Photo Flash: Rising Phoenix Repertory's HERE I LIE Played To A Sold Out House 11/7

Following the sold out performances and overflow crowds at its first two Cino Nights presentations (of Gary Sunshine's BEST SEX EVER and Mando Alvarado's (O)N THE 5:31), Rising Phoenix Rep continued the series November 7th with Courtney Baron's HERE I LIE which was performed by Denis Butkus and Samantha Soule to a sold out house. In this two-character play, "Maris and Joseph have made their beds and now have to lie in them. Two people connected by illness, loneliness, and the need to be understood, they navigate the murky waters of subjective truth. If you believe it, can you make it true?" The production was directed by Rising Phoenix Rep artistic director Daniel Talbott.

Inspired by Joe Cino and his Caffe Cino-one of the original birthplaces of Off-Off-Broadway theatre and early home to such writers as Doric Wilson, Robert Patrick, John Guare, Sam Shepard, Lanford Wilson, and William M. Hoffman-New York Innovative Theater Award winning company Rising Phoenix Rep has commissioned nineteen playwrights to write new, full-length plays for the Seventh Street Small Stage, the intimate back room space at Jimmy's No. 43 in the East Village, where the company has produced critically acclaimed and award winning productions for the past five years.

Rising Phoenix Rep artistic director Daniel Talbott described the series as a place to tap into the raw, inspired, inventive, and pioneering work of the Caffe Cino, where the love of theatre and new work was joined with a scrappy, do-it-yourself work ethic. All shows will be rehearsed for a week and then fully mounted and produced, warts and all, for one night only with free admission.

Cino Nights are currently scheduled through March 2012 and will celebrate the spirit of indie theatre as a home for new plays and theatre artists as well as hopefully honor what has been said of the Caffe Cino: "the first studio of theater where playwrights can experiment as painters and poets have done for a century, free from the tyranny of audience, box-office, church, and criticism."

The plays will be fully produced for one night only on a monthly basis through March 2012. The playwrights, in the order their plays will appear, are:

Florencia Lozano's BUSTED will be directed by Portia Krieger and performed on December 12, 2010

Kristen Palmer: January 23, 2011; directed by Julie Kline

Emily DeVoti: February 13, 2011

Cusi Cram: March 20, 2011

Daniel Talbott: April 17, 2011

Jessica Dickey: May 22, 2011

Adam Szymkowicz: June 19, 2011

Laura Eason: July 17, 2011

Sheri Wilner: August 28, 2011

Daniel Reitz: September 18, 2011

Crystal Skillman: October 23, 2011

Megan Mostyn-Brown: November 13, 2011

Charlotte Miller: December 11, 2011

Keith Reddin: January 2012

The previous productions in the series were:

Gary Sunshine's BEST SEX EVER premiered on October 3, 2010. It was directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel and featured Stephen Bel Davies, Cathy Curtin, Jimmy Davis, Mike Doyle and Jeffrey Nauman.

Mando Alvarado's (O)N THE 5:31 premiered on October 24, 2010, directed by Taibi Magar and featuring Jolly Abraham, Sarah Baskin, and Bernardo Cubria.

Courtney Baron's HERE I LIE premiered on November 7, 2010, directed by Daniel Talbott and featuring Denis Butkus and Samantha Soule.

Reservations will be available one week before the performance each month. Seating extremely limited. For reservations please call 212-946-5198; for more information please visit www.RisingPhoenixRep.org.

Playwright Courtney Baron's play A VERY COMMON PROCEDURE premiered at the Magic Theater (dir. Loretta Greco) and then at MCC in New York (dir. Michael Greif). Her play CONSUMPTION was commissioned and produced by the Guthrie Theater in partnership with the University of Minnesota. Other productions include: NOT OUR LAST HURRAH at the Kraine Theater, NYC; THESE THREE HERE at the Actors Theater of Louisville; EARLSTREETMAN and CONFIDENCE MAN as a part of Christine Jones' Theater For One; JOHN BROWN'S BODY with the Keen Company; IN THE WIDOW'S GARDEN and DEAR ANTON for the ChekhovNOW! Festival, NYC; and TO KNOW KNOW KNOW ME as part of the KeenTeens, NYC. Her play with music composed by Juliana Nash was work-shopped at Primary Stages. She has had plays read or work-shopped at the Cherry Lane Theatre (mentored by David Auburn), The Atlantic Theater, MTC, MCC, the New Group, Famous Door Theater in Chicago, the Guthrie, EST, as part of the New Works Now series at the Public Theater, the Royal Court in London, and Theatre for the New City, among others. Courtney was nominated for the American Theater Critics' Osborne Award and was a winner of a Heideman at ATL. She is currently developing screenplays with Templehill Productions and Yarn Films. She is currently under commission by P2 Creations. She is a part of the Dorothy Streslin New American Writers Group. Courtney holds an MFA in playwriting from Columbia University.

