THE SAINTS, MECHANICS OF LOVE & More Featured in Roundabout Underground's 2015-16 Season

Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director) just announced the fourth annual Roundabout Underground Reading Series, a five-night event that includes nightly readings of new plays written and directed by emerging artists, curtain speeches by Roundabout Underground artist alumni and post-show receptions.

The plays featured in the 2015 series include: The Saints by Nathan Dame, directed by Adrienne Campbell-Holt; Mechanics Of Love by Dipika Guha, directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch; Kingdom Come by Jenny Rachel Weiner, directed by Kip Fagan; The Midnight Ride of Sean & Lucy by Amy E. Witting, directed by Daniella Topol; and Zero Feet Away by Brian Otaño, directed by Stephen Brackett.

The Roundabout Underground Reading Series is May 4 - 8 at 7:00PM at the Black Box Theatre in the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre. Tickets are FREE.

Roundabout Underground, an initiative to introduce and cultivate artists in Roundabout's 62-seat Black Box Theatre, at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre (111 West 46th Street, NYC, NY, 10036). Prior productions include the acclaimed world premieres of Stephen Karam's Speech & Debate (2007), Steven Levenson's The Language of Trees (2008), Adam Gwon's Ordinary Days (2009), Kim Rosenstock's Tigers Be Still (2010), David West Read's The Dream of the Burning Boy (2011), Andrew Hinderaker's Suicide, Incorporated (2011), Joshua Harmon's Bad Jews (2012), Meghan Kennedy's Too Much, Too Much, Too Many (2013), and Jeff Augustin's Little Children Dream of God (2015).

Roundabout Underground is an initiative to showcase new plays that will either give a debut production to an emerging writer or director or allow an experienced director to go back to his/her creative roots. Robyn Goodman (Artistic Consultant to the Roundabout) serves as Artistic Producer, with Associate Producers Jill Rafson and Josh Fiedler, for this initiative that continues to be a creative breeding ground for nurturing new talent.

The 62-seat Black Box Theatre, below the Laura Pels Theatre in the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre, allows Roundabout to take artistic risks that are better suited for a more intimate space.

THE SAINTS

By Nathan Dame, directed by Adrienne Campbell-Holt

Monday, May 4 at 7:00PM
Siblings Madison and Donald never had it easy in the foster care system, and the adult world isn't much better. Donald is in over his head with a drug dealer, while Madison has finally hit bottom with her own habit and abusive boyfriend. She is close to giving up on life altogether when she finds hope in the form of two young Mormon missionaries. And while their way of life may not be what Madison thinks she wants, she is surprised to find they might be exactly what she needs to survive.

NATHAN DAME (Playwright) has had original plays and musicals developed by The New Group, Barrow Street Theater, In Absentia Productions, and has had plays produced by The New Ensemble (with A.R.T. and Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston), Woodshed Collective, and New York Theatre Experiment. As a music director and orchestrator he has worked at Atlantic Theater Company, Playwrights Horizons, New York Theatre Workshop, Two River, Dallas Theater Center, Geva Theatre, Berkshire Theatre Group, The Civilians, TheatreWorks USA, and others. And as an actor, he has been in such productions as Dying For It (Atlantic); Our Town (Barrow Street); Three Sisters (Classical Theatre of Harlem); and on Showtime's Nurse Jackie.

