Actors Theatre of Louisville Presents Evening of World Premiere Plays With THE TENS, Now thru 1/17

Artistic Director Les Waters and Managing Director Jennifer Bielstein are pleased to announce the lineup of The Tens, an evening of world premiere ten-minute plays. The Tens runs tonight, January 13 - 17, 2015 in the Victor Jory Theatre.

Tickets to The Tens are free and available by calling the Actors Theatre Box Office at 502.584.1205. It is recommended that patrons reserve their tickets in advance.

The Tens will feature a bill of eight ten-minute plays:

• 6,600 Volts by Robyn Carroll
• The Anthropology Section by Patricia Cotter
• Not Another 9/11 Play by Sonny Das
• The Markers by Martyna Majok
• Cabin Fever by Brendan Pelsue
• The Q & A by John Rooney
• Blissful Orphans by Kyle John SchmidtSo Unnatural a Level by Gary Winter

The Tens is the Apprentice/Intern (A/I) Company's first fully produced theatre event this season, following a series of solo performances and ensemble-devised workshop productions created in the fall. Produced annually, The Tens features a lineup of world premiere ten-minute plays, culled from the National Ten-Minute Play Contest's open submission process. The lineup features an exciting and diverse range of voices, with all plays performed by the 2014-2015 Acting Apprentice Company.

Established in 1989, the National Ten-Minute Play Contest remains one of the most enduring and significant means by which the literary staff at Actors Theatre of Louisville connects with American playwrights and is introduced to vibrant new voices for the stage. Throughout the Contest's history, Actors Theatre has established connections with myriad new playwrights, including Lucas Hnath (The Christians, Death Tax) and Jordan Harrison (The Grown-Up, Maple and Vine), many of whom have gone on to have full-length plays produced in the Humana Festival of New American Plays.

In addition to showcasing writers new to Louisville audiences, The Tens will reunite Actors Theatre with a number of Apprentice/Intern Company alumni. Among them are: Brendan Pelsue (2008-2009), the author of Cabin Fever; Caitlin Ryan O'Connell (2011-2012), director of So Unnatural a Level and 6,600 Volts; and Kyle John Schmidt (2004-2005), author of The Blissful Orphans. Current staff member John Rooney and Literary Intern Robyn Carroll will have their plays premiered during The Tens. In addition, we welcome back playwrights Patricia Cotter (The Anthropology Section) and Gary Winter (So Unnatural a Level), whose work has previously been produced at Actors Theatre.

Descriptions of The Tens world-premiere lineup, along with playwright biographies, are as follows:

6,600 Volts
by Robyn Carroll
directed by Caitlin Ryan O'Connell
dramaturgy by Ariel Sibert

Kate returns to David's place to collect her stuff after their breakup. When David succeeds in repairing an old phonograph, will they finally be able to hear one another? A play about love, history, and an elephant named Topsy.

Robyn Carroll is a dramaturgy/literary management intern at Actors Theatre of Louisville. She is a recent graduate of Centre College, where she studied English, creative writing, and theatre.

The Anthropology Section
by Patricia Cotter
directed by John Rooney
dramaturgy by Ariel Sibert

In this comedic debate over the pros and cons of gay marriage (expectation, disappointment, societal pressures), Marion and Tessa attempt to reconnect in the Anthropology Section of a local bookstore. The Anthropology Section is a comedy about love, loss and the wisdom of Margaret Mead.

Patricia Cotter's awards include the Richard Rodgers Development Award, Ovation Award, Emmy Award, and a GLAAD nomination. Her plays include The Rules of Comedy (Actors Theatre of Louisville's The Tens, Heideman Award finalist), Three, and Best/Worst. Musicals include Ladykillers, The Break Up Notebook, Mulan Jr., and Rocket Science. She has written for Twentieth Century Fox Television, Disney Theatrical and Comedy Central.

