Found Stages Presents Reading of Edith Freni Play in Wine and Reading Series

Found Stages and Dunwoody Nature Center are joining to present the second play in the second annual "Wine & Reading Series," Edith Freni's THE HYSTERICALS on Sunday, June 9, 2019.

This event, which is part of a series of readings at 2pm on the 2nd Sunday of each month from May through October, will include a meet-and-greet with the featured playwright at receptions with wine and appetizers before and after a reading of their play by Atlanta's most talented professional actors.

Play readings often take place at theaters during the development of a new play, but the public is rarely a part of the process. Found Stages is thrilled to take readings outside the theater and bring them to the community. These concert style readings have a similar effect as an audiobook, as they feature the actors' voices and the playwrights' words without costumes or props. Similar to a "table read" in film and television, readings are an exciting way to discover new plays before they are in theaters.

Play Synopsis (THE HYSTERICALS):

Claire has been the interim administrator of a weekly auto-immune support group for women since the group's founder, and her best friend, Kim decided to take a "sabbatical" several weeks ago. The other members believe that Kim is coming back, but Claire knows the truth and has determined that she must step into a more permanent leadership role. When a mysterious newcomer shows up unannounced, expecting to become a member, Claire's plans for a smooth transition of power are stymied, and each woman must decide for herself whether to stay or go.

"I wanted to tell a story that explores the emotional, interpersonal, and lifestyle effects that a chronic disease diagnosis can have on women, and that dramatizes the conflicts that arise when we start to over-identify with our illnesses." - Edith Freni

Edith Freni holds both her BFA and MFA from NYU's Department of Dramatic Writing. Her work has been produced and developed in New York and nationally at theaters including Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Profile Theatre Company in Portland, OR; EST, EST West, LAByrinth Theater Company, the Williamstown Theatre Festival, Actor's Express in Atlanta, and City Theatre in Miami. Edith is a 3x PONY nominee, a 2x finalist for the Jerome Fellowship and a 2x finalist for the Blue Ink Playwriting Award given by American Blues Theater in Chicago. She has been nominated for the L. Arnold Weissberger Award, the Humanitas Prize and the Primus Award. She was a Kilroy's List Honorable Mention in 2014 (Total Power Exchange) and 2015 (The Stroke). Edith was a long-time member of Youngblood and is a member of Partial Comfort Productions, Ensemble Studio Theater, and the Dramatists Guild. She was a 2015-16 Ingram New Works Lab resident playwright at Nashville Repertory Theater; the recipient of a New Territories Playwriting Residency at Serenbe Playhouse, and a fellowship at the Sewanee Writers' Conference. Edith was the inaugural Emory University Playwriting Fellow from 2014-16, and the 2016-18 Tennessee Williams Playwright-in-Residence at The University of the South. She was also a co-founder of The 24Seven Lab, a NY-based theater incubator that developed the early career work of many amazing (now famous) playwrights from 2004-2011.

Freni opens up about her own battle with autoimmune disease, saying "It was insanely isolating...I spent a lot of time online and found a lot of AI chat groups...It was abundantly clear from the posts that these women were scared, frustrated, in pain, and pretty hopeless. But they were there for each other - for the most part (I mean, it is the internet)."

Found Stages is a nonprofit theater that seeks to build a sense of community by taking plays out of the theater and into real world spaces where people live and work. In 2016, Found Stages received the prestigious and highly competitive Alliance Theatre Reiser Atlanta Artists Lab, and in 2018, the company presented the hit, sold-out Frankenstein's Ball on New Year's Eve at the Highland Inn Ballroom. Learn more at foundstages.org.

For tickets visit: https://wine-and-reading-series.eventbrite.com.

Photo Credit: Edith Freni

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