The Sheen Center For Thought & Culture Presents The 2nd Annual Sheen Center Theater Festival

The second annual Sheen Center Theater Festival takes place June 21 to 24 at The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture (18 Bleecker Street, at the corner of Elizabeth Street, NYC). Celebrating the voices of emerging and established Catholic playwrights in staged reading presentations, this year's full-length plays tell the stories of a young Nuyorican comic book artist seeking his place in the world, a Montreal family struggling with the aftermath of suicide and gun violence, and a pair of Shakespearean widows testing the freedoms and limitations of widowhood. Admission is free. Reservations are required and can be made online at www.sheencenter.org/shows/festival.

"We started the Sheen Center Theater Festival last year to showcase the best new work by Catholic playwrights, to show that writers who share the Catholic faith can and do create exciting, theatrically vibrant, and well-crafted works of theatre," says Cole Matson, Ph.D., Programming Associate of The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture. "In order to showcase the range of interests and experiences of Catholic writers, we selected a varied group of plays, ranging from Matt Barbot's superhero comedy about Nuyorican identity to Colleen Murphy's intimate excavation of the wounds of gun violence to Emily C.A. Snyder's rollicking feminist take on Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor. We believe all human experiences are legitimate fodder for a Catholic artist to explore. We are also excited to introduce audiences to the work of four professional theatre companies in New York that are informed by a Catholic vision, so audience members know where to go to find exciting, entertaining, and theologically rich theatrical work here in New York."

The Festival schedule:

Thursday, June 21 at 7PM: Festival Opening - Showcase of Catholic Theatre Companies & Conversation with Artistic Directors Opening night features some of the most prominent Catholic theatre companies in New York City, including Turn To Flesh, Xavier, Magis, and Storm, as they showcase excerpts from current shows and engage in a talkback on the importance of theatre with a Catholic vision in today's cultural landscape. The showcase and talkback will be followed by a cocktail reception.

Friday, June 22 at 7PM: Staged Reading - El Coquí Espectacular and the Bottle of Doom by Matt Barbot, directed by Melissa Crespo El Coquí Espectacular and the Bottle of Doom examines the ways in which we define our heritage and ourselves. Alex, a comic book artist whose ideas might be "too Puerto Rican," has begun secretly dressing up as his creation: El Coquí Espectacular, defender of Nuyoricans in all five boroughs! When his brother Joe is fired from a project for not being Puerto Rican enough, the two, with the help of a young photographer named Yesica, hatch a plan: to debut El Coquí at the Puerto Rican Day Parade and prove themselves to the world. A Q&A with the participating artists will follow the reading.

Saturday, June 23 at 7PM: Staged Reading - The December Man by Colleen Murphy, directed by Kathy Gail MacGowan The December Man follows the tale of Jean Fournier, a young man coping with grief and regret after fleeing the massacre at L'École Polytechnique de Montréal in 1989. By exploring the aftermath of the tragic event, the play forces the question: what would we have done had we found ourselves in Jean's situation? This searing drama on courage, heroism and despair explores the long private shadow that public violence casts. A Q&A with the participating artists will follow the reading.

Sunday, June 24 at 2PM: Staged Reading - The Merry Widows of Windsor by Emily C.A. Snyder, directed by Chris Rivera Shakespeare's Merry Wives have become Snyder's Merry Widows in this hilarious sequel with a feminist edge. Alice Ford and Margaret Page find themselves newly autonomous - but while Alice embraces all the possibilities the world has to offer, Margaret continues to mourn the loss of her husband. When news comes that the bastard son of Henry V might be in the town, Alice is told it is her duty to seduce the young man to keep him, and his wealth, in the town. Except, it seems her husband, Francis Ford, isn't quite as dead as everyone thought he was! With an added touch of Hamlet, Shakespearean cross-dressing, and a very confused Dogberry and Verges (who took a left turn at Illyria), The Merry Widows of Windsor is sure to delight audiences of all ages. A Q&A with the participating artists will follow the reading.

The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture (www.sheencenter.org) is a New York City arts center located in NoHo that presents a vibrant mix of theater, film, music, art and talk events. An initiative of the Archdiocese of New York, The Sheen Center serves all New Yorkers by presenting performances and artists that reflect the true, the good, and the beautiful.

Named for the late Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, best remembered as an inspirational author, radio host and two-time Emmy Award-winning television personality, The Sheen Center reflects his modern-day approach to contemporary topics. The Sheen Center is a state-of-the-art theater complex that includes the 270-seat off-Broadway Loreto Theater, equipped with five-camera high-definition TV and live-stream capability and a multi-track recording studio; the 80-seat off-off-Broadway Black Box Theater; four rehearsal studios; and an art gallery.