Dreamcatcher to Offer 'Meet the Artist' New Play Readings

Dreamcatcher Repertory Theatre, professional Theatre in Residence at the Oakes Center in Summit, will present its annual Meet the Artist new play reading series on Wednesday, May 15 at 7 pm at the Summit Free Public Library and Wednesday, May 22 at 7 pm at the Oakes Center.

The new play reading series is a chance for the audience to participate in the development of new works, both to hear the play read by professional actors and also to discuss the project with the playwright, director and actors afterward. Feedback from these evenings helps the playwrights to further refine their scripts and also gives them a first-hand experience of how the audience will respond to the finished work. These evenings provide a fun and lively way to interact with the creative process, and to receive a preview of plays that may be performed on Dreamcatcher's mainstage in the future.

On May 15, Dreamcatcher will present a reading of The Lucky Ones by Lia Romeo. Vanessa and Janie are best friends... until a devastating diagnosis forces them to consider what that friendship means and how much it matters. An exploration of aging, mortality, and the value and complexity of female friendship in a patriarchal society. The reading will be directed by Laura Ekstrand, and the cast will be Michael Aquino, Becca McLarty and J.J. Pyle.

Lia Romeo's plays have been produced at 59E59, Project Y Theatre Company, Unicorn Theatre, HotCity Theatre, Stillwater Theatre, Renegade Theatre Experiment, Forward Flux Productions, New Origins Theatre Company, Jersey City Theater Center, Porch Light Productions, The Skeleton Rep, MCS Theater, and Xpressions Performing Arts Network, as well as multiple high schools and universities, and have been developed at the Lark, San Francisco Playhouse, Abingdon Theatre, and elsewhere. She has been nominated for the ATCA/Steinberg Award for best new play and the NYIT Award for outstanding full-length play, and has been recognized by the O'Neill (finalist), the Heideman Award (finalist), and the Kilroys List (honorable mention). She is a 2018 Individual Artist Fellowship winner in playwriting from the New Jersey State Council for the Arts. She was the National New Play Network Emerging Playwright-in-Residence at Writers Theatre of New Jersey, and she is currently a member of the Project Y Playwrights Group and a company member with InViolet Theater. She is also the associate artistic director at Project Y Theatre Company and the new play coordinator at Jersey City Theater Center. Her plays are published by Playscripts and Smith & Kraus. She earned her B.A. from Princeton University and her M.F.A. in playwriting from Rutgers/MGSA, and she teaches in the graduate creative writing program at Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Skin Hungry by Erin Mallon will be read on May 22. The story of the play revolves around Ruth, a 65-year old woman. Rowan is a 23-year-old man. They're in love. And Ruth's 43-year-old son is freaking the hell out. Skin Hungry is a play about human connection, human needs and human contact. The reading, directed by Laura Ekstrand, will feature Noreen Farley, Julian Gordon, Jason Szamreta and Lori Vega.

Erin Mallon is a writer, actor and voice artist. Her plays have been presented with Urban Stages, The American National Theatre, Last Frontier Theatre Conference, New Georges, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Amios Theatre Company, The Collective, Cherry Picking, Mastodon Theater, The Great Plains Theatre Conference, Project Y Theater, InViolet Theater and The Brooklyn Generator. Erin's play Branched directed by Robert Ross Parker and produced by InViolet Theater premiered at HERE Arts Center (February 2014) and is included in Indie Theater Now's PLAYS AND PLAYWRIGHTS 2015 and published by Original Works Publishing. Her new play, A Mind Out of the Gutter is an Honorable Mention on the 2016 Kilroys List. Other full-length plays include: Skin in the Game (a play with music), Hand Me Down (a commission for Fieldston School), Good Riddance and The Other White Meat. Recent work as an actor includes: Mac Wellman's solo show Horrocks (and Toutatis too) (Sleeping Weazel), Eric John Meyer's The Sister (Dutch Kills) and multiple shows with Buran Theater. Erin is also a devoted volunteer at The 52nd Street Project, the voice of many audiobooks and commercials and co-curator of The Brooklyn Generator.

The May 15 reading will be at the Summit Free Public Library, 75 Maple Street in Summit, and the May 22 reading is at the Oakes Center, located at 120 Morris Avenue in Summit. Admission is $10, and tickets can be purchased at www.dreamcatcherrep.org or by calling Brown Paper Tickets at 800-838-3006. The parking lot is accessible from Ashwood Avenue, behind the theatre. For information on any of Dreamcatcher Repertory Theatre's programs, please contact Dreamcatcher Repertory Theatre at the Oakes Center, 120 Morris Avenue, Summit, NJ 07901, 908-514-9654, www.DreamcatcherRep.org.

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