Mile Square Theatre's 7TH INNING STRETCH Starts Next Week

Mile Square Theatre (MST), Hudson County's leading professional theatre, brings back its signature event 7th INNING STRETCH: 7 10-MINUTE PLAYS ABOUT BASEBALL.

After a two-year hiatus while the company built its new theatre facility on the north side of Hoboken, MST once again presents an evening of short play premieres by some of America's most produced and celebrated playwrights. This year the event includes the work of Suzanne Bradbeer, Bekah Brunstetter, Eric Conger, Oded Gross, John Kolvenbach, Robert Lyons, and Lia Romeo.

7 playwrights, 7 directors, 7 casts. 7th Inning Stretch has been an audience favorite since its inception in 2003 and now returns in its 13 iteration.

MST founder and artistic director Chris O'Connor, who conceived of the idea of presenting short works based on the baseball theme, has been eager to get back to the event. "We started the event as an homage to Hoboken's historic connection to the game. It went from a one-off event to an annual project that sustained itself for 12 years."

"Since leaving our space at the Monroe Center in 2014," O'Connor continues, "we haven't had a suitable venue for this wonderful event. Now that our new theatre is built, we're thrilled to get back to commissioning and producing 10-minute plays about baseball. We have an exciting lineup of writers and we can't wait to have Stretch fans see this year's show."

Mile Square Theatre returns to its signature event of new short plays about baseball. September 17 is the Triple Play Party. Eat, drink, and mix with the casts of the plays.

Tickets: Friday, Sept 15 @ 8pm and Sunday, Sept 17 @ 3pm: $25 • Students/Seniors: $20. Saturday, Sept 17/TRIPLE PLAY PARTY: $75 ($60 if bought before September 10) Triple Play Party includes drinks and food. Doors open at 7pm. Purchase tickets at www.milesquaretheatre.org. Note: 7th Inning Stretch is recommended for adult audiences.

SUZANNE BRADBEER Suzanne's play CONFEDERATES (Kilroy's Honorable Mention) opened the 2016-17 season at TheatreWorks - Silicon Valley. NAKED INFLUENCE was premiered by Capital Rep in January, 2016. Other plays include: THE GOD GAME (Gulfshore Playhouse/Capital Rep, 4th Wall Theatre Company, etc.), SHAKESPEARE IN VEGAS (Dreamcatcher Rep/PTNJ), FULL BLOOM (Barrington Stage, Dreamcatcher Rep, Hudson Stage, etc.). Suzanne was a Fellow of the Lark's Playwright Workshop. Other residencies include: PlayPenn, The New Harmony Project, the LAByrinth Theatre Company's Summer Intensive, the Alabama Shakespeare Festival's Southern Writers' Project, and The Drilling Company's Discovery Series. Suzanne is a regular moderator at The Actors Studio Playwright/Director Workshop, and is a member of the Ensemble Studio Theatre and the Dramatists Guild.

ERIC CONGER Eric's previous Stretch play, Chasing the Dream, starred Matt Lawler and was the closer of the last festival. Another comedy, his version of Feydeau's Chat En Poche, starred Michael Learned at the York Theatre Company in New York City. His twelve-character drama, The Eclectic Society, received a mainstage production at Philadelphia's Walnut Street Theatre, followed by Beautiful Boy, retitled Just Tell Me My Name, at the same venue. It was also presented at Centre Stage, S.C. in December of 2015. Project Dolly, a play about a chimpanzee, recently received a Sloan Foundation grant and was read at the Barrow Group in NYC. Thank U 4 Your Service was read at Ensemble Studio Theatre, where he is a member, and No Good Deed was read at Hudson TheatreWorks and Ensemble Studio Theatre in 2013. Mr. Conger is a graduate of Wesleyan University and the University of Paris, France.

ODED GROSS Oded's plays have been produced throughout the United States and abroad, most notably at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, The Great Lakes Theater, The Theatre at Boston Court and The Moscow Art Theatre in Moscow, Russia. His adaptations include Moliere's The Imaginary Invalid, Goldoni's The Servant of Two Masters and Gogol's The Government Inspector (aka The Inspector General), for which he also wrote the music. His original play Heart Attack With A Knife, a murder mystery farce, was produced at Northern Kentucky University's prestigious Y.E.S. Festival. The Comedy of Romeo and Juliet, a one-act comedy that satirizes Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet played at the HBO Workspace. One of his latest plays, Dantino's, an original Commedia Dell'Arte, tackles the controversial issue of gay marriage and was developed at Oregon Shakespeare Festival's BLACK SWAN Lab. His adaptations, as well as his original productions have garnered numerous Critics Picks and nominations including Best Adaptation by LA Weekly, BackStage West and LA Stage Times for The Government Inspector and LA Weekly's Critics "Pick Of The Week" for The Comedy of Romeo and Juliet. He received his degree in drama from Brandeis University. He is a proud member of the Dramatist Guild and an even prouder husband and father of two beautiful children.

