Cecilia Copeland's R CULTURE Opens 11/7 at IRT

IRT Resident Artist Project in Collaboration with New York Madness presents R Culture, a new play by Cecilia Copeland, for a limited run, November 7 - 23, at IRT Theatre. Directed by Emily Lerer, the show has Set Design by G. Warren Stiles, Lighting Design by Darielle Shandler, Costume Design by Carolyn Toner & Sound Design by Anna Libbie Grossman. Ashley Newman* serves as Stage Manager. Consulting Producers are Sari Caine & Rachel Weekly.

R Culture is an edgy satire taking us on a chilling & hilarious adventure through Modern Americana, led by a Ringmaster & two clowns. Along the way, this fierce circus drops the mask on everything from Bridezillas to football, giving us the naked truth about "Our/Rape Culture."

Featured in the cast of this AEA Showcase are Rachel A. Collins, Jennifer Harder & Romy Nordlinger*.

RACHEL A. COLLINS is an actor, improv, movement & teaching artist. In NYC, she performed in Twelfth Night (The Drilling Company), The Quest of the Hero, Swordfight Christmas (C.A.G.E. Theatre Company) & hOMAge (The Clearing Collaborative Theatre Company). Regionally, she has appeared in Into the Woods, Fools, Peter Pan (Ozark Actors Theatre); In the Book Of, Smokey Joe's Cafe, Under Six! & The Frog Prince (Florida Studio Theatre). Rachel is a former member of FSTImprov & has been a student of the Upright Citizens Brigade. She holds her BFA-Acting from Ohio University.

JENNIFER HARDER received a BFA from NYU Tisch School of the Arts & has toured to the Capital, Dublin & Montréal Fringe Festivals as well as the Ibero-American Theater Festival in Bogotá, Colombia. She was a founding member of the theatre company The Management & won a NY Innovative Theater Award for Outstanding Actress in a Featured Role for their production of MilkMilkLemonade. Jenny works extensively at The Brick Theater as part of their Dainty Cadaver series & their Game Play, Democracy, NY Clown Theater & 10th Anniversary Festivals, as well as Horse Trade's Frigid Festival & the NY One-Minute Play Festival. She has also been Master of Ceremonies in the Speakeasy Dollhouse for the past 2 years.

ROMY NORDLINGER just completed a run of Steven Fechter's Lancelot with 360 RepCo/Judson Gym. Her theatre credits include Rose in Shakespeare's Slave by Steven Fechter, New Perspectives Between Here & There by Cecilia Copeland, The Woman On The Bridge workshop by Julia Pascal directed by Ludovica Viller Hauser, January by Paula Cizmar directed by Lorca Peress/Multi Stages, Comedy Of Errors, Rock & Roll Shakespeare at ActorsTheatre of Louisville & has worked at NY Madness, Kirk Theatre Row, Caps Lock Theatre, NYFringe, Primary Stages, Circle Rep, Fleetwood Stage, Wilma Theatre, Hudson Guild, NY Madness, Julia's Reading Room & The Shubert. Film & TV credits include Law & Order CI, All My Children, One Life to Live, & The Ruthless Spectator with Rob Bartlett. Romy is also an Audiobook Narrator with over 90 titles to her credit. Her original piece based on the life of Alla Nazimova premiered in Stage Struck at the Snapple Theatre this past January, helmed by Mari Lyn Henry & directed by Melody Brooks. For the past 15 years, Romy has been a Theatre teaching artist working with developmentally disabled & underserved children in every borough of NYC.

CECILIA COPELAND (Playwright) is the Founding Artistic Director of New York Madness. Named Indie Theater Now's "Person of the Year," her plays have been presented at the Culture Project, Cherry Lane Theatre, Ensemble Studios Theatre, HERE Arts Center, The Anarchist Theatre Festival of Montreal, Venus Theatre, The Chain Theatre, New Perspectives & IATI Theatre, among others. She has also developed work with the Lark Play Development Center & terraNOVA. She was awarded a Special Effects Grant from Metro Screen Australia for her screenplay, Amusement Bomber. Copeland is the winner of a Fine Arts Grant at Ohio University, the Lennis J. Holm Playwriting Scholarship from University of Iowa Writers Workshop, was a semifinalist for The O'Neill Playwrights Conference & the David Callichio Emerging Playwrights Prize. Copeland is a Kilroy's List Nominee, finalist for Mabou Mines Residency & a member of The League of Professional Theatre Women.

