Olympia Dukakis, Louise Lasser, Louis Zorich and More Set for ADVANCED CHEMISTRY Reading at National Arts Club Today

A stellar cast has been assembled for an invitation-only reading of Rich Orloff's award-winning comedy, Advanced Chemistry, at the National Arts Club today, January 14th.

David Glenn Armstrong directs Oscar and Golden Globe Award winner Olympia Dukakis, Emmy Award nominee Louise Lasser, Tony Award nominee Louis Zorich, Jessica Stone, and Michael Citriniti in two one-act comedies that prove when it comes to love and lust, you're never old enough to know better.

Olympia Dukakis and Louis Zorich, who recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, star in Getting Lucky (winner, New Voice Play Festival), a tender comedy about a woman about to have sex for the first time in eighteen years, and a man who wants more than her body.

Mourning Glory (winner, Civic Theatre New Play Contest) stars Louise Lasser and her real-life partner Michael Citriniti in an irreverent romp which explores the question, "How long should you wait before you diddle your late partner's widow?"

Jessica Stone appears in both plays as a catalyst to her elders' amours.

Robin Lane-Krauss, a Lifetime Member of The Actors Studio, hosts her twentieth presentation for the National Arts Club. Graham Powell will read the stage directions. Jenny Leon is the Assistant Director.

Michael Citriniti's work as an actor ranges from roles in the horror films, Demonic Toys 2, HIDEOUS! and The Head of the Family, shown on HBO, Cinemax, and the SciFi Channel (hosted by William Shatner), as well as Goodfellas and the award-winning short film, The Spiral, to his stage work in plays by Shakespeare, Chekhov, Williams and Ionesco, to the development of new plays. Michael has co-produced, directed and performed at Susan Charlotte's Food for Thought Lunch Hour Theatre, having had the rare opportunity and privilege to share the stage with countless theatrical luminaries. Watch for Michael's band, "The Windbreakers," coming soon to a dive near you.

Olympia Dukakis has appeared on Broadway in Rose (Drama Desk nominee) and Social Security. London: Rose (Royal National Theatre), Credible Witness (Royal Court). Off-Broadway: Singing Forest, The Marriage of Bette and Boo (Obie Award), Curse of the Starving Class, Titus Andronicus, A Man's a Man (Obie Award), Electra, and Peer Gynt at The Public Theatre. She is an Academy Award winner for her performance in Moonstruck, a role that also earned her a Golden Globe Award, American Comedy Award, and the Los Angeles Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress. She has appeared in more than 60 feature and short films, including Cloudburst (most recent), Mr. Holland's Opus, Steel Magnolias, Dad, Look Who's Talking I, II & III, Mighty Aphrodite, Jeffrey, Away From Her, among many others. Television: Bored to Death (most recent), Last of the Blond Bombshells (with Judi Dench), Sinatra (Golden Globe nominee), Joan of Arc (Emmy nominee), Tales of the City, More Tales of the City (Emmy nominee), and Further Tales of the City, among more than 40 others. She has performed in over 130 productions Off-Broadway and regionally at theatres including A.C.T., Shakespeare in the Park, Shakespeare & Co., and the Williamstown Summer Theatre Festival, where she also served as Associate Director. Founding member and Producing Artistic Director of the Whole Theatre in Montclair, NJ for 19 years; also a founding member of the Actor's Company and the Charles Playhouse, both in Boston. She taught acting at NYU (graduate school) for fourteen years and teaches master classes for colleges and universities across the country. She has received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Greek America Foundation and the National Arts Club Medal of Honor and is set to receive her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame later this year.

Louise Lasser is an extraordinary comedic and dramatic actress who has the rare ability to make audiences laugh and cry at the same time and has done so on the Broadway stage, in motion pictures, and on television. Ms. Lasser began her career as a New York stage actress. She then appeared in Bananas, Take the Money and Run, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex, and Stardust Memories with ex-husband, Woody Allen. But it was playing the title role in the television phenomenon Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman that catapulted Ms. Lasser into the national consciousness within a matter of days. Immediately following Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, she wrote and starred in a movie commissioned by NBC, Just Me and You. Ms. Lasser returned to the New York stage in the New York Shakespeare Festival production of Wallace Shawn's Marie and Bruce and followed that with A Couple of White Chicks Sitting Around Talking. She also made numerous memorable television guest appearances, including The Mary Tyler Moore Show, hosting Saturday Night Live, playing Judd Hirsch's ex-wife on Taxi, and a CBS presentation of Ingmar Bergman's The Lie. Ms. Lasser's recent film work includes the critically acclaimed Happiness, Mystery Men, Requiem for a Dream, Fast Food, Fast Women, and National Lampoon's Gold Diggers. Ms. Lasser was the first actress to win a Clio award; she garnered an Emmy nomination for Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, and the National Board of Review's award for Best Ensemble Cast for Happiness. Ms. Lasser has also been honored by the Paley Center for Media. Her face has appeared on the cover of Time, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, People, Ms. and numerous other national magazines. Ms. Lasser was recently honored twice at the 92nd Street Y at the Tribeca Cinema: at Tom Blunt's "Meet the Lady" series for her body of work, and for her film, Just Me and You. A Lifetime Member of The Actors Studio, Ms. Lasser studied with two legendary teachers: Sanford Meisner and Robert X. Modica.

