Susan Rowan Masters, an author and playwright from Panama, will travel to New York City to see a staged reading of her monologue “Going Home,” performed by the Equity Library Theater of New York at the New York Public Library George Bruce Auditorium on Saturday, Aug. 5. Submitted photo

A Panama author and playwright is planning to attend a staged reading of one of her published works for the first time.

Susan Rowan Masters will travel with her sister to New York City in the coming weeks to see a performance of her original work, “Going Home,” before a live audience by Equity Library Theater of New York on Saturday, Aug. 5.

Originally published by Applause Books, “Going Home” appeared in “One on One: Playing with a Purpose — Monologues for Kids Ages 7-15.” The monologue is told from the point of view of its main character, Annie, a 12- to 14-year-old girl who is mourning the loss of the grandma who raised her. Her mom has never been there for her, and Annie doesn’t want anything to do with her when she shows up. Then something happens on the way to the funeral.

Masters said the monologue was adapted from one of her previous novels, “Summer Song,” and its main character, Etta May. “Summer Song” was also the basis for a two-part, full-length play currently in development under the title “Take Me Home, Country Rose.”

Masters said she was pleased with the source material that came from “Summer Song,” and felt strongly enough about seeing the “Going Home” monologue that resulted from the novel performed live that she submitted it for use among the Equity Library Theater’s young actors. Subsequently, “Going Home” was selected among its 2017 Summer Play Festival winners.

“When ‘Going Home’ was first published with Applause Books, I figured it must be pretty good if an editor picked it up for a book of monologues that young actors could use,” Masters said. “I thought I’d love to hear it on spoken onstage and so I sent it to the Equity Library Theater a couple months ago and they took it. They had actually taken one of my previous monologues, ‘Time and Again,’ and that was produced a couple of years ago during the winter; but I wasn’t able to attend because I was vacationing in Florida at the time. This one is in the summer, and it will be great to see.”

“Going Home” will be staged Saturday, Aug. 5, at the New York Public Library George Bruce Auditorium, 518 W. 125th St., New York City, at noon by Nikole Rizzo, who will perform as Annie. A graduate of the musical theater program at The American Musical Dramatic Academy in New York City, Rizzo was recently seen in the national tour of “Charlotte’s Web,” “Pinkalicious the Musical,” and the world premiere of “The Secret Life of Hubie Hartzel” — another of Masters’ works. She was a recurring actor on the AMC series “Into Character.”

Masters is a member of the Dramatist Guild of America and the Authors Guild. Broadway World called her award-winning play “The Secret Life of Hubie Hartzel” a hit. She said she discovered her penchant for writing after attending a workshop at Chautauqua Institution several years ago. When the instructor said her course submission was “marketable,” she decided to continue to pursue writing short stories on her own time.

“I never did sell that first piece, but I still have it,” she said. “I’m finding that I enjoy writing dialogue a lot and, of course, that’s what playwriting is really about. I’m also finding that it’s hard to get published and hard to find good theaters that will put on your work, but I am enjoying the collaboration that takes place between the playwright and the actors. I like to hear the actors’ thoughts, suggestions and comments when we do table reads because then I can think about the changes that should be made to make it work better.”

For more information about Masters’ plays, monologues and books, visit her website at srmasters.com.