Works By Lapine, Meyer & More To Be Featured In STORIES ON 5 STORIES 11/1

Acclaimed theater company Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) has announced it will present its popular benefit evening STORIES ON 5 STORIES Monday, November 1. The event will feature new works by six of the theater's alumni writers and one rising star and PH staffer: Michael Cyril Creighton (PH debut; writer, creator and star of the hit online sitcom "Jack in a Box"), Kate Fodor (100 Saints You Should Know at PH; Hannah and Martin), Obie Award winner Melissa James Gibson (This at PH; [sic], Suitcase), Tony-Award-winning composer Jack Herrick (Wilder at PH; Broadway's Fool Moon), Tony-Award-winning director/librettist James Lapine (Sunday in the Park with George, March of the Falsettos, Falsettoland and Fran's Bed all at PH; Into the Woods), Marlane Meyer (Moe's Lucky Seven and The Chemistry of Change at PH; "Law & Order: Criminal Intent") and Peter Parnell (An Imaginary Life, The Rise and Rise of Daniel Rocket, Romance Language all at PH). The event will take place at Playwrights Horizons' home at 416 West 42nd Street, and will benefit the company's annual programs and productions.

This year's theme for STORIES ON 5 STORIES is The Devil You Know. Promotional materials state: "How many devils do you know? Seven of Playwrights Horizons' favorite writers will tackle the devils they know and flirt with the devils they don't at our one-night-only, one-of-a-kind fundraiser, STORIES ON 5 STORIES. New York's finest actors perform short plays in unique locations throughout our five-story building; be one of 200 guests to watch a drama unfold in the costume shop or share a comedic moment in a stairwell. A guaranteed devilishly delightful evening."
Participating performers will be announced in the coming weeks. Past STORIES actors have included Reed Birney, Judith Blazer, Veanne Cox, Brian Dennehy, Rosemarie DeWitt, Linda Emond, Ana Gasteyer, Annie Golden, Jessica Hecht, Andrea Martin, Debra Monk, Kelli O'Hara, Annette O'Toole, Alison Pill, Carrie Preston, Jamie Lynn Siegler, Phyllis Sommerville, Mary Testa, Christopher Evan Welch, Dianne Wiest and Chip Zien.

Event Board Chair is Amy McIntosh. Patron Co-Chairs are Evan Hoffman and Eugene Paceleo. Generation PH Chair is Marisa Sechrest. Generation PH is a New Group of young supporters aged 40 and under.

"STORIES ON 5 STORIES is truly a unique event, one that I look forward to every year for its unparalleled originality and for the sense of community it inspires in all who attend: patrons and artists alike," said Artistic Director Tim Sanford. "I'm thrilled to invite this outstanding and eclectic group of artists to write pieces that, whether they take place in the box office or a dressing room, will celebrate our beautiful building, the inherent creativity of theater, and the legacy of Playwrights Horizons. And the after party can't be beat."
The schedule for STORIES ON 5 STORIES will be as follows:
6:00 PM - Pre-show dinner (optional) at Chez Josephine (414 West 42 Street), attended by Playwrights Horizons staff and Board members, as well as some of the evening's playwrights.

8:00 PM - Event and performances begin.

9:00 PM - After party with participating artists.

Tickets are priced at $175 ("The Devil Made Me Do It" ticket - a single ticket to the shows and after party) and $325 ("Dinner with the Devil" ticket - a single ticket for the pre-event dinner, shows and after party). Tickets will go on sale to the General Public on Wednesday, September 22.

The event is strictly limited to 200 people, and it is anticipated that tickets will sell quickly. All net proceeds from the event will benefit the theater's 2010-2011 programs and productions.
Playwrights Horizons gratefully acknowledges Cabana Cachaça for generously providing authentic Brasilian Cabana Cachaça cocktails for this event.

Playwrights Horizons, celebrating its 40th Anniversary Season, is a writer's theater dedicated to the support and development of contemporary American Playwrights, composers and lyricists and to the production of their new work. Under the leadership of artistic director Tim Sanford and managing director Leslie Marcus, the theater company continues to encourage the new work of veteran writers while nurturing an emerging generation of theater artists. In its 40 years, Playwrights Horizons has presented the work of more than 375 writers and has received numerous awards and honors, including a special 2008 Drama Desk Award for "ongoing support to generations of theater artists and undiminished commitment to producing new work." Notable productions include four Pulitzer Prize winners: Doug Wright's I Am My Own Wife (2004 Tony Award, Best Play), Wendy Wasserstein's The Heidi Chronicles (1989 Tony Award, Best Play), Alfred Uhry's Driving Miss Daisy and Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Sunday in the Park with George, as well as Annie Baker's Circle Mirror Transformation (three 2010 Obie Awards including Best New American Play), Bruce Norris' Clybourne Park, Melissa James Gibson's This (2010 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize finalist), Doug Wright, Scott Frankel and Michael Korie's Grey Gardens (three 2007 Tony Awards), Craig Lucas's Prayer For My Enemy and Small Tragedy (2004 Obie Award, Best American Play), Adam Rapp's Kindness, Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's Assassins, Sarah Ruhl's Dead Man's Cell Phone, Bruce Norris's The Pain and the Itch, Lynn Nottage's Fabulation (2005 Obie Award for Playwriting), Kenneth Lonergan's Lobby Hero, David Greenspan's She Stoops to Comedy (2003 Obie Award), Kirsten Childs's The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin (2000 Obie Award), Richard Nelson and Shaun Davey's James Joyce's The Dead, William Finn's March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland, Christopher Durang's Betty's Summer Vacation and Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You, Richard Nelson's Goodnight Children Everywhere and Franny's Way, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty's Once on This Island, Jon Robin Baitz's The Substance of Fire, Scott McPherson's Marvin's Room, A.R. Gurney's Later Life, Adam Guettel and Tina Landau's Floyd Collins and Jeanine Tesori and Brian Crawley's Violet.
Tickets for STORIES ON 5 STORIES can be reserved beginning September 22 by visiting the Playwrights Horizons website www.playwrightshorizons.org or by calling Michelle Kiefel at (212) 564-1235, extension 3143.

For subscription and ticket information to all Playwrights Horizons productions, call Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200, Noon to 8 pm daily, or purchase online at the Playwrights Horizons website at www.playwrightshorizons.org.

THE EVENING'S WRITERS

Michael Cyril Creighton is the writer/creator/star of the popular online sitcom "Jack in a Box," which is an Official Selection of the 2010 New York Television Festival. Like its main character, he is also a box office manager, at Playwrights Horizons. He was recently seen in The Debate Society's BUDDY COP 2 at The Ontological-Hysteric Theater. Other theatre includes: The Debate Society's You're Welcome at The Brick, Joshua Conkel's MilkMilkLemonade (NY Press's Best Off-Off Show of 2009), The Debate Society's CAPE DISAPPOINTMENT (PS 122), the New York City premiere of Christopher Durang's The Vietnamization of New Jersey (Off-Broadway), Delaney Britt Brewer's An Octopus Love Story, Rachel Shukert's Sequins for Satan, 365 Days/365 Plays (Public Theater), RIP ME OPEN (co-written with Desiree Burch and OBIE Award Winner Kyle Jarrow) and co-wrote and performed the solo show The Hermitage Of An Exiled Chain Smoker (Fringe NYC).

Kate Fodor's plays have been produced by Playwrights Horizons (100 Saints You Should Know), Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Epic Theatre Ensemble, San Jose Repertory Theatre, London's Courtyard Theatre and Chicago's TimeLine Theatre, among others. 100 Saints You Should Know was a top-10 pick of the year in Entertainment Weekly and Time Out NY. She is a recipient of the Kennedy Center's Roger L. Stevens Award, the National Theatre Conference's Stavis Award, a Joseph Jefferson Citation, an After Dark Award and a finalist position for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. She has taught playwriting at the University of Pennsylvania and is a proud member of New Dramatists.

