Ken Rus Schmoll Directs THE FAMISHED Reading Today, 11/16

Off-Broadway's Page 73 Productions – a company dedicated to producing and developing works by early-career playwrights – will present readings of their 2012 P73 Playwriting Fellow Max Posner's play THE FAMISHED today, November 16 at 2pm and 7pm at Manhattan Theatre Club's Creative Center (311 West 43rd Street, 8th Fl). OBIE Award winner Ken Rus Schmoll (TELEPHONE, A MAP OF VIRTUE) will direct.

The readings are free and open to the public, with extremely limited seating, please email info@page73.org to inquire about availability.

In THE FAMISHED, anxiety floods the office as the Boss Man dictates layoffs and the break-room fridge overflows with leftovers of workers long gone. Rodney hangs himself in his office and Jefferson won't leave the break room; Ryan's avoiding his pregnant wife, and Rebecca's surrounded by idiots. A comedy with sharp edges about fractured friendships and broken jobs, and all the nightmares, bedbugs, and hunger pangs that infest our workdays.

The cast of the reading of THE FAMISHED will feature: Brooke Bloom (Barrymore Award-winner for BECKY SHAW, "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close"), Steven Boyer (HAND TO GOD, MODERN TERRORISM, OR THEY WHO WANT TO KILL US AND HOW WE LEARN TO LOVE THEM), Crystal Finn (BECOMING Liv Ullmann), William Jackson Harper (MODERN TERRORISM, OR THEY WHO WANT TO KILL US AND HOW WE LEARN TO LOVE THEM, A COOL DIP IN THE BARREN SAHARAN CRICK), and Paul Niebanck (RX, BLOOD AND GIFTS). Additionally, the reading of THE FAMISHED will feature a silent chorus featuring: Chris Herbie Holland, Richard O'Brien, Sarah Shaefer, and Rebecca Burton.

Earlier this year Page 73 Productions presented readings of Mr. Posner's SNORE directed by Trip Cullman and THE THING ABOUT AIR TRAVEL, directed by Kerry Whigham.

Max Posner is the 2012 P73 Playwriting Fellow. His plays include THE THING ABOUT AIR TRAVEL, THE FAMISHED, THE WAR ON SAFETY (published by Playscripts), YOU ME + THE SPIDERS, and SNORE and have been staged and developed at Page 73, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Colt Coeur, The Hangar Theatre, Curious Theatre Company, The Blank Theatre, Young Playwrights Inc, and Production Workshop. Max is a 2011 graduate oF Brown University where he studied with Erik Ehn, Lisa D'Amour, Bonnie Metzgar, and Paula Vogel. He is the recipient of the Weston Award in Playwriting and the 2011 Heideman Award from Actors Theatre of Louisville. Max was a finalist for Clubbed Thumb's Biennial Commission, is a member of Interstate 73, the Page 73 writers group, and is a founding member of FRANK. He occasionally finds himself onstage (in the original production of Gregory Moss' PUNKPLAY and in FRANK's inaugural production of Wallace Shawn's A THOUGHT IN THREE PARTS). Max has led playwriting workshops with high schoolers in Nebraska, inmates in Rhode Island, and youth in Kenya's Kibera slum. He was born and raised in Denver and lives in Brooklyn.

PAGE 73 Productions – under the leadership of Executive Directors Liz Jones and Asher Richelli and Associate Director Michael Walkup – develops and produces the work of early-career playwrights who have yet to have their work professionally produced in New York. Page 73 produces at least one New York or world premiere by an early-career playwright each year. Page 73 also offers production-oriented development opportunities that help usher the works of early-career playwrights from first draft to final script. In addition to the P73 Playwriting Fellowship, a year-long program supporting one playwright's creative and career development, the company also hosts its writers group "Interstate 73," a week-long Summer Residency at Yale for 4 early-career playwrights, and "Page 2", a three-week workshop process culminating in public presentations.

In April 2013 Page 73 will produce the world premiere of SLEEPING ROUGH by Kara Manning directed by Sam Buntrock. Page 73 produced the world premieres of ELLIOT, A SOLDIER'S FUGUE by Quiara Alegría Hudes, directed by Davis McCallum (2007 Pulitzer finalist and the prequel to her play WATER BY THE SPOONFUL which garnered her the 2012 Pulitzer Prize in Drama), SIXTY MILES TO SILVER LAKE by Dan LeFranc directed by Anne Kauffman and co-produced with Soho Rep (2010 New York Times Playwriting Award); CREATURE by Heidi Schreck, directed by Leigh Silverman and co-produced with New Georges; JACK'S PRECIOUS MOMENT by Samuel D. Hunter directed by Kip Fagan and EDGEWISE by Eliza Clark directed by Trip Cullman and co-produced with The Play Company, as well as the New York premieres of 1001 by Jason Grote, directed by Ethan McSweeney (Time Out New York - Top 10 of 2007) and LIDLESS by Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig, directed by Tea Alagic. The company received from the League of Professional Theatre Women their 2008 Lucille Lortel Award for "innovative and creative work dedicated to the emerging dramatist".

For more information about Page 73 Productions, visit www.page73.org.