Director Daniel Talbott's most recent work as an actor includes the Theatre for One project in Times Square and around NYC, THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR (Shakespeare Festival of St.
Louis), MASTER BUILDER (Irish Rep), ROCKET CITY (Alabama Shakespeare Festival), TARTUFFE
(McCarter Theatre/Yale Rep), MARAT/SADE (Classical Theatre of Harlem) and the feature film 'Pretty Bird and The Big C' on Showtime. Recent directing work includes KEEP YOUR BAGGAGE WITH YOU (AT ALL TIMES) (Theater for the New City), FOOTPRINT by Mac Rogers (part of +30NYC
for Red Fern Theatre), AFTERCLAP by Daniel Reitz, BIRTHDAY and NOBODY, both by Crystal
Skillman (Rising Phoenix Rep at the Seventh Street Small Stage), THE UMBRELLA PLAYS (the teacup company/FringeNYC - Overall Excellence Award: Outstanding Play), and FALL FORWARD
(Sitelines/River to River Festival produced by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council). His
play SLIPPING was produced at Rattlestick last summer with Piece by Piece Productions (named one of the top ten plays of 2009 by The Advocate), premiered in Chicago at The Side Project, was part of the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival, and was published this year by Dramatists Play Service. His play WHAT HAPPENED WHEN was produced at HERE Arts Center and The Side Project and was published as part of the Plays and Playwrights 2008 anthology. He received a 2007 New York Innovative Theatre Award for directing, a Drama-Logue Award, two Dean Goodman Choice Awards and a Judy Award for acting, and was also named one of the 15 People of the Year 2006 by nytheatre.com. He is a member of MCC Theater's Playwrights' Coalition and of this year's 24Seven Lab, is a graduate of Juilliard and of Solano College Theatre's ATP, and teaches at the Primary Stages Einhorn School of Performing Arts (ESPA). He is one of the literary managers of Rattlestick Playwrights Theater and the artistic director of Rising Phoenix Rep (recipient of the 2007 NYIT Caffe Cino Fellowship Award).

Denis Butkus (JOSEPH) is an actor and producer. He has been an Artistic Associate of Rising Phoenix Repertory since 2003, and a member of the Literary Department, along with Daniel Talbott and Julie Kline, at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater since 2008. With RPR he has produced, developed, and/or acted in: SUMMER LOVIN', PONIES, THE SIBLING PLAYS, GIFT, THE TELLING TRILOGY, THREE SISTERS, RULES OF THE UNIVERSE, FALL FORWARD, WHAT HAPPENED WHEN, 365 DAYS/PLAYS WEEK 47, DON'T PET THE ZOOKEEPER, TOO MUCH MEMORY, NOBODY, BIRTHDAY, SLIPPING, AFTERCLAP, CEREMONY and The Cino Nights Series. As a member of the Literary Department of Rattlestick Playwrights Theater he has helped produce over 70 new play readings over the course of the last three seasons including Rattlestick's theaterjam I, II and F*@CKING GOOD PLAYS! (festival). As an actor he has appeared on Broadway in THE CAINE MUTINY COURT MARTIAL and in THE COAST OF UTOPIA at Lincoln Center Theater. Internationally, he appeared in the Austrian premiere of OLD WICKED SONGS at the English Theatre of Vienna. Off Broadway he has been seen at Theater for a New Audience in OTHELLO and MEASURE FOR MEASURE; The Mint Theater Company in THE SKIN GAME and WALKING DOWN BROADWAY; Red Bull in THE REVENGER'S TRAGEDY; The Summer Play Festival in UNFOLD ME; Rattlestick in ST. KRISPIN'S DAY; Keen Company in THREE CORNERED MOON. He holds a BFA from Juilliard (Group 31) and will be teaching acting at Primary Stages ESPA in the spring of 2011.

Samantha Soule (MARIS) Broadway: THE PHILANTHROPIST (Roundabout Theater), DUBBER AT EIGHT (Lincoln Center Theater) CORAM BOY (Imperial Theater). Off-Broadway: GABRIEL (Atlantic Theater Company), KILLERS AND OTHER FAMILY (Rattlestick Theater Company), MONSTROSITY (13P), THE VOYSEY INHERITANCE (Atlantic Theater Company), VALHALLA (New York Theater Workshop), THE DINING ROOM (The Keen Company, Drama Desk Award), SPLITTING INFINITY, MAYHEM (Summer Play Festival), WHITE CHOCOLATE (Culture Project), SILVER NITRATE
(Juggernaught Theater Company), DAISY MAYME (The Pearl Theater), THE TELLING TRILOGY,
THREE SISTERS, THE SIBLING PLAYS (Rising Phoenix Rep). Regional Theater: CANDIDA (Berkshire Theater Festival), THE EVILDOERS (Yale Repertory Theater), TWELFTH NIGHT, AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE, THE TEMPEST (The Shakespeare Theater), A BODY OF WATER (The Old Globe, San Diego Critics Circle Award), LADY WINDERMERE'S FAN (Williamstown Theater Festival), DAVID COPPERFIELD (Westport Country Playhouse), DA (Cape Playhouse), TV/Film: "Revolutionary Road" "The Callback", "Guiding Light", "Contest Searchlight" Training/Affiliations: BFA: The Juilliard School, Artistic Associate of Rising Phoenix Repertory.

Founded in 1999 by Artistic Director Daniel Talbott, Rising Phoenix Repertory began by producing an ongoing reading series of new plays and has continued to add workshops, festivals, and highly praised productions of new plays. Recent productions include the acclaimed, sold-out Off-Broadway runs of Slipping, produced with Piece by Piece Productions and Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, and Too Much Memory (also with Piece by Piece Productions) which transferred to the New York Theatre Workshop's Fourth Street Theatre after winning the FringeNYC award for Outstanding Play in 2008. Other recent productions include CEREMONY, AFTERCLAP, BIRTHDAY and DON'T PET THE ZOOKEEPER (Seventh Street Small Stage); 365 DAYS/365 PLAYS (Jimmy's No. 43 and The Public Theater); WHAT HAPPENED WHEN (HERE Arts Center); FALL FORWARD (part of the Sitelines/River to River festival produced by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council); THE TELLING TRILOGY (including The Ride, 2006 NYIT Award Nominee - Outstanding Original Short Script- Crystal Skillman), RULES OF THE UNIVERSE (Winner, 2007 NYIT Awards for Outstanding Original Short Script - Daniel Reitz and Director - Daniel Talbott), and THREE SISTERS (Seventh Street Small Stage at Jimmy's No. 43); GIFT by Mark Schultz and PONIES by Mike Batistick (FringeNYC).