Theater For The New City Presents Angry Young Women in Low Rise Jeans...

In what has become an annual holiday season attraction, Theater for the New City will reprise "Angry Young Women In Low-Rise Jeans With High-Class Issues," the raucous comedy by Matt Morillo, from December 2 to 12. Following its TNC run in 2007, the show has had an Off-Broadway run in NYC, multiple engagements in Hollywood and Sydney (Australia) and a TNC return engagement in 2009, but it never seems to exhaust its audience. For the first time, an American production will be directed by a woman, Bobbi Masters.

The piece, a light-to-serious look at the psychology of nervous urban goddesses, parades a series of foxy, witty, anxious women who bear the expectations of the world like an itchy muffler. In a series of skits, they go head to head with such issues as Electra complexes, bikini waxes, low-rise jeans, oversexed mothers, thongs, brazen teenagers, men's sexual fantasies, side effects of birth control drugs, mean teenagers on the subway, sympathy sex and the artistic integrity of penises and vaginas in independent films. The show bills itself as "An Outrageous Comedy" and its postcards declare "Even though it's a play, it doesn't suck." The show's website is www.angryyoungwomen.net. The play, Morillo's first, was published by Samuel French, along with Morillo's "All Aboard the Marriage Hearse" (TNC, 2008) and "American Soldiers" (TNC, 2010).

This year's production will feature an all-new cast of Ivan Perez, David Jenkins, Paul Eddy, Mia Van De Water, Angelica Rose Sirabella, Laurie Berich, Kitty Lindsay, Darlene Rae Heller, Shara Ashley Zeiger and Julia Giolzetti.

Director Bobbi Masters, originally from Texas, was an Artistic Associate at Kitchen Dog Theater, where she directed "Happy Days" and "The Juniper Tree" and several staged readings for the National New Play Network. She was also an Artistic Associate at Milk Can Theatre Company, where she directed "Painting It Matisse" by Sharon Cooper, "State of the Union" by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer and "Newton's Genesis" by ML Kinney. Currently, she is Resident Director of Coffee Black Productions in Brooklyn, where she has directed "Stealing Season" by Topher Cusumano, The Abduction of Persephone" by Topher Cusumano, Ethan Kanfer, and Zac Kline; "The Last Time I Saw Him Alive" by Ethan Kanfer and "Eating in Bed" by Erin Austin. (www.bobbimasters.com)

Immediately following this run, from January 6 to 29, 2011, TNC will present the premiere of Matt Morillo's next play, "The Inventor, The Escort, The Photographer, Her Boyfriend and His Girlfriend," directed by the author. It's a new comedy about two couples searching for love in all of the wrong places.

PRODUCTION HISTORY OF "ANGRY YOUNG WOMEN..."
In the winter of 2006, writer/director and then-filmmaker Matt Morillo simply wanted to tell some funny stories about relationships and produced "Angry Young Women" as a lark, thinking it would be a one-time thing. The show's success has been attributed to its broad appeal to both sexes.

"Angry Young Women In Low-Rise Jeans With High-Class Issues" premiered at the Duo Theater in New York's East Village January 19 to February 25, 2006 and was revived by Theater for the New City, NYC January 4 to February 24, 2007. An Off Broadway production opened at The Players Theater on MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village on July 12 and closed October 20, 2007. In Sydney, Australia, Stella Green Productions produced 31 performances with an Australian cast and director from August 14 to September 2, 2007 and revived it with 27 performances from January 9 to February 9, 2008. The play was subsequently mounted in Brisbane, Australia from July 9 to 25, 2009 at the Visy Theater. A West Coast production was presented at Hudson Mainstage on Hollywood's Theater Row in October and November, 2008. TNC presented a return engagement December 3 to 20, 2009.

ABOUT Matt Morillo
Originally a filmmaker, born and raised in Hicksville (Long Island), Matt Morillo made an auspicious theatrical debut in 2006 with "Angry Young Women In Low-Rise Jeans With High Class Issues." This play, Morillo's second comedy,"All Aboard the Marriage Hearse" (TNC, 2008) and his family drama, "American Soldiers" (TNC, 2010), have all been published by Samuel French Inc.

Prior to his theatrical shift, Morillo was a fixture on the New York independent film scene for ten years. He debuted at 23 with his romantic comedy, "The Pretenders," a film with a cast of unknowns and a non-existent budget that became an enjoyable, funny and ultimately touching film about twenty-somethings struggling with life's ups and downs. His next project, "Good Tidings," was a fifteen-minute short film about a young girl suffering through her parents' divorce. It received great praise at film festivals for its realism and honesty. His third film, "Maid Of Honor," was a twenty-five minute comedy about a simple guy trying to hook up with the maid of honor at a wedding. It was a hit on the festival circuit, winning three awards and playing to sold-out theaters. (Audiences pleaded for copies of the film).

Theater for the New City has been Morillo's creative home since 2007. He writes, "TNC has afforded me the opportunity that is the dream of every artist. To be able to hone my abilities in an environment where they support, promote, nurture and inspire you to push, grow, and stretch all of your abilities to levels that perhaps even you yourself do not think are possible. Without concern for commercialism or conformity, TNC creates an environment that cannot possibly be described in one word. But I will try to describe in four: creative, daring, progressive and passionate. Actually, I think I can describe TNC in one word: Art!"

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