Melissa James Gibson's plays include This (2010 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize finalist), [sic] (Obie Award for playwriting, Kesselring Prize, The Best Plays of 2001-2002); Suitcase or, those that resemble flies from a distance (NEA/TCG Theatre Residency Program for Playwrights, Rockefeller Foundation's Multi-Arts Production Fund); Brooklyn Bridge, with a song by Barbara Brousal (AT&T Onstage award); All Is Not (New York State Council on the Arts Theatre Artist Commission); and Current Nobody, a loose adaptation of Homer's Odyssey (2005 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize Finalist; 2006 Sundance Theatre Lab). Gibson's work has been produced at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Soho Rep, La Jolla Playhouse and The Children's Theatre Company, as well as many other theaters, regionally and internationally. Gibson is a graduate of Yale School of Drama and New Dramatists and the recipient of a 2006 Lucille Lortel Foundation Playwrights' Fellowship and a 2007 Guggenheim Fellowship.

Jack Herrick is the Artistic Director for, and performer with the Red Clay Ramblers, touring internationally. He and the band have recorded and produced numerous studio albums, soundtracks, and movie scores, as well as appeared on shows ranging from "A Prairie Home Companion" to "The Tonight Show." As a composer and lyricist, he's co-created the musicals Wilder (Playwrights Horizons), Kudzu, Ear Rings, Cool Spring, Tar Heel Voices, Glory Bound, Lonestar Love, A Child's Christmas in Wales and Pericles; children's musicals Rip Van Winkle and the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Johnny and the Apple Tree and Bah! Humbug! (2006 Kevin Kline Award). Plays with music include Sam Shepard's A Lie of the Mind and Fool Moon (1999 Tony Award). Most recent projects include composing and performing the score for Hamlet (Folger Shakespeare Library). He and Ramblers partner Bland Simpson are currently working on Famous Creoles, a musical about William Faulkner and his publisher Horace Liveright, set in New Orleans in the 1920's.
James Lapine has been associated with Playwrights Horizons since 1979. His plays and musicals produced at Playwrights Horizons include Table Settings; March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland with William Finn; with Stephen Sondheim the workshops of Sunday in the Park with George and Into the Woods; The Moment When; and Fran's Bed. Additional works include Passion (with Sondheim); A New Brain, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and the upcoming Little Miss Sunshine (all with Finn); The Diary of Anne Frank, Golden Child and Amour (all as director). He has also penned the plays Twelve Dreams; Luck, Pluck & Virtue; The Moment When; and Mrs. Miller Does Her Thing.

Marlane Meyer's plays include Moe Lucky Seven, The Chemistry of Change (Playwrights Horizons ); Etta Jenks; The Geography of Luck; Kingfish; and The Mystery of Attraction. She has also written for the television show "Law & Order: Criminal Intent."

Peter Parnell's plays produced by Playwrights Horizons include The Rise and Rise of Daniel Rocket, Romance Language, Hyde in Hollywood, Flaubert's Latest and An Imaginary Life. His other plays, including Trumpery, QED, The Cider House Rules and Sorrows of Stephen, were originally produced by The Atlantic Theater, Lincoln Center Theater Company, The Public Theater, Seattle Rep and the Mark Taper Forum. For television, Parnell was a co-producer for "The West Wing" and a producer for "The Guardian," "Inconceivable" and "Six Degrees." His children's book, And Tango Makes Three (Simon & Schuster), co-authored with Justin Richardson, was an American Library Association Notable Book and won the Henry Bergh Award, Gustavus Meyer Award, and Living the Dream Book Award. Parnell is current Vice President of the Dramatists Guild.

 

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.