Playwrights Horizons 2nd Annual Benefit 'STORIES ON 5 STORIES' Set For November 14 Featuring Works By Craig Lucas, Mark O'Donnell, Kirsten Childs and More

By: BWW News Desk Sep. 28, 2005

Acclaimed theater company Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) has announced it will present the return of its unique and second-annual benefit evening "STORIES ON 5 STORIES" on Monday, November 14. Featuring seven playlets and one song by eight of the theater's acclaimed alumni writers Kirsten Childs, Tom Donaghy, David Greenspan, Craig Lucas, Mark O'Donnell, Theresa Rebeck, José Rivera and Craig Wright, the evening will celebrate the theater's beautiful home at 416 West 42nd Street and benefit its annual programs and productions.

Running five minutes in length, each work is being written specifically for the evening, inspired by and performed in one location of the theater company's 5-story headquarters. While noted for its two state of the art theaters, the building will host each playlet in such site-specific, non-traditional locations as the Men's Room and the beneath-the-stage Trap Room. The theme for this year's plays is "Reality."

The plays will be performed concurrently, each repeated eight times in its own location. Attendees will travel throughout the building in small groups in order to see each work, and each will be performed by separate casts. Participating performers will be announced in the coming weeks.

"Playwrights Horizons' community of artists and supporters remains understandably proud of its new performing spaces, which have been open to audiences for over two and a half years now," said Artistic Director Tim Sanford. "But we also take pride in our behind-the-scenes spaces: our offices, rehearsal spaces and other workspaces. Last year's Stories on Five Stories succeeded in celebrating our new home and reuniting many members of our extended community for a fun evening of theater. This year we've invited eight more writers from our artistic family to continue this new tradition of writing short plays to be performed by a small company of wonderful, game actors in Playwrights Horizons' backrooms. The writers have enthusiastically embraced this event, as much to work with us again as to support the theater. We look forward to this second festive and energizing event."

The schedule for "STORIES ON 5 STORIES" will be as follows:
6:00 PM - Dinner (optional) at Chez Josephine (414 West 42nd Street), attended by Playwrights Horizons staff and Board members, as well as some of the evening's playwrights.

7:30 PM - Event begins

9:00 PM - Post-show reception with artists

Tickets are priced at $150 ("Apprentice" ticket - a single ticket to the shows and reception), $250 (a pair of "Newlywed" tickets to the shows and reception) and $300 ("Idol" ticket - a single ticket for the pre-event dinner, shows and reception).

The event is strictly limited to 200 people, so tickets are anticipated to sell quickly. All net proceeds from the event will benefit the theater's annual programs and productions.

Playwrights Horizons, under the leadership of Artistic Director Tim Sanford and Managing Director Leslie Marcus, is a writer's theater dedicated to the support and development of contemporary American Playwrights, composers and lyricists, and to the production of their new work. In its 35 years, Playwrights Horizons has presented the work of more than 350 writers and is the recipient of numerous awards and honors. Notable productions include four Pulitzer Prize winners: Doug Wright's I Am My Own Wife (2004 Tony Award, Best Play), Wendy Wasserstein's The Heidi Chronicles, Alfred Uhry's Driving Miss Daisy and Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Sunday in the Park with George, as well as Lynn Nottage's Fabulation (2005 Obie Award for Playwriting), Craig Lucas's Small Tragedy (2004 Obie Award, Best American Play), Kenneth Lonergan's Lobby Hero, Kirsten Childs's The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin, Richard Nelson and Shaun Davey's James Joyce's The Dead, William Finn's March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland, Christopher Durang's Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You and Betty's Summer Vacation, Richard Nelson's Goodnight Children Everywhere and Franny's Way, Jon Robin Baitz's The Substance of Fire, Scott McPherson's Marvin's Room, A.R. Gurney's Later Life, Adam Guettel and Tina Landau's Floyd Collins and Jeanine Tesori and Brian Crawley's Violet.

