Luna Stage Presents Fall New Moon Play Reading Series; Brian Murray to Read

Luna Stage presents its annual Fall New Moon Play Reading Series on November 15th and 16th 2008.  Following the success of last year's festival format, the series will once again take place over one weekend, with two play readings on Nov. 15th  - at 3PM and 8PM and two on Nov. 16th – at 3PM and 7:30PM.

All four readings are of brand new plays in various stages of development.  The readings will be performed in Luna's mainstage theatre and each will be followed by an audience talkback with the playwright.

As plays move from the page to the stage there is the all-important step of the Staged Reading.  In order to take their plays to the next level, playwrights need this opportunity to see and hear their work performed live and receive the feedback only an audience can give them.   Luna's New Moon Reading Series offers actors, directors and audiences the chance to be a part of this unique creative process.

The series begins at 3PM on November 15th with Michele Aldin Kushner's Advanced Women directed by Susan Kerner.   Advanced Women looks at the lives of the poets and sisters, Alice and Phoebe Cary.  Each woman endured romantic heartache, and chose to share a life together rather than pursue marriage.  Near the end of their lives, they ask one another if indeed their sacrifice for career and independence was worth their loss of love and family.

Saturday evening at 8PM, audiences can join the playwright, Guy Frederick Glass, for the reading of his play, The Last Castrato, directed by John Henry Davis.  The scene is The Sistine Chapel, Rome, at the dawn of the twentieth century.  Tradition clashes with modernity as the last castrato, a living fossil, struggles to preserve his art.

Small Gods by Kevin Christopher Snipes, directed by Adam Immerwahr, will be Sunday November 16th's afternoon offering at 3PM.  The nineteenth century's two greatest actors Edwin Forrest and William Charles Macready have worked to destroy each other for fifty years. Macready, though, may finally achieve the upper hand when he enlists Death itself to destroy his rival. But Death's price is nothing less than the very secrets which have haunted Macready's soul, and revealing them will cost the actor more than he ever imagined.

Award-winning Broadway actor, Brian Murray, plays the lead role of William Charles Macready, in this staged reading.

The series closes on Sunday evening with the 7:30PM reading of Bekah Brunstetter's Ms. Lilly Gets Boned, directed by Cheryl Katz.  Elephants and humans have cohabited for hundreds of years. One is big, the other is small, one peaceful, one violent. Miss Lilly, a Sunday School teacher, has been waiting patiently for God to drop a man in her lap. A new student comes to class: Jordan, a young Indian boy, whose mother was recently killed by an elephant. When Jordan disturbs the harmony of her classroom - and his father disturbs the harmony of her heart, Miss Lilly must re-examine her faith.

All readings are held at Luna Stage, 695 Bloomfield Avenue, Montclair, NJ.  Reservations are not necessary. There will be a suggested donation $5.00 taken at the door. Please note, all material may not be suitable for all ages. For more information, please call 973-744-3309.

Photo of Brian Murray by Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.

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