JENNY1538 Comes to The Players' Ring Late Night Series, Beginning Tonight

THE PLAY PROJECT presents original play JENNY1538 by Callie Kimball at The Players' Ring, 105 Marcy Street, Portsmouth NH. Showtimes are 10pm Fridays and Saturdays, and 9pm Sundays. 45 minutes long. Two weeks only. Tickets cost $12 with discounts for students, seniors, and Players' Ring members. To reserve, visit www.playersring.org or call 603.436.8123.

Nine-year-old Jenny1538 is a perfectionist. She's going for her sixth attempt to earn her Discovery badge. It's the only badge she doesn't have, and her presentation is a sure-fire win -- she's found 11 lost days from the 18th century. Local playwright Callie Kimball (RUSH, ALLIGATOR ROAD) directs Mark Rubin as Jenny1538 and Brent Askari as Dominic Franconia in this new comedy about identity, loss, and what it means when your outsides don't match your insides.

Local playwright Callie Kimball's plays have been produced to critical acclaim across the country. Her popular play MAY 39th is enjoying its 5th run in Los Angeles this summer, and her play RUSH, which premiered this past January at The Players' Ring, will enjoy an off-off-Broadway run in NYC this fall. Her play DREAMS OF THE PENNY GODS, set in Biddeford, will premiere next spring at Halcyon Theatre in Chicago. She teaches playwriting at Maine College of Art, and she has received a MacDowell Fellowship, a Ludwig Vogelstein grant, and the Rita & Burton Goldberg Playwriting Award.

Kimball says, "I'm thrilled to bring JENNY1538 to The Players' Ring. I wrote it specifically for Mark Rubin and Brent Askari, and we performed it at PortFringe last summer, where it was a hit. Mark and Brent are friends, and they have great chemistry together. Mark plays Jenny with so much heart -- she's a Type A overachiever going for her Discovery badge, and she's hired homeless Dominic Franconia (Brent) to help her with her presentation. There are a lot of laughs when things don't go as planned. Both characters struggle, show vulnerability, and ultimately change by the end of the play."

Mark Rubin and Brent Askari are both company members at Mad Horse Theatre in Portland. Rubin was in the world premiere of Kimball's play ALLIGATOR ROAD at Mad Horse this past March, and Askari was in "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs" by Mike Daisey at Kent Stephens' Stage Force in 2012.

Since 1992, the mission of THE PLAYERS' RING has been to promote the efforts of local artists through the production of original works, while providing an affordable theatre space to local production companies. "The Ring" provides an environment where artists can thrive, grow, take risks and make daring choices.

Pictured: Mark Rubin as Jenny1538. Photo by Callie Kimball.

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