Daphne Rubin-Vega Joins Cast of Aaron Grant Theatrical's YOU'RE REALLY NOT HELPING Reading, 7/29

Daphne Rubin-Vega is joining the previously announced cast of the reading of "You're Really Not Helping," the second of three plays producer Aaron Grant is presenting this summer, as part of a new developmental reading series. Erik Shapiro's new sharp-edged comedy, which directed by Jeremy Scott Blaustein, also features Stacie Bono, Max Crumm, Ashton Foster, Aaron Simon Gross, Ari Benjamin Hirsch, Guy Lemonnier, Catherine Russel, Stewart Schneck, and Kevin Spirtas. The reading takes place in midtown on Monday July 29, at 2pm.

In "You're Really Not Helping," a comedy inspired by true events, powerhouse real estate executive Rod Landy (played by Spirtas) refuses to take life sitting down, which is tough since an encounter with a tree on a ski vacation has left this type-A control freak paralyzed from the waist down. Rubin-Vega plays Landy's business nemesis, the hotshot realtor Fern Pollack.

Of this in-your-face comedy Grant says, "This is a comedy that's clearly written from the heart. There's something very important about its message, and it's something I don't ever recall seeing on stage before."

This reading (and 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.

The third play in the series, Alex Rubin's dark romance "First Love," directed by Andy Sandberg, will be seen on Monday August 19. Co-produced with Big Vision Empty Wallet, Rubin's "First Love" follows a pair of high school sweethearts as they build a life together, only to have the seed of their romance become their undoing.

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.

"The approach to each show is different," says Grant, who opened Aaron Grant Theatrical, Inc. in January. "I want this to be an annual series, a new play incubator, where artists can hear their work out loud and discover what works and what doesn't work. You can only develop a show in a vacuum for so long."

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / Retna Ltd.