Amios to Present FIRST DRAUGHTS, VOLUME TWO This Month

First Draughts is a developmental reading series produced by Amios, a cooperative whose mission is to build community through art.

First Draughts is dedicated to expanding four short plays, first produced at SHOTZ! (Amios' monthly short-play series) into full-lengths over the course of a six-month development process. This spring's plays will include:

Monday, April 17th, 7pm:

Fartlek, or der Froschmäusekreig, by David Haan, directed by Liz Thaler, featuring Kelly Chick, Amanda Dolan*, Zachary Eisenstat*, Dillon Heape*, Natalie Hegg*, David Jenkins, Steve Jones*, Arika Larson, Christina Liang*, Erin Mallon*, Sarah Nedwek*, and Anjili Pal.

Fartlek is an epic, hilarious tale of Canadian teenagers obsessed with a made-up sport called Knattleikr. As play unfolds, wills are tested, coalitions are formed, noses are broken, and we question what it means to grow up and make peace with ourselves, and each other.

David Haan is a gargantuan quasi-Canadian playwright and competitive speller. His plays range from one line (Quickly! To The Dirigible!, first performed at Spoke The Hub in 2010) to 42-part sagas (The President Plays, first performed in Ars Nova's ANT Fest 2013) and are all epic regardless of size. He is a regular contributor to Amios's monthly new play program, SHOTZ!, where you can often find him on the first Monday of the month. He is a graduate of Wesleyan University (2006), and the most difficult word he has spelled in competition is "uintjie" (2012).

Liz Thaler (director) is a New York-based (and born, and bred) director and playwright, and a graduate of both Wesleyan University and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. She is Artistic Director of The Fresh Fruit Festival, an annual celebration of queer arts and culture, which is about to announce its 15th season! She still directs occasionally through In Extremis Theater Company, a company that she founded and for whom she curates the Most Unkindest Cut classical reading series. She is a regular playwright and director for SHOTZ!, a monthly new-work-generating event produced by Amios. Amios also produced a reading of Liz's new play Happy, which was the first SHOTZ! play ever to be turned into a full-length. In addition to her theatre work, she recently directed the new web series Settling Up, which will air in Spring 2017. www.freshfruitfestival.com

Please also join us for the following:

Monday, April 24th:

Deliver: Letters to the Motherland from a Foreign Body, by Liz Morgan, directed by Lauren Miller

Monday, May 8th:

This Is Where You Are (a Play in 3 Parts and 3 Stories), Part One: I Never Said Hello So I'll Say Goodbye, by Justin Robert Yorio, directed by Jenna Panther

Monday, May 22nd:

Serendipity, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Quincunx, by David H Rosen, directed by Richard Aven

Subsidized studio space provided by the A.R.T./New York Creative Space Grant, supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

For more information email amiostheatre@gmail.com, go to amios.nyc, or follow AmiosNYC on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

*Actors appearing courtesy of Actors' Equity Association