Planet Connections Festivity Sets Date for VATICAN FALLS Staged Reading as 2018 World Premiere Production is Canceled

"Vatican Falls," the play by Frank J. Avella that honestly explores one Catholic sex abuse survivor's tumultuous journey, has been selected to take part in the 2017 Planet Connections Festivity at the Latea Theater at the Clemente on June 21st at 4PM.

The anticipated World Premiere in Malta has been canceled. After expressing great enthusiasm last year, the Maltese theater, where it was to play, did an about face. A source that did not want to be named said the theatre "got cold feet" about the show. Unifaun Theater was to present the play.

This marks the third time a World Premiere of "Vatican Falls" has been shut down. In 2013, a prominent off-Broadway theatre pulled the plug on the show, deciding they didn't want to "kick a dog when it was down." (Pope Benedict had just resigned). In 2011, the World Premiere of the Italian version, in Rome, was cancelled the night before opening, after months of rehearsals, amidst controversy and claims of death threats.

Based on factual accounts and events, "Vatican Falls" follows the life of one survivor who struggles with understanding how those closest to him could damage him the deepest. The multi-genre, non-linear play probes the conflicting feelings involved in sexual abuse situations and dares to confront the truth about the ever-growing scandal and the Church's complicity in it. The play wonders what would happen if survivors decided to band together and seek retribution.

The cast features: Alice Barrett Mitchell, Mackian Bauman, Carlotta Brentan, Gregory James Cohan, Gianmarco Colucci, David M. Farrington, Michael Ford, Yvette King, Derek Martin, Jake Austin Robertson & Ian Whitt. Hunter Goetz will read stage directions.

Admission to the event is free and can be reserved via Ovation Tix.

Link: https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pe/10174516

More info via: vaticanfalls@gmail.com, 973-715-2356 or https://www.facebook.com/vaticanfalls/

The Latea Theater at the Clemente is located at 107 Suffolk Street, NYC.

Frank J. Avella is the recipient of a 2015 Fellowship Award from the NJ State Council on the Arts for his play "Consent" as well as the 2016 Helene Wurlitzer ResidenCy Grant and Chesley/Bumbalo Foundation Playwright Award. "Consent" was a 2012 semifinalist for the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference and was part of the 27th Annual Fullerton College Playwrights Festival this past January. Frank has written 19 full-length plays; 10 have been produced. "Lured" (2016 Dream Up Festival-sold out run, 2017 William Inge Festival PlayLab), about the Russian persecution of gays will be workshopped later this year. Other plays: "For Mamma," "The Mad Ones," "Michael's #1 Fan," "The Bubble," "Screw the Cow" and "Orville Station," which has been published in the UK by Lazy Bee Scripts. Upon reviewing Frank's farce "Iris," in 2005, the Cincinnati Post wrote: "Avella's plays tend to send earthquakes through his audience's comfort zones." He is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild.