The Playwrights Realm Announces 2009-2010 Pipeline Reading Series

PIPELINE READING SERIES- STRANGE LOOP - Sunday, November 8th

Beginning Sunday, November 8th at 7:00pm at ART New York's Bruce Mitchell Room (520 8th Avenue, 3rd floor) The Playwrights Realm will kick off the "Pipeline Reading Series" - a series of staged readings of new works by emerging artists - with STRANGE LOOP, a new musical by Michael R. Jackson, directed by Maria Goyanes.

By day, Usher is a young, black, gay songwriter in search of his dream. By night, Usher is, well, an usher, in search of his dignity. The new musical STRANGE LOOP follows his struggle to be heard in a world of entitled Broadway theatergoers, M4M Craigslist ads, his beloved Liz Phair, and one Lord-have-mercy of a mother and father. The reading of STRANGE LOOP features a cast which includes Chad Goodridge (last seen on Broadway in the Tony Award-winning musical PASSING STRANGE), Molly Hager, cabaret showstopper Lorinda Lisitza, John Andrew Morrison, Lucas Near-Verbrugghe (The Public's BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON, and Baron Vaughn (last seen on Broadway in DROWNING CROW).

Michael R. Jackson holds a BFA in playwriting from the NYU Tisch School of the Arts' Dramatic Writing Program and an MFA in Musical Theatre Writing from the Tisch School's Musical Theatre Writing Program where he was the recipient of the Yip Harburg Scholarship for lyricists. His work has been performed at the Developing Artists' Theatre Company, the New Professional Theatre, Dixon Place, the Henry Street Settlement and the Flea Theatre. He previously presented an evening of songs entitled "Michael R. Jackson: Believe It Or Not" at The Barrington Stage Company and more recently at The Laurie Beechman Theater. His musical ONLY CHILDREN, with composer Rachel Peters completed a sold-out run at NYU, courtesy of the Tisch School of the Arts Undergraduate Drama Department at NYU. Michael's songs have also been presented at Ars Nova as part of the "Uncharted" series in an evening entitled "Michael R. Jackson: Dirty Laundry." He recently made his Joe's Pub debut with an extended version of that evening entitled "Dirty Laundry 2.0: The Songs of Michael R. Jackson."

TIGERS BE STILL - Sunday, December 13th

The December, 2009 "Pipeline" reading will be Kim Rosenstock's new play TIGERS BE STILL on Sunday, December 13 at 7:00pm at ART New York's Bruce Mitchell Room (520 8th Avenue, 3rd floor).

Grace is having one helluva day - a Tiger is on the loose in the city, her depressed sister won't stop watching "Top Gun," and her art therapy job hinges on a house made of popsicle sticks and a boy obsessed with his dead mother's shoes. Will Grace pull it together in time to help the people in her life and save her job?

Kim Rosenstock is currently studying playwriting with Paula Vogel at the Yale School of Drama where she is the recipient of the Eugene O'Neill Memorial Scholarship. This past summer her play 99 WAYS TO F*CK A SWAN was workshopped at Portland Center Stage's JAW Playwrights Festival. Her work has also been developed by The Kennedy Center, Ars Nova, The Old Vic in association with The Public Theater, and New York Stage &Film. From 2005-2007 she was Associate Producer of Ars Nova in New York City where she developed and produced new works of music, comedy and theater. She recently served as the Artistic Director of the 2009 Yale Summer Cabaret, producing several shows including a new indie rock musical, FLY-BY-NIGHT, which she conceived and co-wrote. She has a BA in English from Amherst College where she first began writing plays under the mentorship of Constance Congdon. She is originally from Baldwin, Long Island.

CRANE STORY - Saturday, January 16th