Raul Castillo, Cory Michael Smith & More Set for Roundabout's 2015 Underground Reading Series

Roundabout Theatre Company has announced casting for the fourth annual Roundabout Underground Reading Series, a five-night event that includes nightly readings of new plays written and directed by emerging artists, curtain speeches by Roundabout Underground artist alumni and post-show receptions.

The 2015 series will feature: Christopher Abbott, Vanessa Aspillaga, Cassie Beck, Hannah Bos, Michael Braun, Raul Castillo, Mike Faist, Susannah Flood, Beth Hoyt, Greta Lee, Rey Lucas, Ismenia Mendes, Matthew Montelongo, Olivia Oguma, Shayna Small, Brian J. Smith, Cory Michael Smith, Chris Sullivan, Jason Veasey and Matthew Wilkas.

The Roundabout Underground Reading Series is May 4 - 8 at 7:00PM at the Black Box Theatre in the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre. Tickets are FREE.

Roundabout Underground is an initiative to introduce and cultivate artists in Roundabout's 62-seat Black Box Theatre, at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre (111 West 46th Street, NYC, NY, 10036). Prior productions include the acclaimed world premieres of Stephen Karam's Speech & Debate (2007), Steven Levenson's The Language of Trees (2008), Adam Gwon's Ordinary Days (2009), Kim Rosenstock's Tigers Be Still (2010), David West Read's The Dream of the Burning Boy (2011), Andrew Hinderaker's Suicide, Incorporated (2011), Joshua Harmon's Bad Jews (2012), Meghan Kennedy's Too Much, Too Much, Too Many (2013), and Jeff Augustin's Little Children Dream of God (2015).

Roundabout Underground is an initiative to showcase new plays that will either give a debut production to an emerging writer or director or allow an experienced director to go back to his/her creative roots. Robyn Goodman (Artistic Consultant to the Roundabout) serves as Artistic Producer, with Associate Producers Jill Rafson and Josh Fiedler, for this initiative that continues to be a creative breeding ground for nurturing new talent.

The 62-seat Black Box Theatre, below the Laura Pels Theatre in the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre, allows Roundabout to take artistic risks that are better suited for a more intimate space.

TICKETS INFORMATION

A limited number of FREE tickets to the reading series will be available to general public. Tickets can be reserved by emailing undergroundreadings@roundabouttheatre.org.

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE

There will be one reading each night at 7:00PM, Monday, May 4 - Friday, May 8, in the Black Box Theatre in the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre (111 West 46th Street).

Roundabout's work with new and emerging playwrights and directors, as well development of new work, is made possible by Katheryn Patterson and Tom Kempner.

Major support for Roundabout Underground provided by Jodi and Dan Glucksman.

We gratefully acknowledge the Roundabout Leaders for New Works: Alec Baldwin, Peggy and Mark Ellis, Jodi Glucksman, Sylvia Golden, Judith and Douglas Krupp, K. Myers, Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater, Laura S. Rodgers, Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, Yolanda R. Turocy, Lori Uddenberg, and Xerox Foundation.

Readings and Workshops at Roundabout are generously supported by the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation.

THE SAINTS
By Nathan Dame, directed by Adrienne Campbell-Holt
Monday, May 4 at 7:00PM
Featuring Christopher Abbott, Hannah Bos, Raul Castillo, Ismenia Mendes, Olivia Oguma and Shayna Small

Siblings Madison and Donald never had it easy in the foster care system, and the adult world isn't much better. Donald is in over his head with a drug dealer, while Madison has finally hit bottom with her own habit and abusive boyfriend. She is close to giving up on life altogether when she finds hope in the form of two young Mormon missionaries. And while their way of life may not be what Madison thinks she wants, she is surprised to find they might be exactly what she needs to survive.

MECHANICS OF LOVE
By Dipika Guha, directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch
Tuesday, May 5 at 7:00PM
Featuring Michael Braun, Susannah Flood, Greta Lee and Chris Sullivan

In a mythical European city pressed up against a communist state, it is natural that the business of beginning a new world involves forgetting the old one. But when you forget your wife to marry a ballerina with an artificial spine...and the ballerina forgets you to marry your fashionable wife...and then they both fall in love with the mechanic...suddenly, the ordinary rules of love are impossible to follow. This heightened and heartbreaking new comedy questions the laws that govern love, the physics of choosing a spouse, and the miracle of what endures.

KINGDOM COME
By Jenny Rachel Weiner, directed by Kip Fagan
Wednesday, May 6 at 7:00PM
Featuring Vanessa Aspillaga, Cassie Beck, Beth Hoyt and Rey Lucas

Samantha is lonely and confined to her bed. Layne is shy and too afraid of the world to journey into it. When both women decide that online dating might be the outlet they need, they venture into the wilds of the Internet and find deep connection in each other. The only problem: they're each pretending to be someone else. What happens when the feelings are real but the people are not?

