Simple Machine to Offer EPIMYTHIUM Staged Reading, 8/24

Simple Machine, in partnership with the Resident Lab at Charlestown Working Theater, presents a staged reading of Daniel McCoy's new play Epimythium on Sunday, August 24 at 4 PM at the Charlestown Working Theater at 442 Bunker Hill Street in Charlestown, Massachusetts. The reading will be directed by Hondo Weiss-Richmond featuring a cast of Boston-area actors. Admission is free to the public. Reservations are encouraged and can be made at simplemachinethatre.com.

Epimythium tells the story of the widely influential but largely unrecognized writer Marie de France. Known only by her first name and her body of work, Marie was a 12th century poet whose fables and romances helped shape English literature two hundred years before Chaucer. In Daniel McCoy's new play, fantasy and reality collide as Marie's epic tales of love, betrayal, and deceit are the seed for a new vision of her life and secrets. This imaginative script combines theatre, puppetry, film, and animation to discover the world of Marie de France and share her amazing stories.

"With every Simple Machine venture, we try to take on something challenging we haven't done yet," says Simple Machine Co-Founder and Producer Anna Waldron. "We are thrilled to be involved in the early development of this script and to be working with the playwright to get this play to its next stage. What drew us to this script was not only the excitement of discovering Marie de France, but Daniel's insightful exploration into the function and necessity of storytelling, in a way that integrates a variety of seemingly disparate methods of performance."

Daniel McCoy is a playwright and performer based in New York City. His plays include Epimythium, Cleave, Alligator, Eli and Cheryl Jump, and Group. Daniel's work has been produced or developed at such venues as the New York International Fringe Festival, Lark Play Development Center, The Tank, Naked Angels, The Flea, Source Theatre Festival in Washington DC, and The Elephant Theatre Company in Los Angeles. A member of the New York Neo-Futurists since 2009, Daniel performs regularly in the late-night show Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind (30 Plays in 60 Minutes), for which he has written over 150 very short plays. He also co-created, wrote, and performed in the NYNF main stage show (un)afraid (New York Innovative Theatre Award nominee for Outstanding Performance Art Production) and NYNF Lab shows On the Future, Soft Hydraulics, and Mute. Daniel is currently pursuing his MFA in Playwrighting at Hunter College under the mentorship of Tina Howe.

Simple Machine launched in 2012 with the New England premiere of rogerandtom, Julien Schwab's meta-theatrical comedy about two estranged brothers and the fourth wall between them. This past November, Simple Machine presented the Jeffrey Hatcher adaptation of Henry James' gothic classic The Turn of the Screw in two historic Boston homes, directed by M. Bevin O'Gara. That production was nominated for four IRNE Awards including Best Lighting Design (Small/Fringe) for Ian King's atmospheric use of two non-traditional venues, Best Actress (Small/Fringe) for Anna Waldron's performance as an eager young English governess, Best Actor (Small/Fringe) for Stephen Libby's performance in multiple roles including the estate's housekeeper and a troubled ten-year-old boy, and Best Play (Small/Fringe) for the production itself, which the Boston Globe called "A haunting production ... an imaginative alternative to traditional theater."

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