ADRIENNE CAMPBELL-HOLT (Director) is the Founding Artistic Director of Colt Coeur, a Brooklyn-based theatre company. Upcoming: Laura Jacqmin's Dental Society Midwinter Meeting (Foeller Fellowship, Williamstown Theatre Festival), the world premiere of Theresa Rebeck's The Nest (Denver Theatre Company), and the world premiere of First Life (Colt Coeur @ HERE, September 2015). Recent: World Premiere of Dry Land by Ruby Rae Spiegel (workshops at New York Stage & Film and Ojai Playwright's Conference, production with Colt Coeur @ HERE, NYC), Red starring Tim Daly (Dorset Theater Festival, VT), World Premiere of Greg Moss' Reunion (South Coast Rep), World Premiere of Everything is Ours by Nikole Beckwith (Colt Coeur @ HERE), Recall (Colt Coeur @ Wild Project), Flu Season (American Conservatory Theater, SF), Fish Eye (Colt Coeur @ HERE), The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Yale), Dead Man's Cell Phone (NYU), Seven Minutes in Heaven (Emerging America Festival, Huntington Theatre Company and Colt Coeur @ HERE), Missed Connections (Ars Nova), One Child Born: The Music of Laura Nyro (Joe's Pub), and The Long Tail with Mark Leckey (Abrons Art Center/Gavin Brown Enterprise). She is a Time Warner/Women's Project Lab 2014-2016 Fellow, a recipient of a Jerome Foundation/Tofte Lake Fellowship, the EST/Sloan grant, an alum of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab, and a New Georges Affiliated Artist and Audrey Resident. BA Barnard College, Columbia University.

MECHANICS OF LOVE

By Dipika Guha, directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch

Tuesday, May 5 at 7:00PM

In a mythical European city pressed up against a communist state, it is natural that the business of beginning a new world involves forgetting the old one. But when you forget your wife to marry a ballerina with an artificial spine...and the ballerina forgets you to marry your fashionable wife...and then they both fall in love with the mechanic...suddenly, the ordinary rules of love are impossible to follow. This heightened and heartbreaking new comedy questions the laws that govern love, the physics of choosing a spouse, and the miracle of what endures.

Dipika Guha (Playwight) was born in Calcutta and raised in tea drinking countries. Her plays include I Enter The Valley (Weissberger nom '14, New Play Lab Playwrights Horizons), Mechanics Of Love (Roundabout Underground Reading Series), Blown Youth (New Georges/Barnard, published by Playscripts) and The Rules (SuperLab Playwrights Horizons/Clubbed Thumb, Joust Theatre). She is the inaugural Shakespeare's Sister Fellowship recipient, a current Playwrights Foundation Resident, a Dramatists Guild Fellow, Time Warner Fellow at the Women's Project Lab, Ars Nova Playgroup, Soho Rep Lab and Young Writers Program at the Royal Court Theatre alum. Her work has been developed at OSF, Old Vic New Voices, Fault Line Theatre, the Lark, Cutting Ball Theatre, the Flea, Hedgebrook Women's Playwriting Festival, One Coast Collaboration and the Tobacco Factory (UK) amongst others. She has been awarded residencies at the Ucross Foundation, SPACE at Ryder Farm, the Rasmuson Foundation and the Djerassi Resident Artist Program. BA: English Literature (UCL) MFA Playwriting (Yale School of Drama) under Paula Vogel. Current work in progress: Unreliable through the Soho Rep Writer Director Lab and Lifted with New Professional Theatre. Despite a long run in the north east of the United States she still drinks tea. www.dipikaguha.com

GAYLE TAYLOR UPCHURCH (Director). Off-Broadway: Nancy Harris's Our New Girl (Atlantic Theater); Laura Marks's Bethany with America Ferrera (Women's Project, Lortel nomination for Best New Play and Best Actress); Lucy Thurber's Stay (Rattlestick Theater, Obie Award for Hilltown Play Cycle); Simon Stephens's Harper Regan with Mary McCann (Atlantic Theater, NY Times Top Ten Production 2012); Simon Stephens's Bluebird with Simon Russell Beale (Atlantic Theater). Regional: world premiere of Melissa Ross's Of Good Stock (South Coast Repertory); Bethany (Old Globe, San Diego); She Loves Me (UNCSA). Her work has been seen at the Culture Project, La Mama, Juilliard and Lincoln Center Institute among others, and she has developed new work at New Dramatists, Playwrights Realm, NY Stage & Film, The Kennedy Center, Playwright's Center, LCT Director's Lab, and SPACE on Ryder Farm. She worked with Sam Mendes as his Associate Director for two years on The Bridge Project's productions of The Cherry Orchard, The Winter's Tale, Tempest, and As You Like It (BAM/Old Vic/International tour). She is an alumna of The Women's Project Directors Lab, The Drama League and North Carolina School of the Arts. Upcoming: An Iliad (Hudson Valley Shakespeare Theater).

