CROSSROADS Debuts 7/16 At MainStage Space Of The WorkShop Theater

Marriage Trouble, Cultural Angst, The Danger of Mixing Business With Pleasure and The Importance of Getting the Right Haircut -- It's All Happening at the CROSSROADS, beginning July 16th at the Midtown InterNational Theatre Festival

For the best haircut in town, there's only one place to go - the Crossroads Hair Salon. Now if only the staff could get their own lives in order with the same ease with which they wield their scissors or a blow dryer! Meri Wallace's new comedy-drama, CROSSROADS will have its World Premiere at the Midtown InterNational Theatre Festival. Directed by DeLisa M. White, and produced by Howling Moon Cab Company, the show will be performed at The WorkShop MainStage Theater, located on the 4th Floor of 312 West 36th Street, beginning on July 16th.

Business may be booming at Crossroads, but the employees' personal lives are in a mess. Administrator Angela is married to a husband who treats her badly. Married hairdresser Nicole is having an affair with her co-worker, Frank - a Puerto Rican gentleman who's happily assimilating into American culture - and this assimilation infuriates Carlos, who accuses Frank of turning his back on his cultural heritage. Meanwhile Giusseppe is 33, Italian, single and desperately looking to get married, while receptionist Boris spends most of his time writing, when he's supposed to be in medical school - a fact he hasn't told his parents yet.

When Wing, the sometimes too-full-of-himself owner of the shop, decides to sell the salon, Angela & Nicole prepare to make him an offer, setting themselves on the road to independence for the first time in their lives - and making Angela's husband none too happy. But before anything can be decided, a deliberate act of violence rocks everybody to their core. Will the staff be able to rally together and start anew or will they have clipped their last head of hair?

More than a comedy/drama about the employees, CROSSROADS also looks at the questions of generational and cultural identity. From Frank's estrangement from his family, to Giusseppe's
search for true love, and the harsh way both Angela and Nicole are treated by their respective spouses, it all comes down to questions of heritage and roots, and how people wish to behave as opposed to how they are expected to behave by others in their cultural sphere. A tale of laughter, tears and moving on amid the realization that life will pass you by unless you seize it with both hands before it's too late. And it's all happening at the Crossroads -- the place to change your hair ... or change your life.

The cast of CROSSROADS features Leah Vanessa Bachar, Edgar Caraballo*, Nat Cassidy*, Erinn Holmes*, Annalisa Loeffler, Kristopher Monroe,* Julio Neira*, Ron Sanborn*, Jason Xaysittiphone and Sheila York*.
* Actors appear courtesy of the Actors' Equity Association. The production is an Equity Showcase.

A nonfiction author, columnist, television personality and former psychotherapist, Meri Wallace's past works include the full-length plays Yom Kippur and Secrets Women Share (both at the MITF.) Among her short plays are: At the Bank (Queens' Players); Saving Carmella and The Match (Where Eagles Dare Short Play Lab); Marta's Spa (Love Creek); Jordan, Save My Brother, and The Boat Man (Accidental Angels Festival); and Jeannie (published in an anthology of short plays for young actors edited by Dr. Roger Ellis). Meri lives in Amagansett, New York with her husband, playwright Jonathan Wallace.

DeLisa M. White has been directing for 20 years. Some of her favorite stage directing credits include Harold Pinter's The Dumbwaiter, Edward Albee's The Zoo Story, David Mamet's American Buffalo and Sexual Perversity in Chicago, as well as the recent original adaptation of Charlotte Gillman's The Yellow Wallpaper at Manhattan Theatre Source. Ms. White has also directed the independent feature film SNAP, as well as several short films and documentaries. For the past three years she has provided the foley effects for the Cranston & Spade Theatre Company, who recreates old radio shows once a month at Partners & Crime bookstore in Greenwich Village. In addition, Ms. White's forays into stand-up can be seen at various Comedy Clubs in the city, including Caroline's and Comix, as well as on her website, www.delisaonline.com.

Howling Moon Cab Company is the producing entity of playwrights Meri and Jonathan Wallace. For more information go to www.howlingmooncabcompany.com.

Running through August 2nd, CROSSROADS will be performed at the MainStage Space of the WorkShop Theater, located at 312 West 36th Street (between 8th & 9th Avenues) on the 4th Floor. Show times are Thursday, July 16th at 8:30pm, Sunday, July 19th at 12pm, Wednesday, July 22nd at 9pm, Friday, July 24th at 7pm, Monday, July 27th at 6:30pm and Sunday, August 2nd at 6pm. Tickets are $18.00, $15.00 for students and seniors. Reservations: 866-811-4111 or www.midtownfestival.org.

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