New Works Festival to Run 4/24-26 at Bay Street Theater

Bay Street Theater & Sag Harbor Center for the Arts has announced the 2nd ANNUAL NEW WORKS FESTIVAL, April 24-26. THE READINGS ARE FREE, WITH DONATIONS REQUESTED. Tickets FOR THE PANEL DISCUSSION ON SATURDAY EVENING are available online at www.baystreet.org or by calling the Bay Street Theater Box Office at 631-725-9500, open Tuesday through Saturday 11 am to 5 pm.

The three-day festival will include readings of plays in development by some of New York's most exciting emerging playwrights and a new version of a musical that originally premiered in 1997. The purpose of the festival is to give the playwrights a chance to hear their works in development in front of an audience and to give the audience at Bay Street and East End Community a chance to experience cutting edge voices in the theater. Each play will be read by professional actors in its entirety. This year, the Festival will be focused around the theme of "rediscovery." Two of the three works to be presented have had initial productions, but they are still in the process of development as the writers continue to revise and rediscover their work. Each reading will be followed by a talkback with time for the playwrights and the audience to ask questions of each other and share their reactions to the play. The plays in the festival will be A Delicate Ship by Anna Ziegler, The Green Heart, A Musical with book by Charles Busch and music and lyrics by Rusty Magee, and Plane Play by Julia Brownell.

There will also be an Artist Interact - a Panel Discussion moderated by Tony Award winning producer Ken Davenport and featuring the creators of The Green Heart about the process of developing new musicals and rediscovering and reshaping musicals over the course of years and multiple productions. The panel, to be held at 7 pm on Saturday, April 25, will be followed by a cocktail reception at Bay Street where the audience can meet the writers and other artists involved with the readings.

The Bay Street New Works Festival is curated by Scott Schwartz, Artistic Director at Bay Street Theater, and Will Pomerantz, Associate Artistic Director at Bay Street Theater. The three readings will be complimentary with a donation requested. Call the Box Office at 631-725-9500 to reserve a spot. The panel discussion and cocktail reception will be a $10 ticket. For advance tickets for the panel & party, call the Box Office at 631-725-9500 Tuesday through Saturday 11 am to 5 pm.

Artistic Director Scott Schwartz says, "I am pleased to begin another great season at Bay Street with our second annual New Works Festival. Last year, as part of the panel discussion led by award winning writer John Weidman, there was a need expressed by writers for support for plays and musicals that have had initial productions but are still in the process of development and rewriting. This year, Bay Street is responding to this fascinating conversation by giving authors the opportunity to continue to work on projects that have had previous showings but which are still in the process of revision. As a home for the creation of new work in East End, Bay Street is delighted to offer our audience the opportunity to experience the distinctive voices and visions of exciting playwrights in various stages of development of their work."

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