Workshop Theater Company Announces 'Couples' Directors

Directors have been announced for The Workshop Theater Company's series of two-character plays written by Rich Orloff, entitled Couples. All the featured shows have previously appeared in festivals across the country, winning such awards as the Tennessee Williams Playwriting Competition and Palm Springs National Short Play Festival Circle's Choice Award.   The production runs May 9 through 19.

Featured Directors include:
David Gautschy (Oh Happy Day, Afternoon Sun, Class Dismissed), who is also supervising director for the evening, is artistic director of Tantalum Theatre Project.

Paula D'Allesandris (Invisible Woman, Right Sensation, Heart of the Fire) is artistic director of Mind the Gap Theatre, has directed at Irish Arts Center, 59E59 Theaters, the WorkShop, and was director of three consecutive winners at the Samuel French One-Act Play Festival.

Philip Emeott (Matterhorn, Lion Tamer, Oh Happy Day) directed The Last Spoken Word in last summer's FringeNYC, and has directed at Boomerang Theatre Company, Oberon Theatre Ensemble and New Jersey Rep.

Featured plays in Couples include:

Matterhorn, the winner of 2005 Palm Springs National Short Play Festival Circle's Choice Award, about a bickering couple waiting in line at Disneyland coming up with a novel solution to their marital woes.

Class Dismissed, in which a college professor involved is forced to resign in a scandal, when one of his students arrives in his office with a provocative question.

Lion Tamer, about a woman giving a man a tour of the home she's selling when the conversation shifts from "'for-sale' to foreplay."

Afternoon Sun, the winner of 1998 Tennessee Williams Playwriting Competition, follows a man and a woman meeting in a hotel for a tryst, where the woman gets her need met by a particularly surprising source.

Heart of the Fire is the story of a waitress in an East Village bar who gets an unwanted visit and an unpleasant request from a man she knows.

Oh Happy Day follows two men in a long-term relationship unwinding at home after work, where one has a surprise present for the other.

Invisible Woman is a look into the multilayered thoughts and emotions of a shy women when her self-satisfied boyfriend asks her, "How are you?"

Right Sensation is about an eager couple who meet in a bar and end up in an apartment, both hoping for sex but ending up with something more.

Couples stars (in alphabetical order) Anthony Aibel, Leslie Alexander, C.K. Allen, Michael Anderson, Marie-Pierre Beausejour, Peter Farrell, Ken Glickfeld, Justin Holcomb, Cailin McDonald, Richard Mover, Wende O'Reilly, Vinnie Penna, Jaqueline M. Raposo, Christine Verleny, Jess Cassidy White, and L.B. Williams. Michael Palmer is the Stage Manager.

The show runs Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8 pm, May 9 through 19.  Tickets are $15; $12 for students with valid ID.  For reservations, call (212) 695-4173, extension 4.  The WorkShop Theater Company's Jewel Box Theater is located at 312 W. 36th St, on the 4th floor, just off 8th Avenue.