Labyrinth Theater Sets 17th Annual Barn Series Lineup; Performances Begin 11/30

Labyrinth Theater Company has announced the line-up for the 17th Annual Barn Series, the award-winning company's free play reading series. Running November 30-December 14, the Barn Series lets audiences encounter new plays written by or starring Labyrinth Company Members. This year's addition includes new work by Frank Pugliese, directed by Jackson Gay; christopher oscar peña, directed by Leigh Silverman; Emma Goidel, directed by Erin Ortman; Paula Pizzi, directed by Brian Roff; David Deblinger, directed by Ben Snyder; and Melissa Ross, directed by Mimi O'Donnell.

All readings in the Barn Series take place at the Bank Street Theater, located at 155 Bank Street in Manhattan. Tickets will be available beginning at 5pm the day of the reading only, all performances are at 7pm. Tickets are released on first-come, first-served basis; there are no advanced ticket reservations and two tickets max per person. For more information, please visit labtheater.org.

BARN SERIES SCHEDULE

Monday, November 30th at 7:00 PM
Three Uncles
Written by Frank Pugliese
Directed by Jackson Gay
Cast: Patch Darragh, Greg Keller, Chris Stack and more

Three Uncles is a coming of age story set in 1985 Brooklyn, New York. With a sick father and a mother who is back on the wild side, fifteen-year-old Steven finds himself surrounded by three men who all think they know what is best for him. Pugliese takes a fresh look at what happens when a boy is forced to become a man before he is ready.

Sunday, December 6th at 7:00 PM
awe/struck
Written by christopher oscar peña
Directed by Leigh Silverman
Cast: Rosal Colon, Kristen Connolly, Cory Michael Smith, Samira Wiley, and Yul Vázquez

Denia arrives in Chicago, looking to create a place for herself in this unfamiliar land. Monique's never left Chicago but feels more and more like a stranger in her own home. A chance encounter between them transforms their lives forever in this new play about identity and perception.

Thursday, December 10th at 7:00 PM
The Gap
Written by Emma Goidel
Directed by Erin Ortman
Cast: Vanessa Aspillaga, Polly Lee, Kelley Rae O'Donnell, Keona Welch, and Sam Breslin Wright

Nicole thinks she was abducted by aliens. Lee thinks Nicole is crazy. But when she realizes there's a period in their lives that neither can remember - a time that fills them both with a vague sense of terror - it stops being clear what's crazy and what's normal. The Gap is new dark comedy about family secrets, performance art, and sisterhood that asks what's ultimately worse: forgetting a trauma or remembering?

Friday, December 11th at 7:00 PM
Hopping on Rooftops
Written by Paula Pizzi
Directed by Brian Roff
Cast: Brian Carter, Peter Collier, Omar Cruz, Kevin Geer, Trevor Long, Florencia Lozano, Mel Nieves, Wilemina Olivia-Garcia, Katherine Romans, Domenica Salame, Alli Steinberg and more

Think you know your neighbors? Think again. With a heatwave gripping the city, a group of tenants find themselves locked out of their apartment building. As they wait for help, rising temperatures and flaring tempers bring out the best and worst of these motley strangers in this new comedy about life, our day-to-day grind and the inevitability of chance.

Saturday, December 12th at 7:00 PM
Lucky Penny
Written by David Deblinger
Directed by Ben Snyder
Cast: David Deblinger & Fred Johnson

From a juvenile detention center in the Bronx, to a fabled plaza in Madrid, from the piers of San Francisco, to a Staten Island state mental hospital, Lucky Penny is a hilarious and surreal tale of family, loss, and laughter interweaved with musical performances by renowned Jazz vocalist Fred Johnson.

Monday, December 14 at 7pm
An Entomologist's Love Story
Written by Melissa Ross
Directed by Mimi O'Donnell
Cast: Cassie Beck, Alfredo Narciso and more

Betty Fisher and Jeff Morse have been best friends since hooking up as college freshmen almost twenty years ago. Now they share an office at the Museum of Natural History - and torture each other with overshares of their awkward online dates. But then Jeff meets Lindsay who is everything he never knew he wanted. And Betty starts to realize that the one who's always been there - might actually be the one who got away. A comedy about bad dates, falling in love, and bug intercourse.

About the Artists

David Deblinger is an award-winning actor, writer, director and a co-founder of Labyrinth Theater Company. His early solo show Shmoo was produced for Labyrinth by then incoming Lab member Philip Seymour Hoffman. As an actor David has appeared in new plays in New York at Manhattan Theater Club, The Public Theater, Labyrinth, Vineyard, Theater for a New Audience and others. Regionally: Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park (Winner Best Lead actor-Acclaim Award), Williamstown Theater Festival, The Old Globe and others. On TV he has appeared on Blue Bloods (CBS), Broad City (Comedy Central) Law and Order, SVU, (NBC), Damages (FX), The Sopranos (HBO). This past spring David appeared Off Broadway in the new play Queen for a Day opposite David Proval and Vincent Pastore. He is grateful to be part of the Barn Series at his long-time artistic home.

