Daphne Rubin-Vega Heads Cast of PATERNITY At Cherry Lane Theatre, Runs 5/18-29

The Cherry Lane Theatre (38 Commerce St. in Manhattan) will conclude the 12th annual season of its award-winning Mentor Project Series with the debut of Winter Miller's play PATERNITY, performing May 18 through May 29 in the Studio Theatre at Cherry Lane.

Written by Winter Miller, directed and mentored by award-winning playwright Craig Lucas, PATERNITY will perform May 18 at 7pm, May 19 at 7pm, May 20 at 7pm, May 21 at 7pm, May 22 at 3pm and 7pm, May 25 at 7pm, May 26 at 7pm, May 27 at 7pm, May 28 at 7pm and May 29 at 3pm and 7pm.

All performances of Mentor Project plays are open to the public. Tickets are $18 ($11 with valid student ID), and can be reserved by calling Tele-charge at 212 239 6200 or online at www.cherrylanetheatre.org.

Mentored by Craig Lucas - author of the plays "Prelude to a Kiss," "Reckless" and "The Dying Gaul," and a Tony nominee for his book of the musical " A Light in the Piazza" -- Winter Miller's chaotically funny play PATERNITY is about a woman who wants to have a baby and be a single mother, and the man who happens to love her madly and challenges her decision. In addition to mentoring Ms. Miller's play, Mr. Lucas will also direct PATERNITY. Two time Tony Award-nominee Daphne Rubin-Vega will portray Tina (the woman who wishes to become a single mother).
Joining Ms. Rubin-Vega in the cast of PATERNITY are Nathan Darrow, Ed Vassallo, Stephen Park and Rosalyn Coleman.

In addition to her Tony nominations for "Rent" and "Anna in the Tropics," Daphne Rubin-Vega has appeared on Broadway in "Les Miserables" and "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." Mr. Darrow appeared on the TV series "Civil War Stories," and Ed Vassallo appeared on "The Sopranos" and "Law and Order." Rosalyn Coleman appeared in the 2007 Mentor Project play "Topsy Turvy Mouse." Stephen Park appeared in the film FARGO, and on stage in NAATCO's "Ivanov."

Winner of an American Theatre Wing Award, a Village Voice Obie Award and the Dramatist Guild's James Kirkwood Award for fostering new work by contemporary playwrights, Cherry Lane Theatre's Mentor Project each year pairs a new writer with an established playwright for a season of script development, casting, rehearsal and world-premiere productions of their works for the stage. Mentor Project has become an important national launching pad for new writers and their plays: presently, Mentor Project playwright Sheila Callaghan's play LASCIVIOUS SOMETHING is being presented Off-Broadway in a co-production between Cherry Lane Theatre and the Women's Project, and just last year Cherry Lane presented an Off-Broadway engagement of Deidre O'Connor's critically-acclaimed play JAILBAIT at its third and newest performance space, The Cherry Pit in Greenwich Village. The plays presented previously in the 2010 Mentor Project Series are STRAY by Ruth McKee (mentored by David Henry Hwang) and THE BELLE OF BELFAST (mentored by Charles Fuller), concluding its Mentor Project run on May 8.

The design team for all PATERNITY is Kina Park and John McDermott (Set Design); Rebecca Bernstein (Costume Design); Pat Dignan (Lighting Design) and Daniel Kluger (Sound Design).

Chosen annually from scripts submitted by the Cherry Lane National Nominating Committee, and selected by the 2010 Mentor playwrights themselves, the Mentor Project fellows work one-on-one with their advisers, have private and public readings of their plays, attend workshops and receive 12 performance showcase runs at Cherry Lane Theatre (38 Commerce St. in NYC) each spring.

Previous Mentor Project playwrights whose work has been produced subsequent to their tenure at Cherry Lane: Rajiv Joseph, "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo" (Center Theater Group); David Adjmi, "Stunning" (Lincoln Center Theater 3); Katori Hall, "The Mountaintop" (London's Battersea, West End); Jakob Holder, "Bedtime Solos" (Old Red Lion Theater, England); Colin McKenna, "The Secret Agenda of Trees" (Wild Project, NYC); Allison Moore, "Slasher" (Humana Festival); Christopher Shinn and Sam Forman.

The Mentor Project continues Cherry Lane Theatre's long and rich history of presenting works by both emerging and seasoned playwrights that reveal the social consciousness of our ever-changing world. Now 83 years old, and New York's longest, continuously-running Off-Broadway theatre, Cherry Lane is known as "the birthplace of Off-Broadway," and since the 1920's has been home to such iconoclastic writers as O'Neill, Saroyan, Auden, Albee, Odets, Orton, Mamet, Lanford Wilson, and many others.

Angelina Fiordellisi is Founder and Artistic Director of Cherry Lane Theatre; James King is Executive Director.

Tickets to Mentor Project performances are $18 ($11 with valid student ID), and are available by calling TeleCharge at 212-239-6200 or visiting www.TeleCharge.com, at The Cherry Lane Theatre box office (38 Commerce Street) in New York or online at www.cherrylanetheatre.org

Photo Credit: Peter James Zielinski