KINGDOM COME

By Jenny Rachel Weiner, directed by Kip Fagan

Wednesday, May 6 at 7:00PM

Samantha is lonely and confined to her bed. Layne is shy and too afraid of the world to journey into it. When both women decide that online dating might be the outlet they need, they venture into the wilds of the Internet and find deep connection in each other. The only problem: they're each pretending to be someone else. What happens when the feelings are real but the people are not?

JENNY RACHEL WEINER (Playwright) is a playwright and actress based in New York City. Select plays include: diventare (KCACTF National Student Playwriting Award), The Cave Play (O'Neill Semi-Finalist), The Selfish Giant, Grow Wise (Northlight Theatre), Horse Girls (the cell, Ars Nova, Collaboraction; Chicago, Annex Theatre; Seattle; to be published by Playscripts in 2015), Nina (O'Neill Semi-Finalist 2015, Fordham/Primary Stages), jason&julia (Williamstown Theatre Festival), Aunt Sylvia Is Dead (The Collective; published in The Collective Anthology 2014) BFA: Boston University, MFA: Fordham University/Primary Stages. When Jenny isn't writing plays, you can catch her directing and performing with NYC/LA based theatre company Story Pirates.

KIP FAGAN (Director) most recently directed Erin Courtney's I Will Be Gone at the Humana Festival in Louisville and Heidi Schreck's Grand Concourse at Playwrights Horizons in NYC. He is Artistic Associate at Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre where he has directed Jesse Eisenberg's The Revisionist (starring Eisenberg and Vanessa Redgrave), Halley Feiffer's How to Make Friends and Then Kill Them, Eisenberg's Asuncion, Heidi Schreck's There Are No More Big Secrets, and Sheila Callaghan's That Pretty Pretty; or, The Rape Play. Other NYC credits include: Carlos Murillo's A Thick Description of Harry Smith and Sam Hunter's Jack's Precious Moment (Page 73); Reggie Watts and Tommy Smith's Radio Play (P.S. 122); Ariel Stess's I'm Pretty Fucked Up, Sheila Callaghan's Roadkill Confidential, and Rachel Hoeffel's Quail (Clubbed Thumb); Zayd Dohrn's Reborning and Cory Hinkle's Cipher (SPF); Sheila Callaghan's Recess and Christopher Durang's Not a Creature Was Stirring (The Flea); Greg Keller's The Young Left (Cherry Lane); Sam Marks's Nelson (Partial Comfort). Regional credits include: Alliance Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Humana Festival, George Street Playhouse, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Portland Center Stage, Marin Theatre Company, and City Theatre, among others. Upcoming: Sheila Callaghan's Women Laughing Alone With Salad at Woolly Mammoth. Co-founder of Printer's Devil in Seattle; affiliated artist at Clubbed Thumb.

THE MIDNIGHT RIDE OF SEAN & LUCY

By Amy E. Witting, directed by Daniella Topol

Thursday, May 7 at 7:00PM

Most one-night stands end with a walk of shame. This one ends with a lockdown. Last night, Boston-dwellers Sean and Lucy drank their sorrows away together after the bombing of the marathon put the city on edge. They never expected to see each other again, let alone get stuck in Sean's kitchen making small talk while police search for the suspects outside. A couple of strangers and a very strange circumstance make for a surreal morning that the pair will never forget.

