Full Casting Set for PLAYWRIGHTS FOR A CAUSE at NYTW This Weekend

Final casting has been set for the 2015 Planet Connections Theatre Festivity's Playwrights For A Cause, set to take place at 7:30pm on Sunday, June 14, 2015 at New York Theatre Workshop, 79 East 4th Street, on Sunday, June 14 at 7:30 pm. The evening, which will benefit the non-profit National Coalition Against Censorship, will showcase world premiere one-act plays by three acclaimed playwrights: Israel Horovitz's Breaking Phillip Glass and Erik Ehn's Her Speech, both directed by Planet Connections Theatre Festivity founder and PFAC Producing Artistic Curator Glory Kadigan, and Halley Feiffer's A Play About New Mexico, directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch.

This year's performers include David Deblinger (co-founder, LAByrinth Theatre Company); Lucy DeVito (TV: Girls, Deadbeat, Alpha House); Lori Kee (Resident Director, Nylon Fusion Theatre Company); Kelly McAndrew (currently in Men in Boats for Clubbed Thumb Summerworks); Imran Sheikh (Hit and Match - Planet Connections Award Nominee - Outstanding Actor; Price for Freedom); Donna Vivino (Wicked on Broadway (Elphaba), Fame Becomes Me opposite Martin Short); and John William Watkins (Punchdrunk's Sleep No More).

The performances will be followed by a talkback with NCAC and all four playwrights. Speakers include this season's Planet Connections playwrights Cecilia Copeland, Kaela Mei-Shing Garvin, Michael Hagins, and Mark Jason Williams, regarding their work as artists and the importance of art as a tool for social justice. The event will be emceed by Planet Connections Literary Manager David Stallings and Planet Connections Music Festival Director Candice Fortin. The event concludes with an Opening Night Party which will also celebrate the 2015 Planet Connections Theatre Festivity, which begins June 15.

As previously announced, the Playwrights For A Cause creative team this year includes: Robin Carus (Casting Director), Aaron Gonzalez (Media/Video Design), Rachel Jacquin (Assistant Stage Manager & Rehearsal Stage Manager for A Play About New Mexico and Breaking Philip Glass), Jenna R. Lazar (Production Stage Manager), Dee Dee Katchen (Assistant Producer), Cheryl McCarron (Costume Design), Jacob Subotnick (Sound Design), Susan Tenney (Assistant Director/Rehearsal Stage Manager - Her Speech), Bradley Wehrle (Scenic Design), Christopher Weston (Lighting Design), and Tyler Winthrop (Assistant to the Producers).

All proceeds from ticket sales for Playwrights for a Cause will benefit The National Coalition Against Censorship, a non-profit advocacy organization, whose mission is to promote freedom of thought, inquiry and expression and oppose censorship in all its forms. The Coalition formed in response to the 1973 Supreme Court decision in Miller v. California, which narrowed First Amendment protections for sexual expression and opened the door to obscenity prosecutions. Over 40 years, as an alliance of more than 50 national non-profits, including literary, artistic, religious, educational, professional, labor, and civil liberties groups, The Coalition has engaged in direct advocacy and education to support First Amendment principles. The Coalition is unique in that they are national in scope, but often local in approach, and works with community members to resolve censorship controversies without the need for litigation. www.ncac.org

Tickets for Playwrights for a Cause range from $35 to $100, and are available at planetconnections.org or by calling OvationTix at 866-811-4111.

David Deblinger (Paul - Breaking Philip Glass) is a co-founder of LAByrinth Theatre Company. In New York he has appeared at LAByrinth, TFANA, Manhattan Theatre Club, Project Y Theatre, and The Public Theatre; regionally at Williamstown Theatre Festival, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, The Old Globe, Capital Rep, and San Francisco Playhouse. On television he has appeared on Blue Bloods, Broad City, The Sopranos, Sex And The City, Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU, Damages, Happyish. Films include Remember Me, Kiss Me Guido, A Price Above Rubies, Clubland, Kicked in the Head, The Intern, The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby, and James White.