Tickets for "STORIES ON 5 STORIES" can be reserved online by visiting the Playwrights Horizons website http://www.playwrightshorizons.org or by calling Jill Garland, Director of Development, at (212) 564-1235, extension 3140.

For subscription and ticket information to all Playwrights Horizons productions, call TICKET CENTRAL at (212) 279-4200, Noon to 8 pm daily,
or purchase subscriptions online at Playwrights Horizons' website at
http://www.playwrightshorizons.org

THE EVENING'S PLAYWRIGHTS

Kirsten Childs. PH: The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin (1999, Audelco Award, Obie Award, Richard Rodgers Production Award, Edward Kleban Award, Richard Rodgers Development Award, Rockefeller Foundation Multi-Arts Production Fund Grant). Elsewhere: Miracle Brothers. As a performer: Sweet Charity, Jerry's Girls, Chicago.

Tom Donaghy. PH: From Above (1998), Boys and Girls (2002). Elsewhere: The Beginning of August, Down the Shore, Minutes from the Blue Route, Northeast Local. Film: The Dadshuttle.

David GreenSPAN. PH: She Stoops To Comedy (2003). PH as a director: Kate's Diary (1988). PH as a performer: The Wax (2000). Elsewhere: Jack; The Home Show Pieces; 2 Samuel 11, Etc.; Dead Mother, or Shirley Not in Vain; Dog in a Dancing School; Son of an Engineer. As a performer: Hairspray, The Boys in the Band (Obie Award), Small Craft Warnings.

Craig Lucas. PH: Three Postcards (1987, book), Small Tragedy (2004, Obie Award). Elsewhere: The Light in the Piazza (book, Tony Award nomination), God's Heart, Reckless, Blue Window, Prelude to a Kiss, The Dying Gaul, Missing Persons, Stranger, Singing Forest, Orpheus in Love (libretto). Films: Longtime Companion, Prelude to a Kiss, Reckless, The Dying Gaul (also director), The Secret Lives of Dentists (New York Film Critics Award for Best Screenplay). Books: This Thing of Darkness.

Mark O'Donnell. PH: Fables for Friends (1980/1984), That's It, Folks! (1983), The Nice and the Nasty (1986). Elsewhere: Hairspray (Tony Award), Strangers on Earth, Vertigo Park, Tots in Tinseltown (book and lyrics), Moliere's Scapin (adaptation), Feydeau's A Flea in Her Ear (translation). Books: Elementary Education, Vertigo Park and Other Tall Tales, Getting Over Homer, Let Nothing You Dismay.

Theresa Rebeck. PH: The Butterfly Collection (2000), Bad Dates (2003). Elsewhere: Omnium Gatherum (co-written with Alexandra Gersten-Vassilaros), View of the Dome, The Family of Mann (National Theatre Conference Playwriting Award), The Bells (William Inge New Voices Playwriting Award), Loose Knit, Spike Heels, Sunday on the Rocks, Abstract Expression. Film and television: Harriet the Spy, "Brooklyn Bridge," "Dream On," "NYPD Blue" (WGA, Edgar and Peabody Awards).

JOSÉ RIVERA. PH: Cloud Tectonics (1996). Elsewhere: The House of Ramon Iglesia, The Promise, Each Day Dies with Sleep, Slaughter in the Lake, Marisol (Obie Award), Giants Have Us in Their Books, Marciela de la Luz Lights the World, 187, The Street of the Sun. Film and television: The Promise, Lucky, "Eerie, Indiana."

Craig Wright. PH: Recent Tragic Events (2003, ATCA Best New Play Citation Award). Elsewhere: Grace, The Pavilion (American Theatre Critics' Association Best New Play Award), Orange Flower Water, Main Street, Molly's Delicious, The Big Numbers, John Dory, Adventures While Preaching the Gospel of Beauty. Television: "Six Feet Under."

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Playwrights Horizons 2nd Annual Benefit 'STORIES ON 5 STORIES' Set For November 14 Featuring Works By Craig Lucas, Mark O'Donnell, Kirsten Childs and More

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