Loomer, Rebeck and Henley Part Of Bay Street's 'Motherhood Out Loud' Play Project

Motherhood Out Loud, a new American play, conceived by Susan R. Rose and Joan Stein, produced by Ms. Rose, Ms. Stein, Renee Landegger and Judith Resnick, directed by Lisa Peterson, and written by more than 15 writers, will have a special work-in-progress, 3-performance engagement as part of Bay Street Theatre's 2009 "Bay Street at the Parrish" season. Motherhood Out Loud plays July 30 - August 1 at the Parrish Art Museum in Southampton, NY.

A loose chronological journey of motherhood, Motherhood Out Loud celebrates the very personal, diverse, funny, exciting, touching and altogether extraordinary experiences that boldly expose the unabashed truths that unite us all. From stepmoms to single moms, immigrant moms to grandmothers, and new moms to empty nesters, Motherhood Out Loud reveals with illuminating insight (and humor), the raw emotions and rocky roads we travel in life.

An unprecedented collaboration of American writers - from the theater, television, fiction and non-fiction - makes this play a singular theatrical event; among the writers of Motherhood Out Loud are Leslie Ayvazian (Nine Armenians), Pat Candaras ("America's Funniest Mom 3", Nick at Nite; "The Moth", TRIO; New York Women Talk Dirty), Jessica Goldberg (Affair Play; Good Thing), Beth Henley (Crimes of the Heart; The Miss Firecracker Contest), Deborah Zoe Laufer (End Days; The Last Schwartz), Lisa Loomer (Distracted, The Waiting Room; Girl Interrupted), Michele Lowe (String of Pearls, OCC Award Nominations; The Smell of the Kill, Broadway debut), Asra Nomani Standing Alone in Mecca: An American Woman's Struggle for the Soul of Islam), Christine Zander and Mark Nutter ("3rd Rock from the Sun"), Brett Paesel (Mommies Who Drink: Sex, Drugs, and Other Distant Memories of an Ordinary Mom), Marco Pennette ("Samantha Who?"; "Ugly Betty"), Theresa Rebeck (Maritius; The Understudy), LuAnne Rice (Crazy in Love; Blue Moon), Adriana Trigiani (Big Stone Gap; Very Valentine) and Annie Weisman (Snapshot and Thrift of the Magi, Actors Theatre of Louisville), among others.

Motherhood Out Loud will play the following schedule: Thursday - Saturday at 8 p.m. Tickets are $40 and can be purchased by calling the Bay Street Box Office at 631-725-9500, or in person at the Box Office, located on the Long Wharf in Sag Harbor, open daily 11am to 6pm.

Complete casting for Motherhood Out Loud will be announced shortly.

Lisa Peterson (Director)