Lucy DeVito (Teresa - A Play About New Mexico) Theatre: Love, Loss, and What I Wore, by Nora and Delia Ephron (Off-Broadway & Geffen Playhouse), Kentucky and The Bird & The Two Ton Weight (Youngblood), Lucy (Ensemble Studio Theatre), The Electric Baby (Two River Theater) TV: Series Regular on Hulu's Deadbeat, Girls, Melissa & Joey, Alpha House. Film: Leaves of Grass with Edward Norton, A Quiet Little Marriage.

Raissa Dorff (Reporter - Breaking Philip Glass) Planet Connections Outstanding Actress Nominee for Oil by Marco Calvani. National Tours: In the Mood and Mame. Theatre: Venus Flytrap, Two Rooms (The Active Theatre). TV/Film: Blue Bloods, School Spirits, It's Complicated.

Lori Kee (Reporter/Woman on Bus/Puppeteer - Her Speech) is an award winning actress and director. Planet Connections director credits include Melissa Skirball's Blizzard (2015), Bricken Sparacino's Vacation... (2014) and John Patrick Shanley's Tennessee (2013 PFAC). She is an actor-member and Resident Director for Nylon Fusion Theatre Company. www.lorikee.com

Abraham Makany (Said - Breaking Philip Glass) Works in theater include Kandahar to Canada (Ensemble Studio Theater), Job (The Flea Theater), and the Obie Award winning production of The Brig (The Living Theater). TV credits include Homeland, Happyish (Showtime), Person of Interest (CBS), The Americans (FX). Born in Houston, TX, he is a graduate of Rutgers University B.F.A. Actor Training Program.

Kelly McAndrew (Adele - A Play About New Mexico) Kelly is currently performing in Men in Boats for Clubbed Thumb Summerworks. Recent NY credits include: Abundance (TACT), Almost, Maine (Transport Group) and Good Television (Atlantic Theatre Company). Broadway: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Maggie The Cat). Off-Broadway: Still Life (MCC), Book of Days (Signature Theatre). Recent regional credits include: Other Desert Cities (The Guthrie) and August: Osage County (The Old Globe). TV: Orange is the New Black, Smash, Law & Order Film: When the Moon Was Twice as Big (now filming), Appropriate Behavior (Sundance 2014), In the Family (2011 SPIRIT nomination).

Stacey Karen Robinson (Dalia - Her Speech) Stacey is an actress and writer. Theatre credits include the upcoming: (The Fizzles) JACK, and appearances at HERE, PS 122, and Perseverance Theatre. Performances of her solo show, Quiet Frenzy, include: JACK, the Wild Project and Dixon Place. Quiet Frenzy is published in solo/black/woman (Northwestern University Press, 2013). She has also appeared in numerous NY workshops and staged readings, including performances with Rising Circle, New Georges, the Classical Theatre of Harlem, New Dramatists, INTAR, the Public Theater, the Women's Project and the Lark. She studied in the Actor Training Program of the Juilliard School and received a BA from Brown University in Afro-American Studies.

Imran Sheikh (Abu - Breaking Philip Glass) Theatre: Hit and Match (Planet Connections Award Nominee - Outstanding Actor), Invisible Hand (ACT/Artists Rep), Carousel of Progress (Queens Theatre), Disconnect (San Jose Rep), Radio Mara Mara (FringeNYC), Chaos Theory (Crossroads Theatre Co), Empress of Sex (PCTF - Bleecker Street Theatre, directed by Glory Kadigan). Television: Guy Code (MTV, MTV2). Film: R & J (Ready Set Go), Ovum (Oocyte), Price for Freedom.

