DARK PLANET: Not Your Mother's Valentine's Day Comes to the 14th Street Y Theatre

"DARK PLANET: Not Your Mother's Valentine's Day" presented by Planet Connections Theatre Festivity; performing Thursdays and Fridays, February 6 - 21 at the Theater at the 14th Street Y, 344 E 14th St, New York City.

A cavalcade of acclaimed Playwrights, Directors, Actors and Friends - all Planet Connections Award Winning and Nominated artists - present an evening of varied sides of humanity - from funny to brutal. Planet Connections Artistic Director, Glory Kadigan, stated "We're living in dark times. It became clear to all of us at Planet Connections that we wanted to highlight our edgy writers exploring dark comedy. So, in February we'll present an unbridled nefarious evening of playlets we call "Dark Planet: Not Your Mother's Valentine's Day."

These plays - filled with dark comedy - include:

Three Men With Guns by Monica Bauer

Shadow Dance by Jake Brasch

Fievel Dridge, The Great Orator of Fishingstill by Erik Champney

The Second Coming by Gabrielle Fox

Wild Side by Glory Kadigan

Text Angel by Drew Larimore

A Day At The Beach by Quincy Long

Reconcile, Bitch by Desi Moreno-Penson

Playthings by Jan Rosenberg

Play With Me by Lenny Schwartz

This event will be running in rep with The Imperfect Love Song of Delilah and Venezio, a new play written and directed by Planet Connections Playwrights For A Cause writer, José Rivera.

Further casting and other details to follow.

Monica Bauer (Playwright, Three Men With Guns) Full length plays produced Off Broadway, Off-Off Broadway, regionally, and internationally. Alumna of Boston University graduate program in playwriting. Winner, Emerging Playwright Award, Urban Stages. Selected credits: Made for Each Other has been in various productions since 2009, including Edinburgh Fringe, Orlando Fringe, and Boulder Fringe Festivals; Platinum Medal, Best Solo Show Award at Hollywood Fringe 2019. Chosen Child was part of the 2014-2015 season at Boston Playwrights' Theatre, nominated for an IRNE (Independent Reviewers of New England) award for Best New Play. The Maternal Instinct, finalist for New South Writing Prize at the Brighton (UK) Fringe Festival. Anne Frank in the Gaza Strip won for Outstanding New Comedy at the Planet Connections Theater Festivity in June of 2017, and Vivian's Music, 1969 was a five-star hit at the 2018 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, followed by a run Off Broadway at 59E59 Theaters, and was Helen Hayes Award Recommended at the Anacostia Playhouse in July of 2019 in Washington, DC. Full production history, awards, and publications at www.monicabauer.com

Jake Brasch (Playwright, Shadow Dance) is a Queer Jewish Coloradan playwright, lyricist, composer, and director based in Brooklyn. Full-length works include Fish (NYU), Greenland, (Dixon Place) DELIVERANCE: A Tragedy with Prenatal Lullabies by Chuck, (Arlington Arts Collective) Wall! (DSA, Edinburgh Fringe), The Brine (Dixon Place), and Salutations, I'm Creative Dave (The Alchemical). AD for Erica Fae's Saved Again and by Him (New Ohio). The Farm Theater's Development Workshop since 2015. BFA NYU Tisch / Experimental Theatre Wing and New Studio. www.jakebrasch.com

Erik Champney (Playwright, Fievel Dridge, The Great Orator of Fishingstill) was first commissioned to write a play at the age of fifteen. His play, Sparkler, was recently introduced by three-time Tony winner Jim Kierstead and Broadway Factor, directed by Tony nominee Sheryl Kaller, and featured Tony winner Alan Cumming, Erich Bergen, Christy Altomare, and Garrett Clayton. Award winning work includes Dead Brains (National AIDS Fund/CFDA-Vogue Initiative Award for Playwriting, The Kennedy Center; Outstanding Overall Production and Outstanding Playwriting, Planet Connections; Sold Out Award, Seattle Fringe Festival), Pangaea (Commendation for Excellence, The Kennedy Center; Outstanding Playwriting, Planet Connections), and Saitama (8th Biennial One-Act Playwriting Contest, Theatre in the Raw, British Columbia). Erik is a member of the Dramatists Guild, La MaMa Umbria, and was formerly a member of Young Playwrights Inc., where he studied under John Weidman and Wendy Wasserstein. B.A.: Centenary College of Louisiana. M.F.A.: NYU. www.erikchampney.com

Gabrielle Fox (Playwright, The Second Coming) is an award-winning playwright. Most recently, her play was presented in Playwrights for a Cause 2018. She also won the award for outstanding playwriting, overall production and the Planet Activist Award in the Planet Connections Theatre Festivity. Her play The Home was presented in the La MaMa New Playwright Marathon in New York. Gabrielle teaches playwriting for Westchester Community College's Community Education Division and the Young Author's Conference. She founded the first women's playwright festival in Westchester County. She created the Theatre Revolution, LLC where local artists go global and is a proud member of The Dramatists Guild. www.gabriellefoxwrites.com www.theatrerevolution.org

