Planet Connections Theatre Festivity Announces Writers for Reading Series

Planet Connections Theatre Festivity (PCTF), the brainchild of arts professional Glory Kadigan, turns 10 years old. Known for its engaging and empowering series of plays every summer, the festivity is also celebrated for presenting readings of new works by some of New York's most prominent writers of independent theater. The multi-award-winning theatre festival, now under the direction of producing artistic director, Shaun Peknic, continues this tradition with a series of topical works making their first appearance in front of an audience.

The Tenth Planet: Planet Connections Theatre Festivity
will run from July 9 through August 5, 2018 at
The Clemente, 107 Suffolk Street. NYC. www.planetconnections.org.
Artists presenting works from across America and all over the planet, including Japan, Yugoslavia, Russia, Peru, France, Belarus, & Haiti.

FEATURED READING IN THE SERIES

Demafelis by Erik Ehn
Directed by Glory Kadigan
A Featured Reading benefiting Filipino Advocates for Justice
Teatro LATEA @ The Clemente on Tuesday 7/24 @ 7:30pm-9:30pm

Erik Ehn's work includes The Saint Plays, What a Stranger May Know, Erratics (a play for puppets, with Dan Hurlin), Soulographie, and Vireo (an opera libretto, score by Lisa Bielawa). He is grateful for past collaborations with Glory Kadigan, on Her Speech, Clover, and Quiet House. Ehn conducts silent retreats in in community with Anne Washburn, Gary Winter, Anthony Weigh, Liz Duffy Adams, and Jen and Madeleine George. Co-founder, TEnderloin Opera Company. Graduate of New Dramatists. Former Dean of the CalArts School of Theater, former Director of Writing for Performance, Brown University. Currently pursuing an MTS degree at the Jesuit School of Theology, Berkeley.

Temptation and Other Sins by By Lyle Kessler
Directed by Shira-Lee Shalit
A Featured Reading benefiting International Association for Suicide Prevention
Teatro Latea @ The Clemente on Thursday, 8/2 @ 7:45PM

Lyle Kessler is the author of the internationally acclaimed Orphans which recently received two Tony nominations for the Bwy revival starring Alec Baldwin. He is the Director of the New York Actors Studio Playwright/Directors Unit. He is an actor, playwright, director member of the LAByrinth Theater Company. Mr Kessler also served as Artistic Director of the Sundance Screenwriter's Lab. He has participated in the Sundance Screenwriters Conference in Hungary, working with writers from all over Eastern Europe. Mr.Kessler was awarded a Rockefeller Foundation playwriting grant and won the New York State Council on the Arts playwriting award. Albert Finney won the Olivier Award in London's West End production of Orphans. He and his wife, actress Margaret Ladd, are founders of the Imagination Workshop, located presently at UCLA's Neuropsychiatric Institute. Using a unique Artistic Methodology, actors, writers and directors work with hospitalized psychiatric patients, veterans and "at risk" students in N.Y. and L.A. Mr Kessler's plays have been published by Random House, Grove Press, Samuel French and Dramatists Play Service.

The Imperfect Love Song of Delilah and Venezio
Written and Directed By José Rivera
A Featured Reading benefiting Rainforest Alliance
Teatro LATEA @ The Clemente on Wednesday 7/11 @ 8:00PM

José Rivera is a recipient of two Obie Awards for playwriting for Marisol and References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot, both produced by The Public Theater, New York. Cloud Tectonics(Playwrights Horizons, Goodman Theatre), Boleros for the Disenchanted (Yale Repertory Theatre, Goodman Theatre), Sueño (Manhattan Class Company), Sonnets for an Old Century(The Barrow Group), School of the Americas (The Public Theater), Massacre (Sing to Your Children) (Rattlestick, Goodman Theatre), Brainpeople (ACT, San Francisco), Adoration of the Old Woman (INTAR), and The House of Ramon Iglesia(Ensemble Studio Theatre), have been produced across the country and around the world. His latest play The Untranslatable Secrets of Nikki Corona will open at The Geffen Playhouse, LA, September 2018. The Kiss of the Spiderwoman recently opened at the Menier Chocolate Factory, London. Mr. Rivera's screenplay The Motorcycle Diaries was nominated for a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar in 2005. On the Road premiered at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. Trade was the first film to premiere at the United Nations. He has recently completed his first novel, Love Makes the City Crumble. Current film projects include A Thousand Miles to Freedom for Footprint Pictures, to be directed by Liesl Tommy, and Castro's Daughter for Maven Productions, to be directed by Luis Mandoki.

The 2018 PCTF Reading Writers Line-Up:

Lynda Crawford's Stars Out of Balance
Benefiting International Rescue Committee
Teatro LATEA @ The Clemente on Wednesday 8/1 @ 3:00pm-5:00pm

Paul DeSena's Sal and Dean
Benefiting The Hunker Down INNitiative
Teatro LATEA @ The Clemente on Monday, 7/23 @ 3:00PM

Jennifer Houlton's Last Will and Testament
Benefiting International Association for Suicide Prevention
Teatro LATEA @ The Clemente on Tuesday, 7/17 @ 3:00PM

Michaela Jeffrey's The Listening Room
Benefiting Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired
Teatro LATEA @ The Clemente on Thursday, 8/2 @ 3:00PM

Janelle Lawrence's Group Therapy
Benefiting Hudson Valley Mental Health
Teatro Latea @ The Clemente on Friday, 7/27 @ 3:00PM

Kristen Lowman's The Island of No Time (A Timeless Tale)
Benefiting The Retreat
Teatro Latea @ The Clemente on Thursday, 7/19 @ 3:00PM

Joyce Miller's The Handmaid's Dianetics
Benefiting GLAAD
Teatro LATEA @ The Clemente on Tuesday, 7/31 @ 3:00PM

Jerry Polner's She Started It
Benefiting Alliance for a Greater New York
Teatro Latea @ The Clemente on Friday, 7/20 @ 3:00PM

Barry Lee Sheppard's Eulogy Turnstile
Benefiting The Joyful Heart Foundation
Teatro LATEA @ The Clemente on Monday, 7/30 @ 2:30PM

Allan Staples's The Irish Goodbye
Benefiting Planned Parenthood
Teatro Latea @ The Clemente on Wednesday, 7/25 @ 3:00PM

Steven Mark Tenney's ray gun say0nara
Benefiting World Wildlife Foundation
Teatro LATEA @ The Clemente on Monday, 7/16 @ 3:00PM

Roderic Wachovsky's DEHAAN or What the Butler Didn't See
Benefiting Gilda's Club
Teatro LATEA @ The Clemente on Tuesday 7/24 @ 03:00PM