THE MIDNIGHT RIDE OF SEAN & LUCY
By Amy E. Witting, directed by Daniella Topol
Thursday, May 7 at 7:00PM

Most one-night stands end with a walk of shame. This one ends with a lockdown. Last night, Boston-dwellers Sean and Lucy drank their sorrows away together after the bombing of the marathon put the city on edge. They never expected to see each other again, let alone get stuck in Sean's kitchen making small talk while police search for the suspects outside. A couple of strangers and a very strange circumstance make for a surreal morning that the pair will never forget.

ZERO FEET AWAY
By Brian Otaño, directed by Stephen Brackett
Friday, May 8 at 7:00PM

Featuring Mike Faist, Matthew Montelongo, Brian J. Smith, Cory Michael Smith, Jason Veasey and Matthew Wilkas

Max and Peter are models of 21st century urban coupledom: independent, successful, and not completely sold on monogamy. Their friends Clark and Glenn have been in an open relationship for years, but Max and Peter are only now coming around to the idea that the best combination of sex, intimacy, and love may come from more than one partner. Enter Fever, an uber-critical, eerily prescient mobile dating app that changes their relationship in a matter of phone taps. When Max and Clark are offered a major career opportunity in Texas, the two couples must decide whether their professional and romantic relationships can withstand the trials of distance. A contemporary love story about fidelity, maturity, and the masochism of online dating, Zero Feet Away explores whether the direction of progress is best guided by endless choice or singular commitment.

The Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre opened in March 2004 with an acclaimed premiere of Lynn Nottage's Intimate Apparel starring Viola Davis, directed by Dan Sullivan. In the ten years since that landmark production, the center has expanded beyond the Laura Pels Theatre to include the Black Box Theatre and now a new education center. The Steinberg Center continues to reflect Roundabout's commitment to produce new works by established and emerging writers as well as revivals of classic plays. This state-of-the-art off-Broadway theatre and education complex is made possible by a major gift from The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust. The Trust was created in 1986 by Harold Steinberg to promote and advance American Theatre as a vital part of our culture by supporting playwrights, encouraging the development and production of new work, and providing financial assistance to not-for-profit theatre companies across the country. Since its inception, the Trust has awarded over $70 million to more than 125 theatre organizations.

Roundabout Underground's home is a 62-seat Black Box Theatre, which is also used year-round by Roundabout's education department for its activities including student productions and professional development workshops.

Roundabout Theatre Company is committed to producing the highest quality theatre with the finest artists, sharing stories that endure, and providing accessibility to all audiences. A not-for-profit company, Roundabout fulfills its mission each season through the production of classic plays and musicals; development and production of new works by established and emerging writers; educational initiatives that enrich the lives of children and adults; and a subscription model and audience outreach programs that cultivate and engage all audiences.

Roundabout Theatre Company presents a variety of plays, musicals, and new works on its five stages, each of which is specifically designed to enhance the needs of Roundabout's mission. Off-Broadway, the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre, which houses the Laura Pels Theatre and Black Box Theatre, with its simple sophisticated design, is perfectly suited to showcasing new plays. The grandeur of its Broadway home on 42nd Street, American Airlines Theatre, sets the ideal stage for the classics. Roundabout's Studio 54 provides an exciting and intimate Broadway venue for its musical and special event productions. The Stephen Sondheim Theatre offers a state of the art LEED certified Broadway theatre in which to stage major large-scale musical revivals. Together these distinctive homes serve to enhance Roundabout's work on each of its stages.

American Airlines is the official airline of Roundabout Theatre Company. Roundabout productions are supported, in part, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Roundabout's 2014-2015 season includes Coleman, Comden & Green's On The Twentieth Century starring Kristin Chenoweth and Peter Gallagher, directed by Scott Ellis; and the world premiere of Joshua Harmon's Significant Other, directed by Trip Cullman.

Roundabout's 50th anniversary season in 2015-2016 includes: Clive Owen, Eve Best and Kelly Reilly star in Old Times by Harold Pinter, directed by Douglas Hodge; Andrea Martin stars in Noises Off by Michael Frayn, directed by Jeremy Herrin; The Humans by Stephen Karam, directed by Joe Mantello; Keira Knightley in her Broadway debut in a new adaptation of Thérèse Raquin by Helen Edmundson, based upon the novel by Émile Zola, directed by Evan Cabnet; and Joe Masteroff, Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock's She Loves Me, starring Laura Benanti and Josh Radnor, directed by Scott Ellis. The 2015-2016 Roundabout Underground production is Ugly Lies the Bone, a new play by Lindsey Ferrentino, directed by Patricia McGregor.

Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images for GLAAD