The New School for Drama Presents New Voices Playwrights Festival, 4/8-4/24

The New School for Drama presents the New Voices Playwrights Festival, a novel series featuring seven original plays performed in repertory from April 8-24 at The New School for Drama Theater. This festival, advised by award-winning director and faculty member Jim Simpson, highlights the work of the graduating MFA playwrights, directors, and actors and is free and open to the public. Working with professionals in the New York theater world like Simpson is one of the foundations of the Drama students' experience at The New School.

"An ambitious program of seven new plays-a season's worth of work!" said Simpson. "I hope many join us to see these graduating students' work." Simpson has been teaching Directing The First Production to third-year students earning an MFA in directing.

Simpson is the founder and artistic director of The Flea Theater, winner of the 2004 Drama Desk Award cited for Downtown Adventurous Theater. He is also a two-time Obie-award winner, the 2002 National Board of Review Excellence in Filmmaking Award recipient, and has been cited for artistic leadership in Downtown New York by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council in 2002. He has directed more than 70 works for the theater and has also directed for film and television. Venues include nine seasons at the Williamstown Theater Festival, Alley Theater, Hartford Stage, Yale Rep, Actor's Theater of Louisville, Eisenhower Theater at the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Playwrights Horizons, Ensemble Studio Theater, Classic Stage Company, MCC, the London International Theater Festival, and the Melbourne Fringe Festival. Simpson holds degrees from Boston University School for the Arts and the Yale Drama School.

"We are truly thrilled that Jim is working with us at The New School," said Robert LuPone, director of The New School for Drama. "His expertise in directing and experience as the artistic director of The Flea Theater, especially working with new plays, is proving invaluable to the students' training and to the festival, which builds on the legacy of collaboration and experimentation at The New School."

Admission to the Playwrights Festival is free but reservations are recommended. Please call Ticket Central at 212.279.4200 or visit www.ticketcentral.com.

FESTIVAL SCHEDULE
NEW VOICES
April 8-24, 2010

DOGS AT THEIR MASTER'S TABLE, OR THE PANOPTICON
by Victor Lesniewski, directed by John Hurley
April 8: 7:00 p.m.; April 10: 9:00 p.m.; April 22: 7:00 p.m.
When a unique blend of citizens and prisoners of war find themselves jailed together, they begin to forge new relationships and explore how far they can stretch the rules of their confines. Opposite them, a prison attendant struggling to write a eulogy for his estranged father risks his own life in seeking answers from a prisoner who was his father's friend. Although the prisoners are told they are to be "reconditioned" and returned to society, the uncertainty of their future forces them to find hope in the bare essentials of human connection.

STRANGER IN MY BODY
by Garlia Cornelia Jones, directed by Mason Beggs
April 8: 9:00 p.m.; April 10 7:00 p.m.; April 22 9:00 p.m.
Stranger in my Body tells the story of Jacqueline, a black woman, and Abia, a bi-racial, male-identified female. Struggling with her own religion and sexuality, Jacqueline must negotiate her relationship with Abia as he decides whether or not to begin the surgeries that will fully transition him into the man he truly is.

BIG TEX
by Angela Hanks, directed by Lucia A. Peters
April 9: 7:00 p.m.; April 10: 1:00 p.m.; April 23: 7:00 p.m.
Big Tex, a fifty-two foot tall cowboy, looms above the State Fair of Texas announcing events and greeting passers-by with a friendly "Howdy." Willie James, a school bus driver, has always admired Big Tex and when the opportunity arises for him to become the voice behind the man, he plans to rise to the challenge.

ST. LOUIS THREW A PARTY AND THE WHOLE WORLD CAME
by E.J.C. Calvert, directed by Barrett Hileman
April 9: 9:00 p.m.; April 10: 3:00 p.m.; April 23: 9:00 p.m.
William Lemp, a successful beer manufacturer, plans to entrust his thriving business to his children upon his retirement. Before he can complete the transition, an unexpected death sends the Lemps spiraling into tragedy until the entire once-prominent family becomes mired in rumor, scandal, and death death death.

RUPERT'S DROP
by Jessica Hinds, directed by Sarah Volage Bellin
April 15: 7:00 p.m.; April 16: 9:00 p.m.; April 24: 1:00 p.m.
When Layla is reunited with her step-father, she is hurtled backwards through 24 years of terror caused by his unexplained disappearances during her youth. Rupert's Drop is an exploration of abandonment and loneliness, and the ambiguous pull of self-destruction as we attempt to heal and connect.

A PLAY IN FIREWORKS
by Danielle Staubitz, directed by Elizabeth Carlson
April 15: 9:00 p.m.; April 17: 9:00 p.m.; April 24: 3:00 p.m.
Always obsessively trying to pinpoint the exact moments her life is going wrong, Abe has made a habit of pushing people away. Now, trapped in the pyrotechnics of her failed relationships, she returns from a year hiding in Europe haunted by an ancient story of war-torn Athens and forced by guilt and regret to confront the loved ones she left behind.

GREEN RIVER
by Rachel White ('09), directed by Joan Kane
April 16: 7:00 p.m.; April 17: 7:00 p.m.; April 24: 7:00 p.m.
Edith is a young math genius trapped in a tiny and crumbling mining town. Forced to care for her ailing father and wildly rebellious sister, Edith has sadly accepted this life as the only one she'll ever know. This fact has put her in danger of becoming permanently cold and withdrawn-until she meets the loner and drifter, Charlie. Charlie sees beneath Edith's icy exterior, and recognizes her raw talent and dormant ambition, and she is equally drawn in by him. But when Charlie tries to convince Edith to run away with him, Edith must choose between her beloved family and a true chance at freedom.

The New School for Drama Theater
151 Bank Street, 3rd Floor
New York City

Free general admission.
Reservations recommended.
Please call Ticket Central at 212.279.4200 or visit www.ticketcentral.com.

NEW VOICES is generously supported by the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust.
About The New School for Drama
At The New School for Drama, the instinct to create is revered. Through its interrelated three-year MFA program in acting, directing, or playwriting, the school is forging the next generation of dramatic artists. A faculty of working professionals brings to the fore each student's unique and original voice and helps them establish a rooted sense of who they are as individuals and as artists. The New School's history in the dramatic arts began in the 1940s, when the Dramatic Workshop, led by founder Erwin Piscator and a faculty including Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg, fostered artistic voices as distinctive as Tennessee Williams and Marlon Brando. For more information, visit www.drama.newschool.edu.