AMY E. WITTING's (Playwright) work has been seen at the Kennedy Center ACTF/NNPN MFA Playwrights Workshop (Day 392, 2014), Cabrini Rep (victor, Winner 2013 Thespis Festival), Frigid Festival (36 Hours, 2013), NY International Fringe Festival (Falling, 2012), Edinburg Festival Fringe (G.I. Joe Jared, 2011), 59E59 (G.I. Joe Jared, 2011) The Sam French Festival (Create Me Pegasus, Finalist 2011), and The Cherry Pit (Classic 8, 2010). She received a 2014 Anne Friedman Production Grant for Road Veins, and a 2015 Inaugural LAUNCH Commission from Atlantic Theatre Company. She is a proud member of The Dramatists Guild of America, and received her MFA at Hunter College.

DANIELLA TOPOL (Director). Daniella Topol's recent New York productions include: Cori Thomas' When January Feels Like Summer (Ensemble Studio Theatre/P73/Women's Proj; NY Times Critics' Pick); Jessica Dickey's Charles Ives Take Me Home (Rattlestick) and Row After Row (Women's Project); Catherine Treischmann's How the World Began (Women's Project); Sheila Callaghan's Dead City (New Georges); and Lloyd Suh's Jesus in India (MaYi/Magic). Regional: Rachel Bonds' Five Mile Lake (South Coast Rep); Tony Meneses' Guadalupe in the Guest Room (Two River); Rajiv Joseph's Monster at the Door (Alley Theatre); Willy Holtzman's The Morini Strad (City Theatre); and Janet Allard and Niko Tsakalakos' Pool Boy (Barrington Stage Company). NYTW Usual Suspect, Member of Ensemble Studio Theatre, Women's Project, and Lark Board of Trustees and Artistic Cabinet. Upcoming: Martyna Majok's Ironbound (RoundHouse Theatre; Rattlestick/Women's Project); and Mary Jo Salter and Fred Hersch's Rooms of Light (Peak Performances); Anna Ziegler and Matt Schatz's The Battle of Lenny Ross (Ensemble Studio Theatre's Marathon of New Plays).

ZERO FEET AWAY

By Brian Otaño, directed by Stephen Brackett

Friday, May 8 at 7:00PM

Max and Peter are models of 21st century urban coupledom: independent, successful, and not completely sold on monogamy. Their friends Clark and Glenn have been in an open relationship for years, but Max and Peter are only now coming around to the idea that the best combination of sex, intimacy, and love may come from more than one partner. Enter Fever, an uber-critical, eerily prescient mobile dating app that changes their relationship in a matter of phone taps. When Max and Clark are offered a major career opportunity in Texas, the two couples must decide whether their professional and romantic relationships can withstand the trials of distance. A contemporary love story about fidelity, maturity, and the masochism of online dating, Zero Feet Away explores whether the direction of progress is best guided by endless choice or singular commitment.

BRIAN OTAÑO (Playwright) grew up in Brooklyn, NY. His plays include The Ocean at Your Door, What We Told the Neighbors, Between the Sandbar and the Shore and Zero Feet Away. Brian's numerous short plays have been performed at Ars Nova, INTAR, Manhattan Theater Source, Cakeshop and Theatre 3. His work has been developed and workshopped with New Dramatists, Ars Nova, Atlantic Theater Company, LARK Play Development Center, The Attic Theater Company, Judson Memorial Church and Space on Ryder Farm. Residencies/Fellowships: New York Theater Workshop 2050 Fellowship, New Dramatists Van Lier Fellow, ArsNova's Playgroup. Education: BFA, Dramatic Writing (SUNY Purchase).

