Kate Walsh & More Set for The Piece Project & VS. Theatre Company's Reading of THE THRUSH AND THE WOODPECKER

THE PIECE PROJECT and VS. THEATRE COMPANY present an exclusive Los Angeles reading of Steve Yockey's THE THRUSH AND THE WOODPECKER on Wednesday, February 24, 2016 at 8pm. Founded by Devon Gummersall and Andrew Carlberg, THE PIECE PROJECT is a celebrity-based theater ensemble. Every two-three months, The Piece Project hosts a play reading to benefit a local Los Angeles theater company. Devon Gummersall will direct this reading of THE THRUSH AND THE WOODPECKER, whose cast includes Daniel Sharman, Brenda Strong and Kate Walsh.

Amy Smart, Matthew Lillard, Adam Brody, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Wes Bentley, Neil LaBute, Ed Asner, Jeremy Sisto, Jason Ritter, Larisa Oleynik, Abigail Spencer, Patrick J. Adams, Brian Geraghty, Winnie Holzman, Justin Kirk and Sharon Lawrence are among the many artists that make up the ensemble of The Piece Project.

For reservations email: thepieceproject@gmail.com

ABOUT VS. THEATRE COMPANY:

VS. Theatre Company, a Not-For-Profit 501c-(3) Public Benefit Corporation, is a small, dedicated group of passionate artists devoted to producing original works and Los Angeles Premieres by the best contemporary playwrights in America. VS. was founded in 2004 based on a passion for riveting stories and live performance in an intimate setting. Recently named "one of the top theatre companies of the last decade" by the LA Weekly, VS. has produced or co-produced major contemporary playwrights including John Patrick Shanley, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Adam Rapp, Itamar Moses, and Neil LaBute. To date, VS. has produced or co-produced sixteen plays. Standouts include: the West Coast Premiere of Keith Bunin's The Credeaux Canvas, which ran for nearly six months and played to sold out houses every night; In Arabia We'd All Be Kings (a co-production with The Elephant Theatre Company), named Best Production by the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle in 2008; On An Average Day, produced in Los Angeles and Chicago, garnering Critic's Choice in the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and Backstage, and won or was nominated for several Ovation, Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, and Joseph Jefferson Awards; Blackbird by Adam Rapp which was nominated for three Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards including two for Best Lead Actor and three LA Weekly Awards including Best Production; and The Los Angeles Premiere of Neil LaBute's The Mercy Seat, a co-production with the Ford Theatre as part of the Ford's prestigious 2011 [Inside] The Ford Winter Partnership Program. The Mercy Seat won two Backstage Reader's Choice Awards for Outstanding Performance and Production, won or was nominated for several LA Weekly Awards, and was voted a "Top Ten of The Year" by the Los Angeles Times. VS. recently opened its own space - The VS. Theatre (site of the former Black Dahlia Theatre) on Pico Blvd., and launched its first production there, The World Premiere of Ron Klier's Cops And Friends Of Cops. The sold out production received excellent reviews including "Pick of the Week" by the LA Weekly, multiple theatre awards and nominations, and extended long after its scheduled closing night.

ABOUT STEVE YOCKEY:

Steve Yockey is a Los Angeles based writer with work produced throughout the country and in Asia. afterlife: a ghost story, Large Animal Games, Octopus, CARTOON, subculture (collected short plays) and Very Still & Hard to See are published & available from Samuel French. Last season: afterlife: a ghost story co-world premiered at Southern Rep in New Orleans (dir. Aimee Hayes) and New Rep in Boston (dir. Kate Warner), Heavier than... premiered at the Boston Court in Pasadena (dir. Abigail Desser) and Bellwether premiered at Marin Theatre Company in Mill Valley, CA (dir. Ryan Rilette). This season: the new play Wolves will open in Atlanta, New Orleans, Phoenix, & Los Angeles and the sex farce The Fisherman's Wife will open in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Other plays include: Pluto, Wonder, The Thrush & The Woodpecker, and Feverish. Steve is a Phi Beta Kappa, Summa Cum Laude graduate of the University of Georgia and holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts (2008). After completing a yearlong National New Play Network residency at Marin Theatre Company, he now lives in Los Angeles, CA where he serves as an adjunct professor in the MFA Writing for Performance program at CalArts. He is the creator and co-executive producer of the Sony Pictures Television project Teeth and is currently adapting the Tama Janowitz novel Slaves of New York into a series for Sony/Wet Dog Entertainment/Killer Films.

ABOUT THE THRUSH AND THE WOODPECKER:

In this modern take on a classic revenge play, Brenda Hendricks has her hands full dealing with her son Noah after he is expelled from a prestigious college and unexpectedly returns to their isolated Northern California home. When an elegant and mysterious woman arrives on their doorstep dragging along buried secrets and unsettling bird stories, Brenda and Noah find their world turned upside down in ways both intimate and epic.

THE THRUSH AND THE WOODPECKER will take place on Wednesday, February 24, 2016 at 8pm. Admission is suggested donation of $20. All proceeds benefit VS. THEATRE COMPANY.

This reading will be held at VS. Theatre, located at 5453 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90019.

To post a comment, you must register and login.