The Ensemble Studio Theatre will Present its Month-Long Marathon 2005 27th Annual Festival of New One-Act Plays

According to its press release, "Marathon 2005 offers eleven premieres of one-act plays in three separate evenings. The three series will run in rotating repertory for twelve performances each. The playwrights contributing to Marathon 2005 are Horton Foote, Alexandra Gersten-Vassilaros, John Guare, Warren Leight, David Lindsay-Abaire, Romulus Linney, Kate Long, Craig Lucas, Leslie Lyles, David Mamet, and Cherie Vogelstein."

Guare will premiere his Madagascar (directed by Will Pomerantz), Mamet will be represented by Home (directed by Dempster), and Foote's contribution will be The One-Armed Man (directed by Harris Yulin). Tony Award-winner Warren Leight's one-act Mr. Morton Waits for His Bus will be directed by stage and screen star Andrew McCarthy.

As for the casting of the plays, Rosie Perez will appear in the cast of Lindsay-Abaire's Crazy Eights (directed by Brian Mertes), and Amy Irving is confirmed to perform in Lyles' The Great Pretenders (directed by Billy Hopkins).

Since its inception in 1978, the Marathon has featured new short works by such noted playwrights as Leslie Ayvazian, Christopher Durang, Horton Foote, Herb Gardner, Frank Gilroy, Richard Greenberg, John Guare, Tina Howe, David Ives, Michael John LaChiusa, Craig Lucas, David Mamet, Steve Martin, Arthur Miller, Marsha Norman, Joyce Carol Oates, Paul Rudnick, John Patrick Shanley, Shel Silverstein, Wendy Wasserstein and Tennessee Williams. Past Marathon plays have gone on to full scale Broadway, Off-Broadway, and regional theatre productions. The E.S.T. Marathon has been hailed as America's preeminent forum for one-act plays.

Ensemble Studio Theatre is a not-for-profit developmental theatre founded in 1972 with two primary goals: to nurture individual theatre artists, and to develop new American plays. Under the guidance of founder and Artistic Director Curt Dempster, the theatre's membership has grown from a core of 20 artists to a flourishing community of nearly 450 theatre artists of the highest caliber. Among them are winners of accolades and higher awards including Pulitzer Prizes, Oscars, Tonys, Emmys, and Obies. E.S.T. is a lifelong artistic home for its member playwrights, directors, actors, designers, technical personnel, and administrators. Each year, the Ensemble produces over 300 projects, including readings, staged readings, and fully produced mainstage full-lengths.