Second Stage Theatre Fest Includes Two World Premieres

Second Stage Theatre will continue its acclaimed Second Stage Theatre Uptown
Festival this summer with two world premiere comedies: Marisa Wegrzyn's The  Butcher of Baraboo, directed by Carolyn Cantor, and Josh Tobiessen's Election Day, directed by Jeremy Dobrish. 

Both Wegrzyn and Tobiessen are making their New York debuts with this festival.  The plays  will be presented at Second Stage Theatre's uptown home, the McGinn/Cazale Theatre on Broadway at 76th Street.  The Butcher of Baraboo will run May 21 - June 17.  Election Day will run July 16 - August 11. 

Created as a program to help develop and provide exposure for the voices of a new generation of theatre artists, the Second Stage Theatre Uptown Festival has helped launch and advance the careers of several up-and-coming playwrights, including Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (whose play, Based on a Totally True Story, was produced last year at Manhattan Theatre Club), Adam Bock (whose Second Stage Uptown 2005 play Swimming in the Shallows, as well as last year's The Thugs, produced by Soho Rep, were both named one of Time Out's Top Ten Plays of the Year), and Dan O'Brien (who recently received the prestigious 2006/07 Princeton University Hodder Fellowship).  BMr. Aguire-Sacasa and playwright Rajiv Joseph (whose play All This Intimacy was part of last summer's Uptown Festival) recently received one of the  prestigious Time Warner Commissions from Second Stage Theatre.

The festival seeks to develop the skills of emerging playwrights, to provide early-career artists with the support of a major artistic institution, and  to create new plays for the American Theatre.  Each show has a limited rehearsal period, as well as a streamlined budget.

Last year's festival featured two world premiere comedies: Getting Home, written by Anton Dudley and directed by David Schweizer, and Rajiv Joseph's All This Intimacy, directed by Giovanna Sardelli.

The Butcher of Baraboo concerns "Valerie, the butcher of Baraboo, Wisconsin.  Her husband has gone missing and everyone suspects she played a hand, especially her nosy sister-in-law who just happens to be the town sheriff.  And her daughter, a drug-pushing pharmacist, might know more than she lets on.   The Butcher of Baraboo is a black comedy about a butcher, a secret, and one perfectly polished meat cleaver," state press notes.

Marisa Wegrzyn's plays include Killing Women, Psalms of a Questionable Nature, Ten Cent Night, and Hickorydickory. 

In Election Day, "Adam knows his over-zealous girlfriend will never forgive him if he fails to vote. But when his sex starved sister, an eco-terrorist, and a mayoral candidate willing to do anything for a vote all show up, Adam finds that making that quick trip to the polls might be harder  than he thought.  Election Day is a hilarious dark comedy about the price of political (and personal) campaigns."

Playwright Josh Tobiessen's plays have been produced in the Baldwin New Play Festival at USCD and in Ireland in the Galway Arts Festival and Dublin  Fringe Festival. 

Tickets for performances of both plays can be purchased at the Second Stage Theatre Box Office (307 West 43rd Street) or by calling (212) 246-4422.  Advance tickets are not available at the McGinn/Cazale Theater.  Single tickets are $30; advance youth tickets (age 25 and under) are $20; and student rush tickets are $10 (available 30 minutes prior to curtain).  A  2-play subscription is available for $50.

For more information, please visit www.secondstagetheatre.com.