Bryan Fenkart and Gerard Canonico to Star in Reading of Richard Vetere's New Play THE WALL This Sunday

Claudia Feldstein will direct a developmental reading of Richard Vetere's new play THE WALL on Sunday, August 23 at 3PM in Midtown Manhattan.

In THE WALL, a study in the dark impulses of young romance, Bryan Fenkart and Gerard Canonico play brothers who must navigate the intense extremes of love and manipulation with the most important women in their lives: their mother and the girl next door (played by Shorey Walker and Kasie Gasparini, respectively).

Richard Vetere's first feature film Vigilante was just named by BAM as "one of the best indie films of the 1980's" and will have a special screening at BAM on July 30th. His new play Lady Macbeth and Her Lover will be produced in this year's NYC International Fringe Festival. His play One Shot, One Kill, produced in 2002 at Primary Stages, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. His stage play Caravaggio was produced to rave reviews in Chicago at the Silk Crossing Theater in 2006 where he was a guest of the Chicago Humanities Festival and his play Machiavelli was produced to rave reviews Off-Broadway at the Archlight Theater also in 2006. His critically acclaimed debut novel The Third Miracle (Simon & Schuster) was produced as a film and Mr. Vetere co-wrote the screenplay adaptation starring Ed Harris, produced by Francis Ford Coppola, directed by Agnieszka Holland released by Sony Picture Classics. It made its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in 1999 and screened at MOMA in 2007. He wrote the adaptation of his stage play The Marriage Fool where it was produced by CBS TV Films in 1999 starring Walter Matthau and Carol Brunett and was the most watched TV movie ever and he wrote the teleplay adaptation of his stage play Hale The Hero! starring Elisabeth Shue for The General Motors Playwrights Theater on A&E which garnered wonderful reviews. He also wrote the screenplay adaptation of his own play of the same title for the movie How to Go Out on a Date in Queens starring Jason Alexander. His latest novel is The Writers Afterlife (Three Rooms Press 2014) which was given a rave review in Publishers Weekly and his latest book of poetry is The Other Colors in a Snow Storm (Brodighera Press 2012). His new novel Champagne and Cocaine will be released by Three Rooms Press in 2016. He has over twenty-plays published by Dramatic Publishing include Gangster Apparel, The Vows of Penelope Corelli, and his children's play Bird Brain. Richard has written TV series work for ABC and CBS and has written TV pilots for George Clooney, Warner Brothers and Disney and has written feature films for Paramount, New Line Cinema and Universal. In 2010 he was made a Lifetime Member of the Writers Guild of America East and in 2012 he was elected to the WGA East Council for a two year term and recently nominated again this year. Mr. Vetere has a master's in Comparative English Literature from Columbia University. He teaches screenwriting at Queens College and was born and raised and still lives in NYC.

Claudia Feldstein most recently directed a production for the H.B. Playwrights Short Play Festival. She has been an teaching acting at Queens College for over 20 years where along with teaching, she enjoys directing student productions. As an actress some of Ms Feldstein's NY and regional credits include: Manhattan Theater Club, Primary Stages, The Minetta Lane Theater, Century Center for the Performing Arts, The Alley Theater, Actors Theater of Louisville, Berkshire Theater Festival, Yale Repertory Theater, American Contemporary Theater Festival, Fulton Opera House, The Hudson Guild Theater, Here cultural Arts Center and John Housman's The Acting Company. T.V.: All My Children, One life to Live, The Guiding light, Late Night with Conan O'Brian, H.B.O.'s Hardcore T.V. , Deadline, Showtime's The Hoop Life, All the Law and Orders, Louie and The Mysteries of Laura. Claudia is a graduate of The Yale School of Drama.

This reading of THE WALL is produced as part of the 2015 AGT SUMMER READING SERIES.

Producer Aaron Grant describes the AGT SUMMER READING SERIES as "a new play incubator where artists can hear their work out loud and discover what works and what doesn't work."

- The first in the series, MOONLIGHT & LOVE SONGS, a most unexpected love story about lovers of culture, by Scott C. Sickles, was read on July 26.

- THE WAYWARD BUNNY, a psycho-drama by Greg Kotis was presented on July 30.

- THE WALL, a study in the dark impulses of young romance, by Richard Vetere will get its first ever public reading on August 23.

The series, cast entirely by Daryl Eisenberg Casting, is meant to foster new works by matching directors and casts with new plays at different stages of the development process.

"I love working on new pieces," says Grant. "This year's slate of shows for the AGT Summer Reading series all explore the extremes people will endure to fill self perceived holes in their lives."

Colin Hanlon directed Scott C. Sickles' MOONLIGHT & LOVE SONGS in which Harry Wallace, a lonely middle aged architect meets and falls in love with Jim Bennet, a vibrant young college student. Harry sees his dreams come true until a shocking revelation about Jim causes their seemingly perfect motion picture romance to implode.

In THE WAYWARD BUNNY by Greg Kotis, a young boy runs away and his father must search his own hometown to find him. Srda Vasiljevic directed.

All readings in the series are open to the public. RSVP by e-mailing SummerReadings@theatrical.ag. Due to limited capacity, there will be no admittance without written confirmation.

Photo Credit: Jennifer Broski