazing pieces of acting I’ve ever seen. It was also funny as hell and very moving.” —Daily Hampshire Gazette

“Simply artistry, extraordinary artistry. I rarely recommend a one-person play, but this is the one to see this season.” —The Berkshire Edge

“An extraordinary work of art on the impossible topic.”—Terry McKiernan, Founder & President Bishop Accountability