ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK's Michelle Hurst to Join Kelly Bishop in Midtown Direct Rep's UNDER THE TREE Reading

Midtown Direct Rep announces the cast for the previously announced staged reading of David Myer's From Under the Tree as part of Midtown Direct Rep's play development series focused on new and innovative American theatre: Theatre in the Loft.

From Under the Tree by David Myers will be directed by Will Pomerantz. The cast is led by Tony Award Winner, Kelly Bishop (A Chorus Line, Gilmore Girls) and Michelle Hurst (Miss Claudette from Orange is the New Black), and includes Jessamyn Blakeslee, Joanna Carpenter, DWayne Clark, Mitch Greenberg, and Jason Loughlin. $15 Tickets can be purchased at: http://sopacnow.org/631/midtown-direct-rep-in-the-loft-oct-6

From the playwright ...

The pursuit of energy ruptures a Louisiana family in this explosive new play from David Myers. To frack, or not to frack? A matriarch and her son, an expectant first-time father, struggle over the natural gas thirteen-thousand feet underground. Drilling promises security and wealth for the next generation -- but at what cost? Secrets are unearthed, and unexpected consequences are revealed, as the family forges a new relationship to their land, their legacy, and their future.

With perhaps more professional theater artists than any suburb of NYC, Maplewood/South Orange (NJ) is "where Broadway comes home to sleep." MDR, a theatre company created by and for these NJ-based artists, develops and presents relevant, world-class theatre for its community.www.midtowndirectrep.org.

Midtown Direct Rep company members include two- time Tony Winner, Norbert Leo Butz, Tony Nominee, Christiane Noll, and "Law & Order; SVU" regular, Joel de la Fuente, among others. The Company is managed by Co-Artistic Directors Sandy Rustin and Jeremy Dobrish, Managing Director Jeffrey Shubart, and Producing Director Evan Fleischer along with Consulting Producer Steven Tabakin.

This program is made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/ Department of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts and administered by the Essex County Division of Cultural and Historic Affairs.

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