Not Another 9/11 Play
by Sonny Das
directed by Michael Legg
dramaturgy by Ariel Sibert

City Hall, Chicago: The anniversary of an American Tragedy. Three courageous staffers face the most pivotal crisis of their young careers. Can the scions of Hope and Change defeat the insidious, entrenched forces of public education, the First Amendment, and Canadian popular music?

Sonny Das is a Chicago-based writer, director, and dramaturg. He's plied these trades at the Goodman Theatre, Silk Road Rising, About Face Theatre, Collaboraction, Strange Tree Group, and American Theater Company, where he's an Artistic Associate and was the dramaturg for the world premiere of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Disgraced. Das is an intrepid graduate of "the Program" at St. John's College, Annapolis and a current M.F.A. Directing candidate at Northwestern University.

The Markers
by Martyna Majok
directed by Marti Lyons
dramaturgy by Kimberly Colburn

Late at night, three patients and a security guard sneak out into the woods behind their state-funded rehab center in Jersey with a knife, a dream, and one very small pumpkin. A play about wanting to make an impact while the rest of the world tries to hide you away.

Martyna Majok was born in Bytom, Poland, and aged in Jersey and Chicago. She's worked with Steppenwolf, Marin Theatre Company, and The Kennedy Center, among others. Awards include the 2050 Fellowship from New York Theatre Workshop, Global Age Project Prize, and NNPN/Smith Prize for Political Playwriting. Majok is a member of EST/Youngblood and Women's Project Lab. She holds a B.A. from the University of Chicago and an M.F.A. from Yale School of Drama.

Cabin Fever
by Brendan Pelsue
directed by Rachel Dart
dramaturgy by Robyn Carroll

Tim and Laura's romantic evening at a remote cabin is interrupted by a ghoulish fire alarm. Is the cabin haunted? And even if it isn't, will their nascent love affair be thwarted by their personal demons?

Brendan Pelsue is a playwright and performer from Newburyport, Massachusetts. Upcoming projects include a new translation of Molière's Don Juan and an adaptation of the Japanese Noh play Hagoromo. He is currently an M.F.A. playwriting student at Yale, and is a proud alumnus of the 2008-2009 Apprentice/Intern Company.

The Q & A
by John Rooney
directed by Sophie Blumberg
dramaturgy by Hannah Rae Montgomery

There are only two rules: Everyone must have a question and everyone must have an answer. On their annual camping trip, brothers Max and Sean bond over their childhood game and discover what it means to be an adult.

John Rooney is the assistant director of the Apprentice/Intern Company. At Actors: assistant director for The Christians and The Edge of Our Bodies, director for The Rules of Comedy. In Chicago: associate artistic director at Red Tape Theatre, script supervisor at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, company member of Dog and Pony Theatre, and director/producer at Goodman Theatre, About Face Theatre, and Collaboraction. He holds a B.F.A from DePaul University.

The Blissful Orphans
by Kyle John Schmidt
directed by Marti Lyons
dramaturgy by Robyn Carroll

After their last orphan is adopted, the proprietors of a Dickensian orphanage face an empty nest, a life crisis, and a surplus of whimsical bonnets.

Kyle John Schmidt is a writer from Montezuma, Iowa. His plays have been produced by Actors Theatre of Louisville (Take 10 Apprentice Showcase and the 2012 Humana Festival), Crashbox Theatre, the Kid Magicians, Play-in-a-Bar, and the Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival. Schmidt was the co-winner of the 2010 Heideman Award and received his M.F.A. from the Michener Center for Writers.

So Unnatural a Level
by Gary Winter
directed by Caitlin Ryan O'Connell
dramaturgy by Amy Wegener

After a hurricane causes an environmental disaster, a woefully unprepared team at an American insurance company and one coffee-challenged intern prepare to do damage control. As chaos ensues, an employee is discovered creating art on the job. So Unnatural a Level is a play about the possibilities of hiding in plain sight.

