TWO MEN WALK INTO A BAR By Monica Bauer To Premiere In TNC's Dream Up Fest

From September 9 to 16, Theater for the New City's Dream Up Festival will present "Two Men Walk Into a Bar" by Monica Bauer, a Cain and Abel story that takes place in a Texas dive bar in the middle of the Iraq War. Bauer is a winner of 13 playwriting awards and gained particular prominence in 2016 as author of "No Irish Need Apply," which was performed by Ireland's Fishamble Theatre at the Kennedy Center and Irish Arts Center. Her "Two Men Walk Into a Bar" will debut September 9 to 16 in Theater for the New City's Dream Up Festival. John Fitzgibbon directs. Performances are 9/9 at 2:00 pm, 9/11 at 9:00 pm, 9/12 at 9:00 pm, 9/15 at 2:00 pm and 9/16 at 8:00 pm.

The play is described by its author as a Southern Gothic comic mystery. The time of the play is the middle of the Iraq war. Billy goes to war while step-brother Franklin stays home and inherits Jerry's Place, the family-owned bar. However, Billy doesn't think the passing of the torch should have been so simple. On leave for their Mama Sue's funeral, Billy finds his meth-addicted wife dead at the bottom of the stairs, or so he says. Will Franklin back up his alibi? When the dead wife, Mama Jean, comes for revenge, will justice be served at Jerry's Place?

The play spins a web of family connections, perceived betrayals, and suspicions. The two brothers are divided by property, life choices and morality. A stepson becomes more like a son while the actual son is away at war. A veteran struggles to reconcile his service to the country with the time he has lost with his family and a wife numbs herself with methamphetamines, only to meet the cold face of a distant husband.

The actors are John Cencio Burgos, Belle Caplis*, Arianna Ennis, Al Foote III, Randall Rodriguez* and Mary Tierney*. Lighting design is by Benjamin Ehrenreich. Sound design is by Andy Evan Cohen. Costume design is by Andrew Wehling. Stage manager is Maxwell Waters.

Playwright Monica Bauer's works have been produced Off Broadway, Off-Off Broadway, regionally, and internationally in London, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and the Brighton Fringe Festival, where "The Maternal Instinct" was a finalist for the New South Writing Prize and took third place in New Works for Young Women. Her education includes a B.A. from Brown, M. Div. from Yale, M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska. Fishamble Theatre of Dublin awarded her "No Irish Need Apply" a place in its Tiny Plays for Ireland and America series, which was performed in the Kennedy Center's festival, "IRELAND 100: Celebrating a Century of Irish Arts & Culture," and at Irish Arts Center of Manhattan. She had two shows in the 2018 Edinburgh Fringe Festival: "Brand New Jew, a DNA Comedy" and "Vivian's Music, 1969." Reviewing her "Made for Each Other" at the Edinborough Fringe, Martin Walker (ScotsGay magazine) wrote, "Not a line, not a word, is wasted in this multi-layered story of dignity, sickness and, above all, truth.... If you'd told me the strongest, most powerful piece of theatre I'd see this fringe would be in the Free Festival, I wouldn't have believed you. Extraordinary. 5 stars." Her "My Occasion of Sin" won the 2012 Urban Stages Emerging Playwright Award. Read about all her 13 playwriting awards on her website, www.monicabauer.com.

Director John Fitzgibbon is an actor, director, composer, and pianist. He directed the off-off Broadway production of Monica Bauer's "Balls! The Testosterone Plays" at The Workshop Theater and Bauer's play for one actor, "Made For Each Other," at the Edinburgh Festival (2012 and 2013) and the United Solo, Orlando and Boulder Fringe Festivals. It was nominated for Best Solo Show at the Planet Connections Theatre Festivity. He has directed plays for Robin Rice Lichtig (Theatre Brut Festivals, NJ Rep and Sam French Festival), and Jean Erdman (Theatre of the Open Eye). He received a Fulbright Scholarship to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts.

Theater for the New City is located at 155 First Ave., at E. 10th Street.

The ninth annual Dream Up Festival (www.dreamupfestival.org) is being presented by Theater for the New City from August 26 to September 16. An ultimate new work festival, it is dedicated to the joy of discovering new authors and edgy, innovative performances. Audiences savor the excitement, awe, passion, challenge and intrigue of new plays from around the country and around the world.

The festival does not seek out traditional scripts that are presented in a traditional way. It selects works that push new ideas to the forefront, challenge audience expectations and make us question our understanding of how art illuminates the world around us.

In addition to traditional plays, a unique and varied selection of productions will again be offered, drawing upon a variety of performance genres including musicals, puppetry and movement theater. The Festival's founders, Crystal Field and Michael Scott-Price, feel this is especially needed in our present time of declining donations to the arts, grants not being awarded due to market conditions, and arts funding cuts on almost every level across the country and abroad.