MCC Theater Announces New Readings For Spring 09 Playlab Lineup

MCC Theater (Robert LuPone, Bernard Telsey, Artistic Directors; William Cantler, Associate Artistic Director; Blake West, Executive Director) has announced the line-up for their spring 2009 PlayLab play readings of new plays by members of the company's Playwrights' Coalition.

The four-week Monday night series will offer a rare opportunity to see works in development by some of New York's most exciting playwrights. As an added bonus, audience members will be invited to mingle with the artists at post-performance receptions to be held each night.

MCC's commitment to new work extends beyond its Mainstage. Now in its ninth year, the Playwrights' Coalition is a diverse group of some of the most talented, exciting playwrights working today. The Coalition's programs give writers the resources and support to generate, develop and showcase new work. Through intensive work and roundtable readings, member playwrights develop dynamic and challenging new plays, and twice-a-year PlayLab readings put these plays in front of an audience, providing a showcase and celebration of the writers' work. Plays developed through the Playwrights' Coalition have gone on to production at MCC and other notable theaters in the U.S. and abroad.

All readings will take place at the Baruch Performing Arts Center (25th St. between Lexington and Third Avenue.) at 7:00 p.m. The series is offered free of charge, but reservations are recommended. Reservations can be made by phoning 212-727-7722 ext. 244 or emailing literary@mcctheater.org.2009

PlayLab Readings
Mon April 6, 7:00 p.m.
Smile
by Kathryn Walat
Temporarily homeless from an apartment fire, Cassie's crashing on a friend's couch with nothing but a puffy coat, her favorite sweater and a stalled dissertation on cheerful martyr Saint Perpetua. Our urban heroine struggles to find her way, all while valiantly trying to make a living, be a good friend, endure her mother, right a faltering love life and care for her distraught pet turtle. A charming and wry look at how we build our lives and find ourselves in the city.

Mon April 13, 7:00 p.m.
PATH
by Blair Singer
Meg's three-year relationship is stale and stalled, and her puff-piece reporting for local news isn't quite rewarding... but the prospect of a new friendship is always exciting! Of course, when it's with her best friend's new boyfriend... and he happens to be a sexy yoga teacher who works with at-risk youth... but Meg wants to be friends with a man! And especially in this age of Obama, bonus points if he's black.

Mon April 20, 7:00 p.m.
The Further Adventures of Suzanne and Monica
by Alex Lewin
Monica makes her way through the Hollywood machine, transforming from ambitious body double to mega-watt star. But fame is not easy or free, and what Monica has to give up to get it is more than you might expect. In this funny and surprising new play, Hollywood satire meets a deep exploration of how we choose our identities and the price we sometimes have to pay.

Mon April 27, 7:00 p.m.
Seven Stars
by Ann Marie Healy
Margaret's life is a familiarly mundane bustle - a daughter fretting over college essays, a son who can't find baking soda for his papier mache volcano, a husband greeting the family by rote over breakfast. And a mother whose memory is slipping out of grasp. But in this beautiful and disturbing fantasia, the known world shifts and shatters as Margaret is thrust out of the familiar world, adrift and unmoored. Can she find her way back?

MCC Theater is one of New York City's leading Off Broadway theater companies, committed to presenting New York and world premieres each season. When MCC Theater was founded in 1986, its mission was simple: to bring new theatrical voices to theater-going audiences. MCC Theater continues to accomplish this yearly through presentation of its mainstage works; its Literary Program, which actively seeks and develops new and emerging writers and its Education & Outreach Program, allowing more than 1,200 students yearly to experience theater, increase literacy and discover their own voices in the arts. MCC is currently represented on Broadway with reasons to be pretty, by Neil LaBute and directed by Terry Kinney. Marin Ireland, Thomas Sadoski, Piper Perabo and Steven Pasquale are currently playing at the Lyceum Theater. Visit www.doesthisplaymakemelookfat.com for tickets. Over the years, the dedication to the work of new and emerging artists has earned MCC Theater a variety of awards. For a complete production history, go to www.mcctheater.org.