Gary Winter was a member of Obie Award-winning 13P. His plays have been produced at Actors Theatre of Louisville, P.S. 122, The Brick, The Flea Theater, The Chocolate Factory, Defunkt Theatre, HERE, Little Theater, and the Cherry Lane Alternative. Winter has received support from The MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Jewish Play Project, Puffin Foundation, and SEG Voices. He holds an M.F.A. from New York University.

The Cast - The 43rd Actors Theatre Acting Apprentice Company: Taylor Abels, Cameron Benoit, Josh Bonzie, Ali Burch, Ure Egbuho, John Ford-Dunker, Erika Grob, Kayla Jackmon, Lexi Lapp, José Leon, Joe Lino, Aaron Lynn, Max Monnig, Collin Morris, Mallory Moser, Brian Muldoon, Madalena Provo, Blake Russell, Lorenzo Villanueva, and Casey Wortmann.

DETAILS:

The Tens
An Evening of New Ten-Minute Plays
Presented by the Actors Theatre Apprentice/Intern Company
Actors Theatre of Louisville
316 W. Main St, Louisville, KY
Victor Jory Theatre
January 13-15, 2015 at 7:30 p.m.
January 16 & 17, 2015 at 8 p.m.
All tickets are FREE
To reserve tickets, call 502.584.1205
www.ActorsTheatre.org

ABOUT THE APPRENTICE/INTERN COMPANY - Now in its 43rd year, the Apprentice/Intern (A/I) Company is one of the nation's oldest continuing pre-professional resident training companies. The A/I Company is comprised of two distinct parts, the Acting Apprentice Company and the Professional Intern Company, whose members work together on productions and projects throughout the season. The Acting Apprentice Company is a one-of-a-kind bridge program designed to transition recent college graduates into professional careers by teaching the practical skills necessary to be competitive in major markets, as well as methods for creating their own work. Members of the Intern Company work directly with department managers and staff, receiving hands-on training in administrative, technical, and/or artistic leadership.

ABOUT ACTORS THEATRE OF LOUISVILLE - Now in its 51st season, Actors Theatre of Louisville, the State Theatre of Kentucky, is the flagship arts organization in the Louisville community. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Les Waters and Managing Director Jennifer Bielstein, Actors Theatre serves to unlock human potential, build community, and enrich quality of life by engaging people in theatre that reflects the wonder and complexity of our time.

Actors Theatre presents almost 500 performances annually and delivers a broad range of programming, including classics and contemporary work through the Brown-Forman Series, holiday plays, a series of free theatrical events produced by the Apprentice/Intern Company, and the Humana Festival of New American Plays-the premier new play festival in the nation, which has introduced 450 plays into the American theatre repertoire over the past 38 years. In addition, Actors Theatre provides more than 17,000 arts experiences each year to students across the region through its Education Department, and boasts one of the nation's most prestigious continuing pre-professional resident training companies, now in its 43rd year.

Over the past half-century, Actors Theatre has also emerged as one of America's most consistently innovative professional theatre companies, with an annual attendance of 150,000. Actors Theatre has been the recipient of some of the most prestigious awards bestowed on a regional theatre, including a Tony Award for Distinguished Achievement, the James N. Vaughan Memorial Award for Exceptional Achievement and Contribution to the Development of Professional Theatre, and the Margo Jones Award for the Encouragement of New Plays. Actors Theatre has toured to 29 cities and 15 countries worldwide, totaling more than 1,400 appearances internationally. Currently, there are more than 50 published books of plays and criticism from Actors Theatre in circulation -- including anthologies of Humana Festival plays, volumes of ten-minute plays and monologues, and essays, scripts and lectures from the Brown-Forman Classics in Context Festival. Numerous plays first produced at Actors Theatre have also been published as individual acting editions, and have been printed in many other anthologies, magazines and journals -- making an enduring contribution to American dramatic literature.

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