Rising Phoenix Repertory Artistic Director Daniel Talbott to Offer Playwriting Workshop, 6/15-8/3

After helping produce a full season of readings and new work at Rattlestick and the critical success and sold out runs of Rising Phoenix Rep's first two Off-Broadway productions, with Piece by Piece Productions-of SLIPPING at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater and TOO MUCH MEMORY at the New York Theatre Workshop's Fourth Street Theatre-Daniel Talbott, Artistic Director of Caffe Cino Fellowship winning company Rising Phoenix Rep will teach a summer playwriting workshop in the intimate and evocative backroom pub space at the Seventh Street Small Stage.

Talbott describes his plans for the class by saying, "I'm hoping it will be a place to kick each others' butts, empower one another and explode our imaginations out of our comfort zones, and the focus will be getting out of the rut of development and into creating plays for the Modern American Theatre, whether that's in a back room bar or in a stairwell or onstage at more traditional theatres and beyond. The class/writing group will focus on breaking out of old habits and on creative empowerment, and in a theatre that constantly tells playwrights "no" I'd love this to be a safe zone to find out how we take the negative and turn that into a positive and take our work into our own hands."

Daniel Talbott is currently working as an actor on the Theatre for One project in Times Square and around NYC. He has been seen recently in THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR (Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis), MASTER BUILDER (Irish Rep), ROCKET CITY (Alabama Shakespeare Festival), TARTUFFE (McCarter Theatre/Yale Rep), MARAT/SADE (Classical Theatre Of Harlem) and the feature film "Pretty Bird." Recent directing work includes FOOTPRINT by Mac Rogers (part of +30NYC for Red Fern Theatre), AFTERCLAP by Daniel Reitz, BIRTHDAY and NOBODY, both by Crystal Skillman (Rising Phoenix Rep at the Seventh Street Small Stage at Jimmy's No. 43), THE UMBRELLA PLAYS (the teacup company/FringeNYC - Overall Excellence Award: Outstanding Play), FALL FORWARD (Sitelines/River to River Festival produced by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council), and THE REACHING (Rising Phoenix Rep). His play SLIPPING was produced at Rattlestick this past summer with Piece by Piece Productions (named on of the top ten plays of 2009 by "The Advocate"), premiered in Chicago at The Side Project in Chicago, was part of the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival, and will be published in 2010 by Dramatists Play Service. His play WHAT HAPPENED WHEN was produced at HERE Arts Center and The Side Project and was published as part of the Plays and Playwrights 2008 anthology. He received a 2007 New York Innovative Theatre Award for directing, a Drama-Logue Award, two Dean Goodman Choice Awards and a Judy Award for acting, and was also named one of the 15 People of the Year 2006 by nytheatre.com. He is a member of this year's 24Seven Lab, a graduate of Juilliard and of Solano College Theatre's ATP, and he will be teaching classes in playwriting and directing at the Primary Stages Einhorn School of Performing Arts (ESPA) this summer. He is one of the literary managers of Rattlestick Playwrights Theater and is the artistic director of Rising Phoenix Rep (recipient of the 2007 NYIT Caffe Cino Fellowship Award).

The workshop will take place from June 15 through August 3rd from 11am -2pm at Seventh Street Small Stage, 43 East Seventh Street between 2nd/3rd Avenues. Very limited space is available, and the cost is $250 for the full eight weeks. Call (212) 946-5198 or email RISINGphoenixrep@yahoo.com for more information or to sign up.

Founded in 1999, Rising Phoenix Repertory began by producing an ongoing reading series of new plays and has continued to add workshops, festivals, and highly praised productions of new plays. Recent productions include the acclaimed, sold-out Off-Broadway runs of SLIPPING, produced with Piece by Piece Productions and Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, and TOO MUCH MEMORY (also with Piece by Piece Productions) which transferred to the New York Theatre Workshop's Fourth Street Theatre after winning the FringeNYC award for Outstanding Play in 2008. Other recent productions include AFTERCLAP, NOBODY, BIRTHDAY and DON'T PET THE ZOOKEEPER (Seventh Street Small Stage); 365 DAYS/365 PLAYS (Jimmy's No. 43 and The Public Theater); WHAT HAPPENED WHEN (HERE Arts Center); FALL FORWARD (part of the Sitelines/River to River festival produced by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council); THE TELLING TRILOGY (including The Ride, 2006 NYIT Award Nominee - Outstanding Original Short Script: Crystal Skillman), RULES OF THE UNIVERSE (Winner, 2007 NYIT Awards for Outstanding Original Short Script: Daniel Reitz and Director: Daniel Talbott), and THREE SISTERS (Seventh Street Small Stage at Jimmy's No. 43); and GIFT t by Mark Schultz and PONIES by Mike Batistick (FringeNYC).

For more information visit online at www.RisingPhoenixRep.org.