About the Authors

Ann Marie Healy's play What Once We Felt was a finalist for the 2009 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and a recent finalist for the Jane Chambers Playwriting Award. Her play The Legend of Minnie Willet was developed at the National Playwrights' Conference (Eugene O'Neill Theater Center) last summer. Have You Seen Steve Steven was developed at the Sundance Theater Institute in the summer of 2007 and subsequently produced by 13P, the Obie-award winning collective, directed by Anne Kauffman. (TimeOut NY and FlavorPill picks). The Night Tat Roger Went to Visit the Parents of His Old High School Girlfriend premiered in the 2006 EST Marathon of One-Acts plays (directed by Andrew McCarthy). Now That's What I Call a Storm was the recipient of a development fellowship with MCC Theater (directed by Jo Bonney), and produced by Edge Theater Company in 2004, directed by Carolyn Cantor and featuring Marylouise Burke (TimeOut NY picks). Dearest Eugenia Haggis was developed at LAByrinth Theater's 2004 summer intensive and The Cape Cod Theater Project and published in the anthology: Funny, Strange, Provocative: Seven Plays by Clubbed Thumb.

Blair Singer In September 2009, Blair's play, Matthew Modine Saves the Alpacas, will have its World Premiere at the Geffen Theatre starring Matthew Modine (Full Metal Jacket). In November 2008, his play, The Most Damaging Wound, had a sold-out run at Manhattan Theatre Source and was praised as an "artful comic drama" by The New York Times. Other plays include: Placement (The Black Dahlia, Los Angeles); Mackerels are Me Life (Chautauqua Theater Company); The First One Down (Vital Theatre Company, NYC). Upcoming projects include: Notice Me, being produced by James Hammerstein Productions. Blair's television work includes "Weeds", "Monk" and "The Book of Daniel". He was also a writer for the web series "lonelygirl15" and is in pre-production on a comic web series, "The Suffersteins." Blair is a graduate of the Juilliard School of Drama and is a member of the MCC Playwrights' Coalition.

Alex Lewin is the Ted and Adele Shank Resident Playwright at New York Theatre Workshop. His plays have been developed at Arena Stage, Geva Theatre Center, The New Group, Ensemble Studio Theatre, the Lark, the O'Neill Playwrights Conference, Emigrant Theatre (Minneapolis), Bailiwick Rep (Chicago), and others. His play The Near East was a finalist for the L. Arnold Weissberger award, the ALLIANCE THEATRE's Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Competition, and the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival's Quest for Peace award. That play is slated for productions at Arena Stage and Mixed Blood Theatre. Alex is the recipient of a commission from Ensemble Studio Theatre and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and has held a residency at EST's Lexington Center for the Arts. He holds an MFA in Playwriting from the University of California at San Diego, and is a member of the MCC Theater Playwrights' Coalition and the Dramatists Guild. Alex holds a B.A. from Carnegie Mellon University and is a former staff writer for Premiere magazine.

Kathryn Walat's Victoria Martin: Math Team Queen premiered Off-Broadway at the Women's Project, and was published in New Playwrights: Best Plays of 2007 (Smith & Kraus) and in Dramatics magazine. Other plays include Bleeding Kansas (Hangar Theatre, Ithaca; Moxie Theater, San Diego), Know Dog (Salvage Vanguard, Austin) and Johnny Hong Kong (Perishable Theater, Providence). Her work has been commissioned and produced by Actors Theatre of Louisville and La Jolla Playhouse, and developed at The Public Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons, Ars Nova, Sundance Theatre Institute, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Voice & Visions, and New Georges, where she is an affiliated playwright. She is currently working on a new play entitled Creation, a commission for Yale Rep, and is a member of MCC Theater's Playwrights' Coalition. She received her BA from Brown University and her MFA from Yale Drama School.