STEPHEN BRACKETT (Director) is a New York City based director of new plays and musicals. Credits include: Jonathan Tolins' Buyer & Cellar (Rattlestick and Barrow Street Theaters/National Tour/London's Menier Chocolate Factory), Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief (Theatreworks USA), David West Read's The Great Pretender (TheatreWorks), Lucas Kavner's Carnival Kids (Lesser America), Ken Urban's The Correspondent (Rattlestick), Dan Fishback's The Material World (Dixon Place), Micheline Auger's American River (Lesser America), Bekah Brunstetter's Nothing is the End of the World (Waterwell/PPAS), Chad Beckim's After (Partial Comfort), Brunstetter's Be A Good Little Widow (Ars Nova), The Tenant (Woodshed Collective), Rick Viede's Whore (Summer Play Festival), Bixby Elliot's PN1923.45LS01 Volume 2 (Culture Project) and Kilroy Was Here: A Styx Rock Opera (Williamstown Theatre Festival). Stephen is a company member of Lesser America and Partial Comfort, and an alumnus of the Soho Rep Lab.

The Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre opened in March 2004 with an acclaimed premiere of Lynn Nottage's Intimate Apparel starring Viola Davis, directed by Dan Sullivan. In the ten years since that landmark production, the center has expanded beyond the Laura Pels Theatre to include the Black Box Theatre and now a new education center. The Steinberg Center continues to reflect Roundabout's commitment to produce new works by established and emerging writers as well as revivals of classic plays. This state-of-the-art off-Broadway theatre and education complex is made possible by a major gift from The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust. The Trust was created in 1986 by Harold Steinberg to promote and advance American Theatre as a vital part of our culture by supporting playwrights, encouraging the development and production of new work, and providing financial assistance to not-for-profit theatre companies across the country. Since its inception, the Trust has awarded over $70 million to more than 125 theatre organizations.

Roundabout Underground's home is a 62-seat Black Box Theatre, which is also used year-round by Roundabout's education department for its activities including student productions and professional development workshops.

Roundabout Theatre Company is committed to producing the highest quality theatre with the finest artists, sharing stories that endure, and providing accessibility to all audiences. A not-for-profit company, Roundabout fulfills its mission each season through the production of classic plays and musicals; development and production of new works by established and emerging writers; educational initiatives that enrich the lives of children and adults; and a subscription model and audience outreach programs that cultivate and engage all audiences.

Roundabout Theatre Company presents a variety of plays, musicals, and new works on its five stages, each of which is specifically designed to enhance the needs of Roundabout's mission. Off-Broadway, the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre, which houses the Laura Pels Theatre and Black Box Theatre, with its simple sophisticated design, is perfectly suited to showcasing new plays. The grandeur of its Broadway home on 42nd Street, American Airlines Theatre, sets the ideal stage for the classics. Roundabout's Studio 54 provides an exciting and intimate Broadway venue for its musical and special event productions. The Stephen Sondheim Theatre offers a state of the art LEED certified Broadway theatre in which to stage major large-scale musical revivals. Together these distinctive homes serve to enhance Roundabout's work on each of its stages.

American Airlines is the official airline of Roundabout Theatre Company. Roundabout productions are supported, in part, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Roundabout's 2014-2015 season includes Coleman, Comden & Green's On The Twentieth Century starring Kristin Chenoweth and Peter Gallagher, directed by Scott Ellis; and the world premiere of Joshua Harmon's Significant Other, directed by Trip Cullman.

Roundabout's 50th anniversary season in 2015-2016 includes: Clive Owen stars in Old Times by Harold Pinter, directed by Douglas Hodge; Andrea Martin stars in Noises Off by Michael Frayn, directed by Jeremy Herrin; The Humans by Stephen Karam, directed by Joe Mantello; Keira Knightley in her Broadway debut in a new adaptation of Thérèse Raquin by Helen Edmundson, based upon the novel by Émile Zola, directed by Evan Cabnet; and Joe Masteroff, Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock's She Loves Me, starring Laura Benanti and Josh Radnor, directed by Scott Ellis. The 2015-2016 Roundabout Underground production is Ugly Lies the Bone, a new play by Lindsey Ferrentino, directed by Patricia McGregor.

www.roundabouttheatre.org

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