The Piece Project and Celebration Theatre Team for Reading of Theresa Rebeck's SPIKE HEELS Today

THE PIECE PROJECT and Celebration Theatre present an exclusive Los Angeles reading of Theresa Rebeck's SPIKE HEELS tonight, January 28, 2013 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 SPIKE HEELS, which will feature Patrick J. Adams, Elaine Hendrix, Jenn Liu and Jeremy Sisto.

The founding ensemble consists of the following artists: Ed Asner (THE Mary Tyler Moore SHOW, UP), Wes Bentley (AMERICAN BEAUTY, THE HUNGER GAMES), Adam Brody (THE O.C., THANK YOU FOR SMOKING), Billy Burke (THE TWILIGHT SAGA), Andrew Carlberg (Producer), Johnny Clark (Vs. Theatre Company), Michelle Clunie (QUEER AS FOLK, MAKE IT OR BREAK IT), David Denman (THE OFFICE, BIG FISH), Devon Gummersall (STATE OF MIND, MY SO-CALLED LIFE), Elaine Hendrix (JOAN OF ARCADIA, ROMY AND MICHELE'S HIGH SCHOOL REUNION), Jon Huertas (CASTLE, GENERATION KILL), Tom Irwin (SAVING GRACE, MY SO-CALLED LIFE), Ron Klier (Vs. Theatre Company), Neil LaBute (THE SHAPE OF THINGS, NURSE BETTY), Sharon Lawrence (NYPD BLUE, GREY'S ANATOMY), Jenn Liu (PEDRO, TWO AND A HALF MEN), Larisa Oleynik (HAWAII FIVE-0, 10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU), ERIK PALLADINO (ER, ANSWERS TO NOTHING), Jeremy Sisto (SUBURGATORY, SIX FEET UNDER), Amy Smart (CRANK, THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT), Lauren Stamile (GREY'S ANATOMY, BURN NOTICE), Rider Strong (BOY MEETS WORLD, CABIN FEVER), Tessa Thompson (FOR COLORED GIRLS, VERONICA MARS) and Vincent Ventresca (THE INVISIBLE MAN, FRIENDS).

Celebration Theatre is a community of artists dedicated to presenting innovative, provocative and relevant work that examines the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender experience. We endeavor to challenge society's perception of this community and give a vibrant voice to its evolving identity.

Celebration Theatre was founded in 1982 by gay rights pioneer (and Mattachine Society co- founder) Chuck Rowland. Celebration Theatre has existed as the only community-based professional theatre in Los Angeles endeavoring to accurately represent the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community to itself and to the community at large. Celebration moved to its present location in 1993 and hired its first full-time Artistic Director. With these changes, Celebration moved into the professional arena and has achieved major artistic recognition. The theatre steadily developed an audience and rose to its current award-winning, critically acclaimed state.

Past New York productions of Rebeck's work include Dead Accounts (starring Katie Holmes), Seminar (starring Alan Rickman), and Mauritius (starring F. Murray Abraham) on Broadway; The Scene, The Water's Edge, Loose Knit,The Family of Mann and Spike Heels at Second Stage Theatre; Bad Dates and The Butterfly Collection at Playwrights Horizons; and View of the Dome at New York Theatre Workshop. Omnium Gatherum (co-written, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2003) was featured at the Humana Festival, and had a commercial run at the Variety Arts Theatre in 2003. Her play The Understudy, premiered at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in the summer of 2008, with a cast including Reg Rogers, Bradley Cooper and Kristen Johnson, and ran in New York at the Roundabout Theatre from October 2009 - January 2010, featuring Julie White, Justin Kirk, and Mark-Paul Gosselaar in the cast.

In television, Rebeck has written for Dream On, Brooklyn Bridge, L.A. Law, American Dreamer, Maximum Bob, First Wave, and Third Watch. She has been a writer/producer for Canterbury's Law, Smith, Law & Order: Criminal Intent and NYPD Blue. She also created and executive produced the first season of NBC's hit Smash. Her produced feature film screenplays include Harriet the Spy, Gossip, and the independent feature Sunday on the Rocks.

Rebeck's other publications include Free Fire Zone, a book of comedic essays about writing and show business. She has written for American Theatre magazine and has had excerpts of her plays published in the Harvard Review. Rebeck's first novel, Three Girls and Their Brother, was published in 2008 by Random House/Shaye Areheart Books.

She has received awards including the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Award, the Writers Guild of America Award for Episodic Drama, the Hispanic Images Imagen Award, and the Peabody Award, all for her work on NYPD Blue. She has won The National Theatre Conference Award (for The Family of Mann), and was awarded the William Inge New Voices Playwriting Award in 2003 for The Bells. Mauritius was originally produced at Boston's Huntington Theatre, where it received the 2007 IRNE Award for Best New Play as well as the Eliot Norton Award. In 2010, Rebeck was honored with the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award for an American playwright in mid-career.

Rebeck is a board member of The Dramatists Guild and the Lark Play Development Center in New York City, and has taught at Brandeis University and Columbia University. Rebeck is married, residing with her husband, Jess Lynn, and two children, Cooper and Cleo in Brooklyn.

ABOUT SPIKE HEELS: Interior Pygmalion goes awry in this contemporary comedy of manners which explores sexual harassment, misplaced amour, and the possibility of a four sided love triangle. The combatants are a sexy, volatile young woman and three Back Bay types a writer, a lawyer and a fiancee in sensible shoes.

SPIKE HEELS will take place tonight, January 28, 2013 at 8pm. Admission is $20. All proceeds benefit Celebration Theatre. This reading will be held at Celebration Theatre, located at 7051 Santa Monica Boulevard, West Hollywood, Calif. For reservations email: thepieceproject@gmail.com.

Pictured: Patrick J. Adams

To post a comment, you must register and login.