Keen Teens to Audition High Schoolers for 2 New Plays

Keen Company and Playscripts, Inc., a leading publishing and licensing house of new plays, have announced a new partnership to launch the education program Keen Teens.

Led by Keen Company Artistic Associate Blake Lawrence, this unique program combines both production and publication for two new plays per year from professional playwrights written for high school students.  Keen Company will produce the world premieres, which will be cast from New York City-area teens and directed and designed by theater professionals, giving students the opportunity to work in a professional Off Broadway setting on Theatre Row. Playscripts will
publish the plays and make them available to all groups interested in licensing the play for production.

This year's commissions are from playwrights Anton Dudley and Winter Miller.

Dudley's Circumvention is structured loosely after Schnitzler's La Ronde, and is the story of a young woman's hope of traveling the world without ever leaving her home.

In Conspicuous, Winter Miller weaves stories of adoptees, adoptive parents, pregnant teens, and others to explore what constitutes a  loving home.

A number of Dudley's plays - including Getting Home, Slag Heap, Honor and the River and Davy & Stu - have been presented Off-Broadway.  A member of the Obie-winning 13Playwrights, Miller's other works include The Penetration Play, Cake and Ice Cream, and Greetings from Vietnam, Wish You Were Here.

Auditions for high school students take place on Wednesday, February 7 and Thursday, February 8 from 3:30 – 6 PM at One on One Studios (126 West 23rd Street, between 6th and 7th Avenues, 4th floor  Skylight Studios).  The auditions are open to any students in grades 9 – 12 who are able to travel into midtown Manhattan for rehearsals (every Wednesday over a 12 week period) and performances.  Interested students should prepare a short monologue (no longer than one-and-a- half minutes) and bring a photo.  For those seeking an audition monologue, visit Keen Company's website at www.keencompany.org for material.

Students will then begin a once-a-week rehearsal process for 12  weeks, culminating in 4 performances from Thursday, May 17 – Sunday, May 20 at the Theatre Row Studio Theatre (410 West 42nd Street, between 9th and 10th Avenues).

For more information about Keen Teens, please visit  www.keencompany.org or www.playscripts.com.