Jessica Stone has appeared on Broadway in Anything Goes with Sutton Foster, Butley with Nathan Lane, The Odd Couple with Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, Smell of the Kill with Claudia Shear, Design for Living with Alan Cumming and Dominic West, How to Succeed in Business.... with John Stamos, and Grease with Rosie O'Donnell. Off-Broadway: Crimes of the Heart directed by Kathleen Turner, Krisit, The Country Club, June Moon, Tenderloin, and Babes in Arms. Jessica has performed in regional theaters including the Huntington Theater Company, Mark Taper Forum, GeVa, the McCarter and six seasons at the Williamstown Theater Festival. Not only has Jessica worked with some of the finest directors working in the theater today including Joe Mantello, Michael Greif, and Nicholas Martin, but she has begun a directing career for herself, as well. Most recently, she directed an all-male production of A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum at the Williamstown Theater Festival to critical acclaim.

Louis Zorich has appeared on Broadway in Follies, 45 Seconds from Broadway, She Loves Me, The Marriage of Figaro, Arms and the Man, Death of a Salesman with Dustin Hoffman, They Knew What They Wanted (Drama Desk nomination), Hadrian VII (Tony nomination), Herzl, Good Time, Charley, Moonchildren, Fun City, The Odd Couple, Moby Dick with Rod Steiger, and Becket with Anthony Quinn and Laurence Olivier. Off-Broadway: Three Sisters, Uncle Vanya, Agamemnon, Henry IV, Parts I & II, True West, Sunset, The Tempest, Six Characters In Search of an Author, To Clothe the Naked, and Henry V. Regional theatres, especially Williamstown Theatre Festival with his wife Olympia Dukakis, with whom he co-founded the Whole Theatre in Montclair, NJ. Film credits include Detachment, Commandments, City of Hope, Fiddler on the Roof, Muppets Take Manhattan, and Made For Each Other. He has appeared in over 400 TV shows. Series regular: Brooklyn Bridge and Mad About You. Author of "What Have You Done?," a book of audition stories.

Rich Orloff is one of the most popular unknown playwrights in the country. His fifteen full-length plays (mostly comedies, mostly award-winning) have been presented at such theaters as Arkansas Repertory Theatre, Charlotte Rep, Dayton Playhouse, Detroit Rep, Florida Studio Theatre, New Jersey Rep, Phoenix Theatre Company, three times at the Key West Theatre Festival, and five times at theaters in Milwaukee. (Go figure!) His comedy Funny as a Crutch was named both a New York Times and Back Stage Critic's Pick, and his comic revue Romantic Fools has had over forty productions in the United States, Asia, Africa and Europe, including a twenty-month run in Madrid. Rich's seventy short plays have received over 1,000 productions on six continents (and a staged reading in Antarctica). His short comedies have been published six times in the annual Best American Short Plays anthology series and three times in the annual Best Ten-Minute Plays anthology. Coming up: Romantic Fools at Caribbean Theatre in St. Croix (March/April), Big Boys at English Theatre of Hamburg (May/June), and Oy! at Jewish Theatre of Grand Rapids (June). www.richorloff.com

David Glenn Armstrong has directed over 160 productions/workshops seen in 49 states including work at the Public, Goodspeed Opera, Walnut Street, Manhattan Theatre Club, Library of Congress, Inge Festival, Amas, HERE, York, Arkansas Rep, Anchorage Opera, and Iowa Shakespeare. Upcoming work includes a workshop of Sheldon Harnick's A Doctor in Spite of Himself at the Classic Stage Company (Beth Fowler, Charles Kimbrough, Jose Llana, Ben Davis, Elena Shaddow); and Happy Hunting at the York. Favorite productions include Bock/Harnick/Stein's The Body Beautiful (Brad Oscar, Megan Lawrence), Arlen/Gershwin/Harburg's Life Begins at 8:40 (Faith Prince, Kate Baldwin, Rebecca Luker, Montego Glover, Jessica Stone, Christopher Fitzgerald, Graham Rowat); Judith Steir's Only a Kingdom (Max von Essen, Jill Paice, Donna Lynne Champlin), Jones & Schmidt's Roadside (Nick Wyman), Lerner & Loewe's The Day Before Spring (Hunter Bell); Steven Fisher's sorry - a tyler clementi fantasia (Burke Moses); Ed Dixon's Scenery (Lynne Wintersteller); Joan Ross Sorkin's (mis)Understanding Mammy - The Hattie McDaniel Story (Drama Desk-nominated Capathia Jenkins); Sorkin and Fisher's A Life in the Theatre (Judy Kaye); and Joe Stein's Plain and Fancy (Cady Huffman, Charlotte Rae, Nancy Anderson). www.DavidGlennArmstrong.com

Graham Powell has appeared in the films Welcome to Pine Hill, Manifesto, All Hallows Eve, Guilt, The Fire and the Wood. Television: Law & Order, 100 Greatest Discoveries. Theatre: Syracuse Stage, Looking Glass, and the Hudson Guild.

Jenny Leon is a Bay Area native and recently graduated from Syracuse University. In NYC, she has worked with Premieres on Inner Voices off-Broadway, and assistant directed this year's Live From Lincoln Center - New Year's Eve Marvin Hamlisch Tribute.

Photo Credit: Monica Simoes