Playwrights Horizons Holds STORIES ON 5 STORIES Fundraiser, 10/17

Acclaimed theater company Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) has announced it will once again present its popular, annual benefit evening STORIES ON 5 STORIES. This year's event, set for Monday evening, October 17, will feature new works by seven of the theater's alumni writers: Tanya Barfield (Blue Door at PH), Bathsheba Doran (Kin at PH), Obie Award winner Daniel Goldfarb (The Retributionists at PH), Eric Overmyer (The Heliotrope Bouquet... at PH), Jonathan Marc Sherman (Sophistry at PH), Jeanine Tesori (Violet at PH) and Alfred Uhry (Driving Miss Daisy at PH). Each play will be performed in a different, unconventional space throughout all five stories of Playwrights Horizons' home at 416 West 42nd Street, and the entire evening will benefit the company's developmental programs and productions.

This year's theme for STORIES ON 5 STORIES is Dirty Laundry. Promotional materials state: "Come see NYC's finest writers and actors air their Dirty Laundry. Seven of Playwrights Horizons' favorite writers will hang it out on the line for everyone to see. Be one of only 200 guests to watch the drama unfold as we present new short plays in unique settings throughout our building. Maybe a quarrelling couple will iron things out in the costume shop. Or you'll see who has a laundry list of issues in the ladies room. One thing's for sure: It'll all come out in the wash. Join us for a special ‘Spin Cycle' dinner with the artists at Chez Josephine, the restaurant next door, before the show."

Mr. Uhry's new work will feature 5-time Tony Award nominee Dana Ivey (Mr. Uhry's Driving Miss Daisy, as well as Sunday in the Park with George, The Savannah Disputation, The Uneasy Chair and The Baby with the Bathwater, all at PH). Additional performers will be announced in the coming weeks.

For the first time in connection with STORIES ON 5 STORIES, Playwrights Horizons is offering a special online auction to give one attendee the chance to create a role in one of the evening's new playlets. Up for auction is a walk-on role in the new work by Mr. Uhry starring Ms. Ivey. To bid, visit www.biddingforgood.com/playwrightshorizons now through Friday, September 30.

Event Board Chair is Rachel Wilder. Patron Chair is Carole Schwartz. Generation PH Chair is Evan Thayer. Generation PH is a group of young supporters aged 40 and under.

"STORIES ON 5 STORIES is one of our favorite events here at Playwrights Horizons," said Artistic Director Tim Sanford. "What started in 2004 as a special event to showcase our then-new home has blossomed into an annual celebration of original writing, unconventional staging and community. Patrons and artists alike have grown to love this event not just because it is such a high caliber ‘unique theatrical experience,' but also because it so manifestly represents who we are as a company.

"Every year, the unusual journey through our back spaces and offices leads our guests to see some of our most cherished New York actors an arm's length away, as well as hear each writer's unique take on the same theme. By the end of the evening you have a true appreciation for the depth of imagination of these writers, the generosity and spiritedness of the actors, and the infectious love for theater that animates the whole event."

The schedule for STORIES ON 5 STORIES will be as follows:

6:00 PM - Pre-show dinner (optional) at Chez Josephine (414 West 42nd Street), attended by some of the evening's writers and performers as well as Playwrights Horizons senior staff and Board members.

8:00 PM - Event and performances begin.

9:00 PM - After party with participating writers, directors and actors.

Tickets for STORIES ON 5 STORIES will go on sale beginning Tuesday, August 16. As of that date, tickets can be reserved by visiting the Playwrights Horizons website www.playwrightshorizons.org or by calling Michelle Kiefel at (212) 564-1235, extension 3143. Tickets are priced at $175 (a single ticket to the shows and exclusive after-party with writers and actors) and $325 (a single ticket for the pre-show, sit-down dinner, shows and after-party).

The event is strictly limited to 200 people, and it is anticipated that tickets will sell quickly. All net proceeds from Dirty Laundry will benefit developmental programs and productions at Playwrights Horizons.

Playwrights Horizons 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. Under the leadership of artistic director Tim Sanford and managing director Leslie Marcus, the theater company continues to encourage the new work of veteran writers while nurturing an emerging generation of theater artists. In its 41 years, Playwrights Horizons has presented the work of more than 375 writers and has received numerous awards and honors, including a special 2008 Drama Desk Award for "ongoing support to generations of theater artists and undiminished commitment to producing new work." Notable productions include five Pulitzer Prize winners: Bruce Norris's Clybourne Park (2011 winner), Doug Wright's I Am My Own Wife (2004 Tony Award, Best Play), Wendy Wasserstein's The Heidi Chronicles (1989 Tony Award, Best Play), Alfred Uhry's Driving Miss Daisy and Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Sunday in the Park with George - as well as Annie Baker's Circle Mirror Transformation (three 2010 Obie Awards including Best New American Play), Bathsheba Doran's Kin, Adam Bock's A Small Fire, Edward Albee's Me, Myself & I, Melissa James Gibson's This (2010 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize finalist), Doug Wright, Scott Frankel and Michael Korie's Grey Gardens (three 2007 Tony Awards), Craig Lucas's Prayer For My Enemy and Small Tragedy (2004 Obie Award, Best American Play), Adam Rapp's Kindness, Sarah Ruhl's Dead Man's Cell Phone, Lynn Nottage's Fabulation (2005 Obie Award for Playwriting), Kenneth Lonergan's Lobby Hero, David Greenspan's She Stoops to Comedy (2003 Obie Award), Kirsten Childs's The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin (2000 Obie Award), Richard Nelson and Shaun Davey's James Joyce's The Dead, Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's Assassins, William Finn's March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland, Christopher Durang's Betty's Summer Vacation and Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You, Richard Nelson's Goodnight Children Everywhere, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty's Once on This Island, 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.

For subscription and ticket information to all Playwrights Horizons productions, call Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200, Noon to 8 pm daily, or purchase online at the Playwrights Horizons website at www.playwrightshorizons.org.