Emma Goidel is a founding member of critically acclaimed producing playwrights collective Orbiter 3 and a member of the Ars Nova Play Group. Her plays include Local Girls (Azuka Theatre, 2016), A Knee That Can Bend (Orbiter 3, 2015), The Gap (development: Labyrinth Theater Company & InterAct Theatre Company), and We Can All Agree To Pretend This Never Happened (Ensemble Studio Theatre, Òran Mór in Scotland, Tiny Dynamite/InterAct). Fellowships include The Playwrights Realm, InterAct Theatre Company, Core Apprenticeship at the Playwrights' Center, Dasha Epstein Playwriting Fellowship at New York Stage & Film/Powerhouse Theater. Emma was a 2015 Princess Grace Award Finalist, two-time Arnold L. Weissberger Award nominee, winner of the New South Young Playwrights Competition, NNPN Smith Prize nominee, and semi-finalist for the O'Neill Playwrights Conference. Local Girls was included in The Kilroys 2015 Honorable Mentions. Her short plays have been presented at Philadelphia Theater Company, Horizon Theater (Atlanta), SIT: Dakar, and UPenn. She received a BA with Honors in Theatre from Barnard College in 2012.

christopher oscar peña is a writer originally from California, now residing in Harlem and LA. Selected plays: a cautionary tail, maelstrom, icarus burns, alone above a raging sea, TINY PEOPLE (or it gets better), and awe/struck. His work has been developed or seen at the Goodman Theater, Public Theater, Two River Theater, INTAR, Ontological Hysteric Incubator, Playwrights Realm, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Old Vic, Theater For a New City, Orchard Project, Naked Angels, The Flea Theater and New York Theatre Workshop, among many others. He's the creator and co-star of the webseries 80/20, which was selected for the 2015 Outfest Los Angeles Web Series: In With the New Out, was an Official Selection for the 2013 New Media Film Festival, and won the 2013 Outstanding Achievement in writing from LAWEBFEST. His play, a cautionary tail had its world premiere at the Flea Theater in Tribeca where it sold out every performance in advance and was twice extended. A two time Sundance Institute Theater Fellow (2015 Theater Lab Fellow with awe/struck, 2014 UCross Fellow), he has also held fellowships with the Lark Play Development Center (2014 Playwrights Workshop Fellow, 2012-2013 Van Lier Fellow) was a recipient of the Latino Playwrights Award (Kennedy Center), an NYTW Emerging Artist Fellow, Playwrights Realm Writing Fellow, and was a part of the US/UK Exchange (Old Vic New Voices). His work is published through NoPassport Press and Smith and Kraus. Currently, he is working on commissions from the Goodman Theater, The Clarence Brown Theatre and Yale Rep. He's a proud member of New Dramatists, an Artistic Patriot at Merrimack Rep, was named one of "The 1st Annual Future Broadway Power List" by Backstage, and was a writer on the critically acclaimed, Golden Globe nominated, debut season of the CW show, Jane the Virgin. He teaches playwriting at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, and is represented by Heroes and Villains and CAA.

An actress and sometimes director Paula Pizzi, who was born and raised in Buenos Aires, came to New York, fell in love with the city and never went back. This is her first play. Theatre: Los Monologos de la Vagina (Westside Arts), Underneathmybed (Rattlestick Theatre), Face Cream (Ensemble Studio Theatre), Wit (original Off-Broadway company - Long Wharf Theatre, MCC Theatre, Geffen Playhouse, Union Square Theatre), Where's My Money? (Manhattan Theatre Club/Labyrinth Theatre), Clean (Atlantic Theatre Co/Hartford Stage), Another Part of the House, (Classic Stage Company) Dark Rapture (Pope Theatre) Dating Dummies (Labyrinth). Director: All the Bad Things (Labyrinth), 5 pieces from Halcyon days (Labyrinth) T.V./Film: Loserville, The Smurfs, Frágil, Lloró. Law and Order, City of Angels, L&O: Criminal Intent. Founding Member of Labyrinth Theatre Co. Member of Circle East.

Frank Pugliese (Playwright) Partial list of credits: Stage: Off-B'way: Aven'u Boys (The Houseman, Obie Award); Hope is a Thing with Feathers (The Drama Dept); The King of Connecticut, The Talk, The Alarm (all with Naked Angels); Kaos (New York Theatre Workshop.) Regional: The Crazy Girl (NY Stage and Film, Gloucester Stage), Matty's Place (NY Stage and Film). Film: Born to Run (Fox); Undefeated (Hart-Sharp, HBO); Shot in the Heart (directed by Agineszka Holland, produced by Barry Levinson and Tom Fontana,) Border Crossing (directed by Bette Gordon, soon to be released.) Television: Night of the Living Dead, "Homicide" (WGA Award); Love and Blood, "Fallen Angels" (Cable Ace Award Nomination), "Street-time," "The Beat," "Law and Order," "Borgia," and "Copper" (for the BBC), "House of Cards" (for Netflix.) Frank has taught playwriting and/or screenwriting at Columbia University, the New School and Yale. Frank has directed numerous Off-Broadway productions and is a former Artistic Director of Naked Angels.

The plays of Melissa Ross (playwright) include Thinner Than Water, You Are Here, Do Something Pretty, The Allies, Nice Girl, Of Good Stock, and An Entomologist's Love Story. Thinner Than Water and Nice Girl were both originally produced by Labyrinth Theater Company. Thinner Than Water is included in the anthology "New Playwrights: Best Plays of 2011" by Smith and Kraus. Of Good Stock received its world premiere at South Coast Repertory as a part of the Pacific Playwrights Festival followed by a production at Manhattan Theater Club. A Life Extra Ordinary is currently a part of the 2015/2016 season at The Gift Theatre in Chicago. Melissa has had readings and workshops with The Amoralists, The Cherry Lane Theater, Colt Coeur, Dorset Theater Festival, Iama Theater Company, The Juilliard School, Labyrinth Theater Company, LCT3, Manhattan Theater Club, Montana Rep, New York Stage and Film, The New Group, South Coast Repertory, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, and the TheatreWorks Palo Alto New Works Festival. She is currently working on commissions from South Coast Repertory and Manhattan Theater Club. Melissa is a graduate of the Lila Acheson Wallace Playwriting Program at The Juilliard School, a two time winner of the Le Comte de Nouy Prize, and a proud member of Labyrinth Theater Company.