Beane to Host 13P Benefit, with Parsons, Kron, Etc.

13P, the OBIE-winning collective of 13 playwrights, will present The Secret Lives of Ps at Joe's Pub, 425 Lafayette Street, for one performance only, on Sunday, April 29 at 7pm (doors open at 6pm).  The cabaret benefit will celebrate the secret lives of playwrights, including 13P and their inspirations.  It will be directed by Peter DuBois (Jack Goes Boating) and hosted by playwright Douglas Carter Beane (The Little Dog Laughed).

Performers will include Academy Award-winner Estelle Parsons, Lisa Kron (Well), James Urbaniak (Thom Pain), playwright David Grim (Measure for Pleasure), Addie Johnson and Rebecca Hart and 13P member Sheila Callaghan.

Tickets are $100.  Tickets include reserved seating at Joe's Pub and admission to a post-show reception and silent auction featuring items donated by Edward Albee, Tina Howe, David Henry Hwang, Phillip Pearlstein, Om Factory, Equinox  Tribeca, Yin & Tonic Acupuncture and tickets to The Colbert Report, The Daily Show, Soho Rep, The Public Theater, Disney World and more.  Joe's Pub menu and bar will be available. 

Prominent playwrights on the "P Committee" for the event are Edward Albee, David Auburn, Nilo Cruz, Christopher Durang, William Finn, Gina Gionfriddo, John Guare, Stephen Adly Guirgis, A.R. Gurney, Tina Howe, David Henry Hwang, Jeffrey M. Jones, Robert Lopez, Craig Lucas, Charles L. Mee, Suzan-Lori Parks, Kate Moira Ryan, John Patrick Shanley, Rachel Sheinkin, Stephen Sondheim, Alfred  Uhry, Paula Vogel, John Weidman, and Mac Wellman.

The 13P Benefit Committee includes John B. Beinecke (chair, Lincoln Center Theater), André Bishop (artistic director, Lincoln Center Theater), Blair Brown (actress), John Dias (former associate artistic director, Public Theater), Gordon Edelstein (artistic director, Long Wharf Theatre), Dasha Epstein (producer), Oskar Eustis (artistic director, Public Theater), Kathryn Grody (actress),  James Houghton (artistic director, Signature Theatre Company), Joanne Jacobson (board member, New Dramatists), Todd London (artistic director, New Dramatists), Bonnie Metzgar (producer, 365 Days/365 Plays), Rachel Neuberger (associate  producer, OSTAR Enterprises), Estelle Parsons & Peter L. Zimroth, and Joseph Rosswog (The Gersh Agency).

The evening benefits 13P's upcoming season, which will include plays by Ann Marie Healy (P#6) and Sheila Callaghan (P#7).

13P was formed in 2003 by 13 mid-career playwrights concerned about what the trend of endless readings and new play development programs is doing to the texture and ambition of new American plays.  13P realizes full productions of new plays. 

The members of 13P are Sheila Callaghan (Dead City), Erin Courtney (Demon Baby), Madeleine George (The Zero Hour), Rob Handel (Millicent Scowlworthy), Ann Marie Healy (Now That's What I Call a Storm), Julia Jarcho (The Highwayman), Young Jean Lee (Church), Winter Miller (In Darfur), Sarah Ruhl (The Clean House), Kate E. Ryan (Women of Trachis), Lucy Thurber (Stay), Anne Washburn (The Internationalist) and Gary Winter (The Lake).

Tickets are available from Joe's Pub, 212-967-7555 or online at joespub.com or www.13p.org.

Photo of Lisa Kron by Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.