Glory Kadigan (Playwright, Wild Side) Most recently, her play Till We Meet Again directed by Tony Award Winner Tonya Pinkins was presented by the 14th Street Y; When The Party's Over about people trapped on a cruise ship during the apocalypse and Uzume about an accountant who falls in love with an animal rights extremist were part of La Mama's Experiments Reading Series; Her play Other(s) following the story of a family torn apart during the 2004 Tsunami in Asia, was presented at The Esplanade Theatre in Singapore and at Dixon Place in NYC. Recently her play The House Always Wins was presented by Rising Sun Theater Company on Governors Island. She is a Planet Connections Nominee for Playwriting.

Drew Larimore (Playwright, Text Angel) Produced widely in both The United States and Australia, Drew made his Off-Broadway premiere of his new play Out of Iceland in the spring of 2012 starring Lea Delaria at Walker Space. He has been a semi-finalist at the O'Neill Theatre Conference, The Lark Playwrights' Week, the Heidman Award, the P73 Playwriting Fellowship and a writing residency at Hawthornden Castle in Scotland. His short play, The Anniversary, after receiving a world premiere in Australia and a U.S. premiere in New York, is published in Vintage Anthology's recent Shorter, Faster, Funnier. In 2015 his new play, The Cannibals of McGower Country was featured in Asolo Repertory's Unplugged Festival of New Work as well an O'Neill Finalist in 2016. Most recently, Drew was a writer-in-residence at the Studios of Key West, the Key West Literary Seminar and the Djerassi Artist Residency Program in California.

Quincy Long (Playwright, A Day At The Beach) Productions: Buried Alive, Fort Worth Opera and Fargo Moorhead Opera; People Be Heard, Playwrights Horizons; The Joy of Going Somewhere Definite, Atlantic Theatre, starring Felicity Huffman, directed by William H. Macy, and Mark Taper Forum; The Virgin Molly, Atlantic Theatre and Berkeley Rep; Shaker Heights, Atlantic Theatre; The Lively Lad, New York Stage and Film, and Actors Theatre of Louisville's Humana Festival; The Year of the Baby, Soho Rep; The Only Child, South Coast Rep. The Huntsmen, Portland Playhouse. Quincy Long's plays are published by Dramatists Play Service, Playscripts, Inc. and TCG. Current projects: Midwest Porn, a play, Ximena, an opera, and Plum Island, a television pilot. Quincy is from Warren, Ohio and lives in New York City. He is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama, an alumnus of the Composer Librettist Development Program at American Lyric Theater, and a member of the BMI Librettists Studio, New Dramatists and Ensemble Studio Theater.

Desi Moreno-Penson (Playwright, Reconcile, Bitch) Has had plays developed/produced at Ensemble Studio Theater (EST), The 14th Annual Women's Playwriting Festival (Providence, RI), SPF-Summer Play Festival, INTAR, The Downtown Urban Theater Festival (DUTF) @ the Cherry Lane, among others. She is the winner of the 2017 MultiStages New Works Contest for her play, Ominous Men. Another play, Beige, is the winner of the 2016 National Latino Playwriting Award sponsored by Arizona Theater Company, a finalist for the 2018 Bay Area Playwrights Festival (San Francisco, CA), Honorable Mention, The Kilroys List, and finalist for the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference. She won Outstanding Playwriting in the Short Form (One-Act) for Snipped/Cut/Tied: Una Noche de Magia, an evening of three short magical-realist plays produced by Step1 Theatre Project, featured as part of Planet Connections Theater Festivity 2017. MFA in Dramaturgy and Theater Criticism from Brooklyn College.

Jan Rosenberg (Playwright, Playthings) Jan was the 2018 Playwright in Residence at Stella Adler. What's Wrong with You, A Little Piece of You, How To Destroy An American Girl Doll, are Eugene O'Neill Conference semi-finalists. She is a member of PDU at The Actors Studio. Playwrights Realm Writing Fellow Finalist. Artistic collaborations include The Tank, The Cherry Lane Theater, The Lark, The Farm Theater, Stella Adler, Primary Stages, Vertigo Theater, Crashbox, and various college universities. LAByrinth Theater Intensive alum. Visit Jan Rosenberg dot com for updates! www.janrosenberg.com

Lenny Schwartz (Playwright, Play With Me) is a playwright/screenwriter from North Scituate Rhode Island who is the artistic director of the Daydream Theatre Company and Board Chairperson at the Rise Playhouse. Some of his plays include Ditko, A Seduction of the Innocent, Me Three, and The Social Avenger. Some of his produced screenplays include Long Night in a Dead City, Normal, Accidental Incest, and Higher Methods among others. He is also the writer of a graphic novel called Chazan! (due in 2020) in his spare time, Lenny works a full-time job at an undisclosed location in RI.