John Kolvenbach On the West End: Love Song (Olivier nomination, Best New Comedy, directed by John Crowley) and On an Average Day (with Woody Harrelson and Kyle MacLachlan, also directed by Mr. Crowley.) Love Song premiered at Steppenwolf in 2006, directed by Austin Pendelton. It has been produced in New York, Zurich, Melbourne, Sydney, Wellington, Seoul and Rome. There have been over fifty productions in the U.S. Average Day has been produced in Tel Aviv, Buenos Aires, Lisbon and by Route 66 in Chicago and in Los Angeles. Goldfish premiered at South Coast Repertory, then at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco, directed by Loretta Greco. The play was done in repertory with Mrs. Whitney, which was directed by the author. Most recently, Sister Play received its premier at the Magic and at The Harbor Stage Company, both productions directed by the author. Other plays include: Fabuloso, (Premiered at WHAT, subsequent productions in San Juan and Zurich, in Spanish and Swiss German) Bank Job (Amphibian Stages) and Marriage Play or Half 'n Half 'n Half (Merrimack Rep.)

Robert Lyons has more than twenty New York premieres to his credit. Most recently Idiot at HERE Art Center (2016), and Death of the Liberal Class ( "Essential theatre for the next generation" - Huff Post) at New Ohio Theatre (2016). Other original productions include: Nostradamus Predicts the Death of Soho, Red-HairEd Thomas ("a sweetly fractured fairy tale" - New York Times) and Doorman's Double Duty ("A gem!" - New York Times). Other plays include, PR Man (featured in American Theatre Magazine), No Meat No Irony ("Ralph Nader channeling Preston Sturges - TimeOut/NY), The Naked Anarchist, Dream Conspiracy, Creature of the Deep, and Vater Knows Best. Robert's work has been developed in residencies at NACL, the Orchard Project, The Playwright's Center of Minneapolis, MASS MoCA, the Bogliasco Foundation, and MacDowell Colony. He is currently working on an EST/Sloan Commission. He is the founding Artistic Director of the New Ohio Theatre in the West Village, and currently serves as Creative Director of the Sarah Lawrence College Theatre Program.

Lia Romeo 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, and Xpressions Performing Arts Network, and have been developed at the Lark Theatre, San Francisco Playhouse, Abingdon Theatre, Writers Theatre of New Jersey, Orlando Shakes, New Jersey Repertory Theatre, Kitchen Dog Theatre, and elsewhere. She has been nominated for the American Theatre Critics' Association's Steinberg Award for best new play, the L. Arnold Weissberger Award, and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. She has been recognized by the O'Neill (finalist), the Heideman Award (finalist), and the Kilroys List (honorable mention). 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, the Athena Theatre Playwrights Group, and the BMI Librettists Workshop. She earned her B.A. from Princeton University and her M.F.A. in playwriting from Rutgers. She is also the author of a novel, Dating The Devil (BelleBooks), and a humor book, 11,002 Things to Be Miserable About (Abrams Image), which has sold over 35,000 copies worldwide.

CHRIS O'CONNOR (Producer/MST Artistic Director) Chris is the Founder and Artistic Director of Mile Square Theatre in Hoboken, NJ. He conceived of and produces the annual 10-minute play festival 7th Inning Stretch, which over 10 years time has commissioned and premiered nearly 70 new short plays on the subject of baseball by some of America's best playwrights. His MST directing credits include Neil LaBute's Squeeze Play, Charlie Peter's Striking Out the Babe, Warren Leight's The Love of the Game, and Cyrano; he co-directed The Scams of Scapin, for which he played the title role; Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Core Values, Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse, The Garden of Rikki Tikki Tavi, God of Carnage, The Pavilion, Long Gone Daddy, and Circle Mirror Transformation. As an actor, Chris has been associated with Maltz Jupiter Theatre, A Contemporary Theatre, The Culture Project, Soho Rep, Hudson Stage Company, 12 Miles West, Franklin Stage Company, the 78th Street Theatre Lab, Target Margin, Gloucester Stage, Book-It Repertory, City Theatre, Provisional Theatre, The Bathhouse, Seattle Children's Theatre, Zoetic Stage, among others. He originated the role of Peter in Craig Wright's Pulitzer-nominated play The Pavilion in its world premiere at City Theatre in Pittsburgh. He recently appeared as George in Maltz Jupiter Theatre's acclaimed production of Billy Elliot the Musical. Recent television appearances include Magic City and Burn Notice. His original plays for young people have been produced at The Seattle Children's Theatre and in schools in the Puget Sound area. His play The Mascots is published in Smith & Kraus's 2011 Best 10-Minute Plays and his play Miss Ring Has Lost Her Phone was a finalist in the 2016 City Theatre's National Award for Short Playwriting. A voiceover artist, Chris can be heard on museum audio tours in museums across the country. He has taught theatre at Rutgers University, Colgate University, Fairleigh Dickinson University, SUNY Purchase, and University of Miami. Chris holds a BFA in acting from Carnegie-Mellon University and an MFA in Directing from Rutgers University. He joins the theatre faculty of Molloy College this fall.

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