'Take 10' Festival Comes To 59E59 on 4/15 With Lithgow

 Aspen's acclaimed Theater Masters will present its second annual "Take 10," an evening of nine 10-minute plays from aspiring playwrights across the country as part of its National MFA Playwrights competition on April 15-18th at Off Broadway's 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street).  "Actor John Lithgow, Theater Masters' Associate Director  Pesha Rudnick and I  read over 100 scripts submitted from nine of the top graduate playwriting programs to find these remarkable plays from some of the finest young playwrights this country is developing" said Julia Hansen, Theater Masters founder / Artistic Director – and former President of New York's Drama League.  "In many ways, how I started the Drama League's "Director's Project" is how I am now developing new playwrights and giving them their first chance to have their work receive a New York premiere."

The 10-minutes plays are: Back Story by Benjamin Viccellio  from Northwestern University - when life imitates art, one diva loses her sense of reality after too many years in the theater; The Big Exit by John-Paul Nickel from Carnegie Mellon - three contestants on America's next hit reality TV show are in for the surprise of their lives; The Echo, by Jennifer Fawcett from the University of Iowa - a tragic accident haunts the adult soul of a childhood survivor; Fernando and the Killer Queen by Kyle J. Schmidt from the University of Texas - Revolution, mayhem and l'esprit d'Abba ignite the final moments of the ruthless Killer Queen; Frogs by Sam Marks from Brown University - after all an night house party, two young women sit in the kitchen in the dawn light and assess the damage of the previous night, youth, and the past; The Hiding Place by Melisa Tien from Columbia University - a menacing, lyric glimpse at power, sexuality and the workplace; Higher Up by Annette Lee from UCLA - when the 'new guy' shows up for work, two businessmen experience firsthand what it's like to be in the dog house; Man up and Away by Joe Tracz from NYU - on the night of his Going Away to War party, Jordan says goodbye to his little brother Vic -- in the worst possible way; Rocky Road by Stephanie Andrea Timm from UCSD - one family's zany attempt to bring their son home from the war in Iraq.

A sampling of Theatre Masters' casting and directors includes the following: Back Story, directed by Pesha Rudnick – Jacob Knoll as Man; The Big Exit, directed by Heath Cullens – Nick Sullivan as Bernie, Anna O'Donoghue as PA and Juliette Bennett as Cassie; The Echo, directed by Wesley Savick; Fernando and the Killer Queen, directed by Wesley Savick – Ivan Quintanilla as Fernando, Nick Sullivan as Narrator; Frogs, directed by Heath Cullens – Hannah Cabell as Christina, Anna O'Donoghue as Violet; The Hiding Place, directed by Wesley Savick; Higher Up, directed by Pesha Rudnick – Hannah Cabell as Fifi, Ivan Quintanilla as Buster; Man up and Away, directed by Heath Cullens – Jacob Knoll as Jordan; Rocky Road, directed by Pesha Rudnick – Anna O'Donoghue as Daughter, Birgit Huppuch as Mother. (more casting below)

Based in Aspen, Colorado, Theater Masters is a non-profit organization whose core mission is to seek and nurture the next generation of artists for the American Theatre and present their work.

"Take 10" performance schedule is as follows: Tuesday, April 15th at 8PM, April 16th at 7:30PM, April 17th at 4 & 7:30PM, April 18th at 8PM. All tickets are $18 and can be purchased from the Box Office (box office hours: Mon. 12-6; Tues. - Sat. 12-8:30; Sun. 12-7:30), by phone through Ticket Central at 212-279-4200 or online at www.ticketcentral.com