World Premieres by Neil LaBute, Roger Hedden, Albert Innaurato & More Set for SUMMER SHORTS 2014, 7/18-8/30

Throughline Artists will present SUMMER SHORTS 2014, their eighth annual festival of new American short plays from established and emerging writers, at 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street). Performances will begin Friday July 18th, and continue through Saturday August 30th only.

Featured will be six world premieres from some of the theater's finest established and emerging artists, including Roger Hedden (The Sky and the Limit, directed by Billy Hopkins), Albert Innaurato (Doubtless, director TBA), Eric Lane (Riverbed, directed by Matthew Rauch), Warren Leight (Sec. 310, Row D, Seats 5 and 6, director TBA), Neil LaBute (The Mulberry Bush, directed by Maria Mileaf), and Daniel Reitz (Napoleon In Exile, directed by Paul Schnee). Rebecca Lord-Surratt will provide scenic design, with costume design by Meghan Healey, lighting design by Greg MacPherson, and sound design and original music by Nick Moore.

Summer Shorts returns for another summer of new American one-acts featuring original plays by the country's top playwrights. Representing some of today's best writing, directing and acting talents, Summer Shorts celebrates theater, summer and the short form. The festival's two separate series offer a diverse range of voices, styles, and subject matter. Summer Shorts 2014 offers six world premiere one-act plays, presented as two separate evenings of three each. The two series will run in rotating repertory. The New York Times called Summer Shorts "shamelessly clever and deeply satisfying!"

Throughline Artists (J.J. Kandel, Executive Producer; John McCormack, Producing Artistic Director) is committed to preserving the traditions of the theater for the next generation by providing opportunities for established professionals to work with and pass on knowledge to emerging artists.

Roger Hedden's (The Sky and the Limit) plays have been produced by Ensemble Studio Theatre, Naked Angels, Atlantic Theater Company, Montana Rep and Florida Stage, among others. His play Bodies, Rest, and Motion premiered at Lincoln Center Theatre directed by Billy Hopkins. He adapted Bodies, Rest, and Motion for the screen and co-produced the Fine Line film. As a producer, he gathered five writer friends to co-write the MGM film Sleep With Me. He subsequently wrote and directed the Lions Gate release Hi-Life. For television he wrote a guest episode of Criminal Minds. His one-act plays Deep In The Hole, If I Had..., and Play With The Penguin have been produced in Summer Shorts. He is a graduate of Columbia University and was the recipient of an N.E.A. Playwriting Fellowship. He lives in Missoula, Montana. This is the tenth of his plays to be directed by Billy Hopkins.

Albert Innaurato (Doubtless). A well-known American playwright from the mid 1970's until roughly 1990. His plays included Gemini, The Transfiguration of Benno Blimpie, Ulysses in Traction, Passione, and Gus and Al, among others. He did some negligible work in movies and TV. He was known briefly for his TV play, Verna, the USO Girl. In the 1990s, Innaurato worked extensively as an arts journalist, writing frequently but not exclusively about opera. He was a (too) regular contributor to Opera News, The New York Times Arts and Leisure section, and contributed to Vanity Fair, Vogue, Conde Nast Traveler, and New York Magazine. He lectured about music, usually when asked, and wrote program notes for a great many concert and opera presenters. He was born in Philadelphia and having been discarded by all these employers was forced back there in 2004. He is very grateful to John McCormack and J.J. Kandel for the first interest in a play by him in fifteen years.

Neil LaBute (The Mulberry Bush) received his Master of Fine Arts degree in dramatic writing from New York University and was the recipient of a literary fellowship to study at the Royal Court Theatre, London, and also attended the Sundance Institute's Playwrights Lab. His films include In the Company of Men; Nurse Betty; Your Friends and Neighbors; Possession; The Shape of Things (a film adaptation of his play by the same title); The Wicker Man; Lakeview Terrace; Death at a Funeral; Some Velvet Morning and the upcoming Dirty Weekend. LaBute's plays include Filthy Talk for Troubled Times; bash: latter-day plays; The Shape of Things; The Mercy Seat; The Distance from Here; Autobahn; Fat Pig; Some Girl(s); This Is How It Goes; In A Dark Dark House; Wrecks; Reasons to be Pretty; The Break of Noon; In a Forest, Dark and Deep, Lovely Head; Reasons to be Happy; Things We Said Today (a recent collection of short plays and monologues) and the upcoming The Money Shot (MCC) and The Way We Get By (Second Stage). LaBute has also adapted Dracula, Woyzeck, Miss Julie and Antigone for the stage. Seconds of Pleasure, a collection of his short fiction, was published by Grove Atlantic.

