Full Cast Set for Midtown Direct Rep's Staged Reading of BLINK

Midtown Direct Rep (MDR) concludes its 2015-16 Theater in the Loft series at the South Orange Performing Arts Center (SOPAC) with a staged reading of BLINK, written by Kate Moira Ryan and directed by Mark Armstrong. The staged reading will be performed for one night only on Sunday, March 20, 2016 at 7pm at SOPAC (One Sopac Way, South Orange, NJ, 07079).

The reading is $15 and open to the public. Tickets can be purchased at the SOPAC box office, www.sopacnow.org, or by calling 973-313-ARTS (2787). For direct link to purchase tickets, click here.

The cast will feature MDR company members Jessamyn Blakeslee, Julie Campbell, Brian Corrigan, Josephine Rose Roberts and Matt Yeager. Terrence Witter will be the stage manager.

In BLINK, a brilliantly funny and achingly powerful new play by GLAAD Award-winner Kate Moira Ryan (The Beebo Brinker Chronicles, Cavedweller, 25 Questions for a Jewish Mother), Daisy and Truman are a promising young couple, just getting a foothold with careers in the New York theater. Though they don't always agree about wedding planning or parenthood, they are very much in love as they set out to live their lives happily ever after. But shortly after their big day, an unexpected diagnosis threatens to short-circuit their plans, and they must confront agonizing choices about love, loss, family, and how we spend our limited time.

Kate Moira Ryan's adaptations include The Beebo Brinker Chronicles, written with Linda S. Chapman and based on Ann Bannon's Lesbian Pulp novels from the 1950s, produced off-Broadway by Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner. (Winner: GLAAD Award and published by DPS). Other adaptations include Cavedweller, based on the New York Times bestselling novel by Dorothy Allison, and produced by New York Theatre Workshop, directed by Michael Greif. Other work includes 25 Questions for a Jewish Mother, written with and for Judy Gold, which ran for a year and a half off-Broadway and had a three year national tour. (Winner: GLAAD Award; a book based on the play was published by Hyperion and nominated for the Quill Award.) The Judy Show, also written with and for Judy Gold, was produced at Theater J, Williamstown, DR2 (Union Square), and the Geffen Playhouse. Kate has received numerous fellowships, including Alfred P. Sloan, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Sundance Institute, Trust for Mutual Understanding (Russia), MacDowell, Yaddo, and the Center for International Theatre Development. An alumna of New Dramatists, she received her MFA in Playwriting from Columbia University and started her career with the Young Playwright's Festival.

Midtown Direct Rep's Theater in the Loft is a series of readings of new plays and musicals in development presented on Sunday evenings in the Loft at South Orange Performing Arts Center (SOPAC). With a cash bar and lively post-show discussions with the cast and creative team, Theater in the Loft readings foster a fun and collaborative environment to be a part of the development of vital new works. Many of the shows presented through Theater in the Loft have gone on to major productions off-Broadway, in regional theaters, and beyond. The series focuses on scripts that reflect the complexities of a uniquely diverse community that can be cast significantly from the MDR ensemble.

Midtown Direct Rep (MDR) is a professional, ensemble-based theater company in residence at the South Orange Performing Arts Center (SOPAC) in South Orange, NJ. The company includes over 100 working Broadway actors and theater professionals who call South Orange and Maplewood home. Midtown Direct Rep is dedicated to developing and presenting new plays and musicals through its Theater in the Loft series, focusing on work that reflects our uniquely diverse community. Midtown Direct Rep is also the local presenter of the hugely successful annual event Listen to Your Mother, which showcases local writers and performers each year around Mother's Day. Company members include two-time Tony Award-winner Norbert Leo Butz, Tony Award-nominees Stephanie J. Block, Megan Lawrence, and Christiane Noll, plus Sebastian Arcelus, Joel de la Fuente, Bradley Dean, Michele Pawk, and many others. Guest actors have included James McDonald, Michelle Hurst, Geoffrey Arend, and Academy Award-winner Olympia Dukakis. Recent projects include work by Y York, Jack Canfora, Peter Flaherty, Jeremy Desmon, Chad Hardin, James Hindman, Chisa Hutchison, David Johnston, Kara Lee Korthron, David Myers, Sandy Rustin, John Walch, Douglas J. Cohen, Zoe Samuel, and others. The Company is led by Managing Director Aliza Wassner, Artistic Producer Steven Tabakin, Literary Manager Marni Raab, and Artistic Advisor Sandy Rustin. For more information, visit www.middirrep.org.

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