EMILY LERER (Director) is an Ohio native & graduate of Ohio University. Recent Projects include In the Air Tonight (director), And All of Us Fell Down (director/producer), an adaptation of Julius Caesar & Unseen & Unnoticed (asst. director). Emily is a member of New York Madness Directing Company. She has worked for the Soho Playhouse, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater & The New Ohio Theatre.

Sari Caine is a published writer, actor & chess instructor from NYC. Her play Mr. Landing Takes A Fall was awarded the $1000 1st prize by Bottle Tree productions & was also a 2013 PlayPenn semi-finalist. Her plays have been produced at IRT, Jimmy's No. 43, St Clements, Roy Arias Theater, O'Flahertys/The Hell's Kitchen Arts Festival, The Manhattan Repertory Theater, Dixon Place Theater, The Strawberry Festival, Theater for the New City & were accepted to the Network One Act Festival. Theater Residencies include IRT, SPACE on Ryder Farms, Jimmy's No 43 & Manhattan Theater Source Playground Development Series. She is the Co-founder/Artistic Director of Slightly Altered States theater company.

Rachel Weekley is a graduate of Ohio University's School of Theater BFA Performance Program & performed in OU's productions of Crooked, Klauzal Square & Servant of Two Masters. In New York, she has most recently performed with In Our Own Words Project's Can We Come to the Table, Barefoot Shakespeare Company's Comedy of Errors, Classics on Rocks' As You Like It & Shakespeare in the Parking Lot's Richard III.

G. Warren Stiles is an award winning scenic designer & a graduate of the Ohio University MFA program. Recent New York productions include Island & The Life and Death of King John with the New York Shakespeare Exchange, True Art with The Director's Company, Waiting for Lefty with Portmanteau Theatre & Money at HERE. He has assisted on the Broadway productions of Promises, Promises, A Behanding in Spokane, Hair, Pippin & Big Fish & also assisted on the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. In Chicago he worked with the House Theatre of Chicago, Chicago Children's Theatre & The Adventure Stage. He is a co-founder of Burnside Design Studio with Daniel Winters & is a founding member of New York Madness.

Darielle Shandler is a Brooklyn-based designer, stage manager & playwright who is passionate about using multi-media & movement as part of her theatrical work. She is a graduate from Drew University, where she designed Antigone, Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep & Like Dreaming, Backwards. In 2013, she worked with StrangeDog Theatre, designing & stage managing Claire Went to France & Omnivores, both new plays by Ben Clawson. She built, programmed lights, & assistant stage managed The Sound of Music at Mill Mountain Theatre in Roanoke, Virginia. She interned at the New Ohio Theatre in the ICE Factory Festival, where help to mount six shows in six weeks. She studied Shakespeare with the Oxbridge Academic Program in Cambridge, England & with the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, Virginia. Darielle was part of The Center for Mass Communications in Roanoke, Virginia & studied film in New Jersey, England & Israel.

Anna Libbie Grossman has worked in the areas of theatrical sound design, composition, live Foley performance & performance art. Her work has most recently been featured in Wasps at Columbia University, The Importance of Being Earnest at Studio Tisch & Romeo & Juliet at The Little Secret Theater.

Carolyn Toner graduated from Trinity College with a degree in Theatre & Dance. She worked this summer at The Peterborough Players in New Hampshire, as a costuming intern & works with the Frog & Peach Shakespeare Company.

DATES: OPENS: November 7th @ 8pm PERFORMANCES: 10/7-9, 10/14-17 & 10/20-23 @ 8pm

THEATRE: IRT Theatre ~ 154 Christopher Street (3rd Floor)

TICKETS: $18

RESERVATIONS: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/844961