Eric Lane's (Riverbed) award-winning plays have been published and performed in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia and China. Plays include Filming O'Keeffe and Ride (Dramatists Play Service), Times of War (Dramatic Publishing), Heart of the City and Dancing on Checkers' Grave (Playscripts). Eric's short works are published in Best American Short Plays and the Foreign Language Press (Beijing). With Nina Shengold, he has edited 13 contemporary play anthologies for Viking Penguin and Vintage Books. Eric wrote and produced the short films First Breath and Cater-Waiter, which he also directed. Both films played in over 40 cities worldwide, including screenings at the British Film Institute, the Directors Guild of America and the Joseph Papp Public Theatre. Honors include a Writer's Guild Award, the Berrilla Kerr Playwriting Award and the La MaMa Playwright Award. Fellowships at Yaddo, VCCA and St. James Cavalier in Malta. Commissions: Adirondack Theatre Festival Founders Fund for New Work. Eric is an honors graduate of Brown University. He is artistic director of Orange Thoughts, a not-for-profit theater and film company in NYC. www.ericlanewrites.com

Warren Leight's (Sec. 310, Row D, Seats 5 and 6) Side Man won the 1999 Tony Award for Best Play. His other theater includes Glimmer, Glimmer and Shine, No Foreigners Beyond This Point, James and Annie, Mayor, and Leap Of Faith. He has been Executive Producer and showrunner of "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," "Lights Out," and "In Treatment" (Peabody Award). He is currently Executive Producer and showrunner for "Law & Order: SVU." Mr. Leight is a council member of the Dramatists Guild.

Daniel Reitz's (Napoleon In Exile) plays include Turnabout, Studies For A Portrait, Fall Forward, Rules of the Universe, Limited Engagement, Perfect Evening, Chat, Urban Folk Tales, and You Belong To Me, and have been developed or produced at Ensemble Studio Theatre, Manhattan Class Company, Mark Taper Forum, Naked Angels, New York Stage and Film, Playwrights Horizons, Primary Stages and Rising Phoenix Repertory, and in London and Berlin. He adapted his play Urban Folk Tales as the feature film Urbania, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won "Best Film" honors at L.A. Outfest, Frameline, NewFest, and the Provincetown Film Festival prior to its release by Lionsgate Films. Honors and awards include a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship, a New York Innovative Theatre Award, New Dramatists' Lippmann Award, and commissions from EST/Sloan Foundation, Baltimore CENTERSTAGE, and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. His plays have been published by New York Theatre Experience, United Stages, Playscripts, and Smith & Kraus. He is an alumna of New Dramatists and a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre and Rising Phoenix Repertory.

Now celebrating its 10th year, 59E59 Theaters (Elysabeth Kleinhans, Artistic Director; Peter Tear, Executive Producer) is the Drama Desk Award-winning theater complex located on 59th Street between Park and Madison Avenues in Manhattan. Owned and operated by the Elysabeth Kleinhans Theatrical Foundation, a not-for-profit foundation, 59E59 Theaters brings new, innovative and invigorating work to New York audiences. 59E59 Theaters presents Off Broadway productions by not-for-profit companies from across the United States and around the world, including Brits Off Broadway, the annual festival of new British theater, East to Edinburgh, a preview of shows going to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and the new 5A Season in Theater A, which features five exciting NYC premieres from theaters across the United States.

Performances will be Tuesday through Thursday evening at 7:15 pm, Friday & Saturday evenings at 8:15pm, Saturday matinees at 2:15 pm and Sundays at 3:15 pm and 7:15 pm.

Tickets are $25 each (59E59 Members $17.50). Tickets can be purchased at the Box Office (Monday 12-6pm, Tuesday - Thursday 12-7:30pm, Friday & Saturday 12-8:30pm, Sunday 12-7:30pm); by phone at 212-279-4200; or online at www.59e59.org. Regular service fees apply to phone and online purchases.

Looking for A PAIR OF SHORTS? See both Series A & B for only $40 (plus applicable service fees). Good for performances through August 13th only. Hurry - tickets must be purchased by August 4th!

For more information, please visit www.summershortsfestival.com or www.throughlineartists.org.

Photo by Walter McBride