59E59 Theaters Welcomes Origin Theatre Co With The World Premiere Of SPINNING THE TIMES 9/2-9/20

59E59 Theaters (Elysabeth Kleinhans, Artistic Director; Peter Tear, Executive Producer) proudly welcomes the return of Origin Theatre Company with the world premiere of SPINNING THE TIMES, an evening of five short plays by Geraldine Aron, Lucy Caldwell, Rosalind Haslett, Rosemary Jenkinson and Belinda McKeon, part of 1st Irish at 59E59 Theaters. Directed by M. Burke Walker, SPINNING THE TIMES begins performances on Wednesday, September 2 for a limited engagement through Sunday, September 20. Opening Night is Sunday, September 6 at 3:30 PM. The performance schedule is Tuesday at 7:30, Wednesday - Saturday at 8:30 PM and Sunday at 3:30 PM. There is an additional performance on Saturday, September 5 at 2:30 PM. SPINNING THE TIMES performs at 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street, between Park and Madison). Single tickets are $25 ($17.50 for 59E59 Members). To purchase tickets, call Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200 or go to www.ticketcentral.com. For more information, visit www.59e59.org.

When a Palestinian luthier, a London songwriter, a time traveler, a troubled teen and a New Yorker dream of music, escape and home, they are drawn together by the global media, even as their communities and lives are shattered by the events it depicts. A play for five voices by five acclaimed Irish playwrights, SPINNING THE TIMES is a tapestry of five short plays woven from articles in the New York press.

Geraldine Aron's (playwright) My Brilliant Divorce, directed by Garry Hines, received an Olivier Award nomination for Best Entertainment when it premiered at the Apollo Theatre in London. She adapted her play The Donahue Sisters, which premiered at the Druid Theatre and went on to Wimbledon Studio Theatre in London, into a feature film. The Gate Theatre in Dublin produced her thriller Spider and her play Same Old Moon received its premiere at the Giulgud Theatre in London. She wrote the screenplay for Maestro, directed by Franco Zeffirelli (also released as The Young Toscanini).

Belfast native Lucy Caldwell (playwright) received a writers attachment with the National Theatre Studio while still a student at Cambridge University where she wrote her first full-length play, Leaves. Leaves was directed by Garry Hynes, in a co-production with the Druid Theatre Company and London's Royal Court Theatre in 2007. It premiered in the renowned Chapel Lane Theatre in Galway before transferring to the Royal Court Theatre in London. It won the George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright, the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and the BBC Stewart Parker Award. Lucy's first radio play, GIRL FROM MARS, was broadcast by the BBC in 2008. It won the Irish Writers' Guild Award ("ZeBBie") for Best Radio Play and is currently on the shortlist for the Imison Prize for Best Radio Play. Lucy's second radio play, AVENUES OF ETERNAL PEACE was recently broadcast on Radio 4 and chosen as Pick of the Week. Lucy is also a critically acclaimed novelist. Her first novel, WHERE THEY WERE MISSED, was published by Penguin / Viking in 2006 and was short-listed for the prestigious Dylan Thomas Prize and the Waverton Good Read Award.

Rosalind Haslett's (playwright) play Still, which premiered at the Meeting House Square in Dublin, won the Fishamble International Playwriting Award in 2002 and was subsequently translated into Romanian and Italian. Other full-length plays include The Magpie (Seamus Heaney Centre, Queens University, Belfast) and The Yellow Wallpaper (Waterside Theatre, Derby). She received a commission from Fishamble and the Bioethics Council Ireland to develop the play Three Days. As an academic and dramaturg, she has worked with organizations including London's National Theatre, Tinderbox Theatre Company (Belfast) and Vanishing Point Theatre Company (Glasgow).

With writers residencies at the Traverse Theatre (Scotland) and commissions from the BBC Writersroom and the Royal Court Theatre (London), Rosemary Jenkinson's (playwright) satirical comedy The Bonefire, directed by Lynne Parker, was produced by Rough Magic Theatre Company as part of the Dublin Theatre Festival, winning the Stewart Parker BBC Radio Drama Award. Her play Outcast was shortlisted for the Verity Bargate Award and Bruised, a collaborative play with three other writers, premiered at the Tinderbox Theatre Company in Belfast. Her play Johnny Meister and the Stitch premiered at the Belfast's Jigsaw Theatre Company. She has received awards for playwriting from the Oppenheim-John Downes Memorial Trust, Peggy Ramsay Foundation and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. In 2009, she won a place at the BBC's prestigious College of Comedy.

Belinda McKeon's (playwright) 2005 radio play Word of Mouth was a winner in the RTE P.J. O'Connor Awards (Ireland) and was subsequently produced by RTE Radio 1. In 2006, her site-specific play Drapes was produced by Fishamble Theatre Company (Dublin) as part of its Whereabouts series, which won the Judges' Special Awards at the 2007 Irish Times Theatre Awards. Her short play Two Houses was commissioned by the Abbey Theatre in 2008 as part of its 20:Love public reading series. Shortly afterwards, the play was given a full production at the Dublin Fringe Festival by the young Dublin company thisispopbaby, in co-production with the Abbey. Two Houses was presented at the Project Arts Centre along with a second play from the Abbey's initial commission. Together, these plays won the RTE Radio 1 Fringe Audience Choice Award and were also shortlisted for the Bewley's Cafe Theatre and Fishamble New Writing Awards. McKeon is currently under commission to the Abbey Theatre to write a full-length play.

M. Burke Walker (director) was the founder of Seattle's renowned Empty Space Theatre, which he ran as Artistic Director from 1970 - 1990. In addition to his work at the Empty Space, he has directed at top regional theaters across the country including Seattle Rep, ACT in San Francisco, Berkeley Rep and Syracuse Stage, among many others. He is currently working on editing an anthology of American pulp melodramas from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

 

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