Thirteenth Street Repertory Theatre Presents BETWEEN PRETTY PLACES

Susan Merson, Producing Artistic Director of the Thirteenth Street Repertory Theatre has assembled a passionate group of artists for this musicalized version of her Gothic-style play, BETWEEN PRETTY PLACES, about the choices a central California family must make when they are thrust into supernatural circumstances. Directed by John Hadden, a founding member of the Berkshires' well-respected Shakespeare & Company, and featuring Ellen Parker, Philip Callen, Julie Fitzpatrick, Jemma Kosanke, and Heather Rasche.

Amid eerie encounters around an ancient tree, three generations come to terms with what they owe to love - and what love owes them - when the daughter of a rural couple returns from death to claim her own child. BETWEEN PRETTY PLACES is based on a true story.

Lush and haunting music and lyrics provided by Shellen Lubin, with additional music by Matthew Gandolfo.

BETWEEN PRETTY PLACES, the play, enjoyed runs in New York at HERE and in California at the Pacific Resident Theatre.

BETWEEN PRETTY PLACES heralds a return to quality and professionalism at the 13th Street Playhouse. New works, learning intensives, premieres, guest artists, and musical works create a busy and exciting 2015-2016 season at the landmark theatre. Rumor has it of a new and exciting production of the theatre's signature piece, LINE.

Susan Merson has a long history of supporting and developing new plays and playwrights as the Founder/Producing Artistic Director of New York Theatre Intensives (NYTI) and through her work at such theatres as New Dramatists, Manhattan Theatre Club, Lion Theatre (which she co founded) and the O'Neill Theatre Center. Her mentoring skills have been polished through significant time on Broadway, in regional theatre and in the Off-Off Broadway developmental world. Her first play, REFLECTIONS OF A CHINA DOLL was produced Off Broadway at the Ensemble Studio Theatre which seeded her ongoing relationship as an active artist and board member of EST on both coasts. Coming to Los Angeles, Susan co-founded and served as moderator for the Los Angeles Writers Bloc with writer Jane Anderson, which has supported the work of such writers as Donald Margulies,(Pulitzer), Noni White and Bob Tzudiker(Tony for Newsies), Irene Mecchi (Lion King), Janet Fitch (White Oleanders) and countless others since the 1980's.She has served as Artistic Director of the Streisand Festival for New Plays, Associate Producer at the Fountain and Mark Taper Forum, Resident Playwright for the Jewish Women's Theatre Project, Literary Manager of the Ensemble Studio Theatre/ LA and has worked as a reader for Fogwood Films, TNT, and Polygram and many others. Her many plays have been seen at theatres across the US and Canada. She currently leads the programs of New York Theatre Intensives in association with the artists of Ensemble Studio Theatre, of which she is a member, League of Professional Theatre Women and is currently a Resident Playwright in the America -In -Play cohort. New fiction in progress: MURDER: A NOVEL has just been selected as a PITCH Week finalist at Words That Count Writers Retreat.

Shellen Lubin recently completed The Quality of Respect, her take on Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. Her play, Imperfect Flowers, played to rave reviews in Omaha, Nebraska, as part of SNAP!Fest ("a night when acting and lights and music and a glorious script all come together into something bordering on magic," Omaha World-Herald.) The first act of the play, a one-act entitled Anthesis, also received raves in L.A. when it played at the West Coast Ensemble. Her first musical in NYC, Molly's Daughters, was commissioned by American Jewish Theatre. Other plays and musicals have been performed in productions and staged readings at thePublic Theatre, Henry Street Settlement, Manhattan Class Company, and many other venues.

Matthew Gandolfo, in 2001, scored the Off-Broadway show Dressing Room (SoHo Playhouse) which led to a position as resident composer for Pax Amicus Castle Theatre, where he scored dozens of productions from The Jungle Book to The Crucible. As co-founder of Veritas Musicals, a company dedicated to the creation of educational theater, his work has been heard throughout the United States (recent productions: Birmingham Performing Arts Center, Rising Stars PAC). Matthew's score for Castle Shakespeare's Oedipus The King, a suite composed for prepared piano and voice, premiered at the Player's Theater in NYC, and his arrangements for Gravity Radio premiered at BAM's 2009 Next Wave Festival. Since 2005, Matthew has toured internationally as music director for Mikel Rouse's The End of Cinematics (First World Tour) Dennis Cleveland (Luminato) Gravity Radio (New Orleans Contemporary Art Center) and most recently The Demo (Stanford Live 2015).

John Hadden is very pleased to join Susan Merson & Co in this project. Born in Berlin, childhood overseas, Hadden was a founding member of Shakespeare & Company (Lenox, MA), where he worked for twenty years. He was cofounder/artistic director of Counterpoint Theater (Boston), artistic director of the Hubbard Hall Theater Co (Cambridge, NY) and associate artist with We Players (San Francisco). 100+ projects in Berlin, Cologne, Leningrad, New York, at US regional theaters, TV pilots, radio, independent films, in schools and universities. His own plays and a short film have won awards and have been seen at PS 122, LaMama, EST Octoberfest, the Wharton Salon and the Boston International Film Festival. His writing has appeared in literary journals, he is a New England States Touring artist, member of the Authors Guild, and on the Vermont juried roster of teaching artists. BFA: SUNY Purchase; MFA: Goddard College. His book Travels with a Masked Man is due out in February (Arcade Publishing); his solo show by the same name is an ongoing project, as is his two-hander adaptation of Lear,King Fool.