If you want to be amongst the coolest of the cool, you should head down to the Kennedy Center for their Page-to-Stage New Play Festival and catch a reading of Michael Merino’s Henry Darger: Artist and Protector of Children.

A janitor and dishwasher by day, secret artist by night, Henry Darger cloistered himself in his apartment for over 40 years and dedicated his life to a world of writing and painting, using art as his confessor and as his tormentor. Using Darger’s own words, interwoven with psychoanalytic commentary, art criticism and interviews, this play explores his hauntingly beautiful works of art and his obsession with a mythic childhood innocence symbolized by the saintly Vivian Girls.

Michael’s play is the entry for the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. He debuted it with them during the winter.

A friend from the Dean days, Michael is quirky, fun, and intelligent. I imagine anything he writes will be the same. His most recent play — about Lewis Carroll, Donald Rumsfeld, and George Bush and language — was performed in New Orleans earlier this year.

The reading starts at 7:15 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 4, on the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Level. Seating is free, but first-come, first-served. Admission will begin at 6:45 p.m.