Rapp, Kron & Corthron Set for Play Co's Idea Lab at New Dramatists, 10/26

A panel of prominent American playwrights including Kia Corthron, Lisa Kron and Adam Rapp, will discuss with celebrated photographer Ken Collins how they approach creating portraits with words and with a camera, respectively at a one-time-only event entitled "Face to Face: Portraits in Theatre and Photography" on Monday, October 26 at 7 p.m. at New Dramatists in Manhattan. Presented by the Off-Broadway theater company, The Play Company as part of its Idea Lab series, in conjunction with Umbrage Editions, the evening will also feature brief excerpts from the playwrights' work along with an exhibition of photographs from "In Their Company," a series of black and white portraits by Mr. Collins that portray some of America's most distinguished playwrights. A reception follows in the New Dramatists Library.

Part of a decade-long project to document the creative genius of the often-unseen authors of some of America's best dramas, Mr. Collins has published more than 60 of these portraits in his recent book by the same title, In Their Company (Umbrage Editions), winner of an Independent Publisher Book Awards Silver Medal, with interviews by Victor Wishna. Included in the book are such renowned playwrights as Neil Simon, Edward Albee, Wendy Wasserstein, Tony Kushner, and Marsha Norman. This exhibition also showcases new photographs just created for the series, with portraits of Lisa Kron, Young Jean Lee, Adam Rapp, Sarah Ruhl, Edwin Sanchez, and Anna Ziegler.

Admission to "Face to Face" is free but reservations are required, and may be arranged by calling Linda Bartholomai at 212.398.2977 or via email to Linda.Bartholomai@gmail.com.

Ken Collins received his BFA from the Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA, in 1981. He teaches at the International Center for Photography, New York. Represented by the Gitterman Gallery, New York, Ken has enjoyed a long career as a New York-based editorial photographer working for New York Magazine, The New York Times, Artnews, as well as photographing for the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum, and the American Museum of Natural History, New York. His photographs are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and other collections.

Kia Corthron's A COOL DIP IN THE BARREN SAHARAN CRICK will premiere March 2010, co-produced by Playwrights Horizons, the Culture Project and The Play Company. Last spring TRICKLE was part of Ensemble Studio Theatre's One-Act Marathon. Other plays include MOOT THE MESSENGER (Actors Theatre of Louisville's Humana Festival), LIGHT RAISE THE ROOF (New York Theatre Workshop), SNAPSHOT SILHOUETTE (Minneapolis' Children's Theatre), SLIDE GLIDE THE SLIPPERY SLOPE (ATL Humana, Mark Taper Forum), THE VENUS DE MILO IS ARMED (Alabama Shakespeare Festival), BREATH, BOOM (London's Royal Court Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, Yale Repertory Theatre, Huntington Theatre and elsewhere), FORCE CONTINUUM (Atlantic Theater Company), SPLASH HATCH ON THE E GOING DOWN (New York Stage and Film, Baltimore's Center Stage, Yale Rep, London's Donmar Warehouse), SEEKING THE GENESIS (Goodman Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club), DIGGING ELEVEN (Hartford Stage Company), LIFE BY ASPHYXIATION (Playwrights Horizons), WAKE UP LOU RISER (Delaware Theatre Company), COME DOWN BURNING (American Place Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre), CAGE RHYTHM (Sightlines/The Point in the Bronx). Awards include the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Creative Arts Residency in Italy, Playwrights Center's McKnight National Residency, Barbara Barondess MacLean Foundation Award, AT&T On Stage Award, Daryl Roth Creative Spirit Award, Mark Taper Forum's Fadiman Award, National Endowment for the Arts/TCG, Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays, New Professional Theatre Playwriting Award, Callaway Award, and in television a Writers Guild Outstanding Drama Series Award and Edgar Allan Poe Award for THE WIRE. In December BUGS OF THE PIGS IN THE LIONS will be workshopped at the Goodman Theatre. Kia is currently a member of the Dramatists Guild Council and of the Writers Guild of America, and an alumnus of New Dramatists.

Adam Rapp is an Obie-award-winning playwright and director. He is the author of numerous plays, which include NOCTURNE (American Repertory Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop), FASTER (Rattlestick), ANIMALS & PLANTS (A.R.T.), FINER NOBLE GASES (26th Humana Festival, Rattlestick), STONE COLD DEAD SERIOUS (A.R.T., Edge Theatre), BLACKBIRD (The Bush, London; Edge Theatre), GOMPERS, (Pittsburgh City Theatre), ESSENTIAL SELF-DEFENSE (Playwrights Horizons/Edge Theatre), AMERICAN SLIGO (Rattlestick), BINGO WITH THE INDIANS (The Flea), KINDNESS (Playwrights Horizons), and RED LIGHT WINTER (Steppenwolf, Scott Rudin Productions at Barrow Street Theatre), which was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He has also published eight novels, including THE YEAR OF ENDLESS SORROWS (Farrar Strauss & Giroux), UNDER THE WOLF, UNDER THE DOG (Candlewick Press), and PUNKZILLA (Candlewick Press), as well as the recently released graphic novel, BALL-PEEN HAMMER (First Second Books). Among his many awards are The Helen Merrill Award, the Princess Grace Statue, a Lucille Lortel Playwright's Fellowship and the Benjamin H. Danks Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. This coming spring he will direct the world premiere of his play, THE METAL CHILDREN, at The Vineyard Theatre.

Victor Wishna has written for The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post, The Baltimore Sun, The Miami Herald, The Forward, Avenue, Humanities, and other major magazines and newspapers. A graduate of Stanford University and the New School's creative writing MFA program, Victor has interviewed and profiled public figures from statesman Abba Eban to actor Robert DeNiro to celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck. His column "Letter from New York" is syndicated nationally. He lives and writes in New York City.

The Play Company advances an international view of contemporary playwriting, linking New York City artists and audiences to a whole world of plays, and supporting new American writing in this global context. Play Co. produces unusual, ambitious work that reflects and responds to the issues and events that shape our time. Recent productions include the New York premiere of Lloyd Suh's AMERICAN HWANGAP (U.S.), U.S. premieres of Przemyslaw Wojcieszek's MADE IN POLAND (Poland); Robert Farquhar's BAD JAZZ (England); Vijay Tendulkar's SAKHARAM BINDER (India); Yoji Sakate's THE ATTIC (Japan); and The Presnyakov Brothers' TERRORISM (Russia); as well as world premieres of the American plays SMASHING by Brooke Berman and HIGH DIVE by Leslie Ayvazian. Play Co. received a 2007 Obie Award for its "unique contribution to the theatre community." The Play Company is under the guidance of Kate Loewald, Founding Producer, and Lauren Weigel, Managing Producer.

The Idea Lab complements The Play Company's production season with an eclectic series of stand-alone events, including reading presentations of plays and literature, evenings that examine a particular topic through the work of a variety of prose and poetry writers and/or other media, and panel discussions featuring theatre artists, writers, scholars and community leaders. These events may link to a production, or extend our programming to other ideas or issues of interest to the community.

Umbrage Editions, based in New York, produces high-quality visual books, traveling exhibitions, and multimedia projects that explore the world, including educational guides, CD-ROMs, award-winning websites, a theater play, and a PBS documentary film. Umbrage projects vary in subject matter from classic photojournalism to cutting-edge art, from pop culture to global human rights, from the closets of drag queens to the runways of fashion, from the boards of the Broadway stage to the word stage of politics. www.umbragebooks.com

Copies of Ken Collins's and Victor Wishna's book In Their Company will be available for purchase and signing.