Upcoming: Donald Margulies' Shipwrecked at Primary Stages; Grey Gardens at Philadelphia Theatre Company; Culture Clash's Palestine, NM at Center Theater Group (Mark Taper Forum). Recent credits include A Midsummer Night's Dream at Hartford Stage; Othello at OSF; The Poor Itch at the Public Theater; King Lear at CalShakes; Major Barbara at the Guthrie; Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner at Hartford Stage; Mother Courage at La Jolla Playhouse and Berkeley Repertory Theatre; Water and Power at the Mark Taper Forum; Ridiculous Fraud at the McCarter Theatre; The Rainmaker at Arena Stage; Tight Embrace at Intar; Carol Mulroney at Huntington Theatre Co; Oedipus at the Guthrie; Electricidad at Mark Taper Forum; Casino Paradise at the Prince Music Theatre; Candida at the McCarter Theatre; Birdy at the Women's Project; The Fourth Sister at the Vineyard Theatre. She won an Obie Award for her direction of Caryl Churchill's Light Shining in Buckinghamshire at New York Theater Workshop, where her other productions include Bexley Oh!, The Trestle at Pole Lick Creek, Slavs, Traps, and The Waves, which she adapted from the Virginia Woolf novel with composer David Bucknam. Other New York credits include The Batting Cage (Vineyard); Collected Stories (Manhattan Theater Club); Sueno (MCC); The Model Apartment (Primary Stages); Tongue of a Bird and The Square (Public); The Scarlet Letter (CSC); BIRDY (Women's Project); The Chemistry of Change (Playwrights Horizons/WPP). For ten years she was Resident Director at the Mark Taper Forum, where her other productions include House of Bernarda Alba, Chavez Ravine, The Body of Bourne, Tongue of a Bird and Mules. Prior to that, Lisa was Associate Director at La Jolla Playhouse, where her productions included The Country, Be Aggressive, Good Person of Szechuan, Triumph of Love, The Swan and Arms and the Man. She has directed world premieres by many major American writers including Tony Kushner, Beth Henley, Donald Margulies, Jose Rivera, Ellen McLaughlin, Mac Wellman, Polly Pen, Stephen Belber, Naomi Wallace, David Henry Huang, Luis Alfaro, Chay Yew, Bridget Carpenter, Annie Weisman, Alice Tuan, Culture Clash and many others. She regularly works at Actors Theater of Louisville, Berkeley Rep, California Shakespeare Theater, Baltimore Center Stage, Long Wharf, Yale Rep, Hartford Stage, Intiman, South Coast Rep, O'Neill Playwrights Conference, Midwest Playlabs, Ojai Playwrights Conference and Sundance Theater Lab. Ms. Peterson is a graduate of Yale College and a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre and the Drama Department.

Susan R. Rose (Producer)

Susan produced the Broadway productions of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Tony Award nomination, Best Musical), HurlyBurly (Tony Award nomination, Best Play), Bloodknot (Tony Award nomination, Best Revival of a Play), and The Nerd. Off Broadway, she produced the Drama Desk Award-winning musical The Last Five Years. For television and film, Susan served as Executive Producer of: "A Child Lost Forever," starring Beverly D'Angelo (NBC); "Mr. and Mrs. Loving," starring Timothy Hutton and Lela Rochon (Showtime); "Best Friends for Life," starring Gena Rowlands and Linda Lavin (CBS); "Cooler Climate," starring Sally Field and Judy Davis (Showtime, two Emmy Award nominations); "Custody of the Heart," starring Lorraine Bracco and Martin Donovan (Lifetime); and "Jack," starring Stockard Channing and Ron Silver (Showtime, Emmy Award, Best Actress).

Joan Stein (Producer)

Joan is a Tony Award-winning producer with a multi-media career. She began collaborating with Steve Martin in 1994 when she produced his award-winning play, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, in Los Angeles, followed by successful productions in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Toronto, Great Britain as well as the National Tour. In 2000 they created their television company, the Martin/Stein Company. During their overall deal with Carsey Werner they developed projects for all major networks, Showtime and HBO including "How to Be A Man" (Fox), "Mr. and Mr. Nash" (ABC), "Celebrity" (HBO), and produced "The Downer Channel" (NBC), "The Scholar" (ABC) and "Mindy & Brenda" (WB). She has produced more than 80 plays - from Table Settings to The Elephant Man - and her productions have won 6 Tony nominations, 7 Drama Desk Awards, 3 Outer Critics Circle Awards, 2 Obies and 2 Ovation Awards. She won the Tony Award for Best Play in 1999 for her production of Side Man. Joan served as Managing Director of the historic Berkshire Theatre Festival from 1981-1986. From 1990-2000 she operated the Canon Theatre in Beverly Hills and became the leading commercial theatre producer in Los Angeles, where she presented a dozen shows including the internationally acclaimed production of Love Letters (starring more than 200 celebrity couples over two hit years.) Currently, she is producing a Broadway musical based on the award winning documentary Mad Hot Ballroom, and is represented on Broadway by the newly opened musical, 9 To 5.

Bay Street Theatre is a not-for-profit institution, dedicated to presenting new, classic and contemporary works of the highest quality, which challenge as well as entertain, speak to the diversity of the community and champion the human spirit. Bay Street's commitment extends to educational programs for all ages to foster the continued value of theatre as a vital art form for future generations.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.