Donna Vivino (Tricia - Breaking Philip Glass) Broadway/NYC Theatre credits include: Wicked (Elphaba), Fame Becomes Me (opposite Martin Short), Hairspray, Saturday Night Fever, Les Miserables, Stars of David, Six Passionate Women. Film and TV credits include: The Sopranos, Hometown, Everyday People, Married To It, My Sassy Girl, and the hit webseries Submissions Only (Serena Maxwell). She will be seen in the upcoming films Good Friday (Emily) and Subject. Her debut solo album Beautiful Dreamer is on iTunes and Amazon and debuted in the Top 5 of the iTunes Jazz charts. Donna is also a graduate of Columbia University and teaches many master classes and workshops in and around the tri-state area. For more info go to www.donnavivino.com.

John William Watkins (Driver/Police Officer/Voice - Her Speech) Theater credits include: Sleep No More (Punchdrunk), Jack (terraNOVA), The Threepenny Opera (Atlantic Theater Company), As You Like It, The Merchant of Venice and The Lonesome West (Riverside Theatre). Film: Son of a Hundred Maniacs, Blushing, Carbon, Red, and Flytrap.

Speakers:

Cecilia Copeland (Featured Speaker) is the Founding Artistic Director of NYMadness. Light of Night (Kilroy's Nominee IATI Theatre, Venus Theatre, Best of Plays and Playwrights 2015), Amusement Bomber (Metro Screen Australia). Plays presented at Cherry Lane, EST, HERE Arts Center, Anarchist Theatre Festival Montreal, IRT Theater, terraNOVA. Indie Theater Hall of Fame, League of Professional Theatre Women. Atlantis Unearthed to be presented at Planet Connections 2015.

Candice Fortin (Emcee) worked as an acting intern for Planet Connections Theater Festivity in 2010. Shortly afterwards, she began working as an Associate Producer, Producer, Art Support and Asst. Director. Candice started working as a manager and began curating, promoting, and booking music events for artists at venues such as Webster Hall and Mercury Lounge. She currently curates a live music industry showcase in NYC called theBRINK which has residency at McCarren Hotel and the Donna Cocktail Club. Candice currently serves as Planet Connections Music Festival Director.

Kaela Mei-Shing Garvin (Featured Speaker) is a Brooklyn-based writer/performer, founding member of UndiscoveredCountries (independent residency of live work), and co-creator of 2 Girls | 1 Asian, a web series about biracial women in the arts. She recently assisted on Young Jean Lee's Straight White Men and Kaela's play Corners Grove will appear in PCTF 2015. www.kaelameishinggarvin.com

Michael Hagins (Featured Speaker) is a playwright and director working with Planet Connections for the third year with the show The Long Rail North. His previous works were the award-winning productions of Hit and Match and The Quest of the Hero. Twitter: @CAGETheatreCo and Facebook: www.facebook.com/CAGETheatre.

David Stallings (Emcee) most recently was the recipient of the 2014 New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Original Full Length Play for Dark Water. His play, The Baby Monitor, was a 2014 finalist for the National New Play Network. He has served as the Founding Artistic Director for Manhattan Theatre Works since 2006, and currently serves as the Literary Manager for Planet Connections and Staged Readings Co-ordinator. He has presented with Planet Connections as an actor and writer for the last four seasons.

Mark Jason Williams (Featured Speaker) is a playwright and essayist whose work has been produced in New York, Chicago, Minneapolis and Washington D.C., and published by Salon, Out, and Jezebel. He is a three-time recipient of Planet Connections' Outstanding Playwriting Award. BFA in Dramatic Writing, NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. markjasonwilliams.com

Planet Connections Theatre Festivity is New York's premiere socially-conscious theatre, music and film festival. The entire festival is aligned to help artist shine a light on the issues facing our society and support the organizations working to make a difference. The 2015 Theatre Festivity will run from June 15-July 12 at the Paradise Factory (located at 64 East 4th Street between the Bowery and 2nd Avenue), and will also play host to special events at various locations in New York City's East Village. The full lineup for the Festivity will be announced shortly. For more information on Planet Connections visit: planetconnections.org.