David Cote's OTHERLAND Gets Workshop at Gingold Group

Gingold Theatrical Group, best known for its PROJECT SHAW series at Symphony Space - now in its 12th Season, continues to develop new works with its PRESS CUTTINGS: New Work Program.

Up next will be an Actors Equity approved 29-hour workshop of Otherland by David Cote, one of the plays specially commissioned by GTG.

The workshop takes place June 2nd through June 4th, culminating with a public reading on June 5th. Seating is extremely limited; for reservations, call 212-355-7823.

May Adrales directs a cast that will include Daphne Gaines, Claudia Givings, Victoria Janicki, Joseph Ngo, Peter O'Connor, Maulik Pancholy, Derek Smith, and Jennifer Dorr White.

According to Staller, "GTG was created to champion human rights and free speech and to help empower the disenfranchised with the work and humanitarian precepts of George Bernard Shaw as our guide. GTG has two programs to develop new works inspired by Shaw's belief that challenging societal dictums while creating ourselves is of utmost importance: PRESS CUTTINGS and our newer SPEAKERS' CORNER programs. Taking our next step in the development of David Cote's work is particularly important to GTG and is made possible through a grant from the New York Department of Cultural Affairs."

Otherland by David Cote was selected as an O'Neill National Playwrights Conference finalist. GTG plans to further develop this provocative work with the intent to produce a mainstage production and publish the play.

About David Cote's Otherland: College student, Alice Holmes, has left her home in New Hampshire without telling anyone to journey to Ethiopia with hopes of meeting her birth mother. Her adoptive mother, a wildly popular writer, has tracked Alice down and astonishing revelations are revealed. Meanwhile, the hotel is also invaded by an international botany conference on invasive species, which is being besieged by an international crowd of eco-radical protestors. Otherland is a cunning comedy that asks us to challenge who we are and how much of the person we've created is genetic and how much is free choice. As Shaw famously wrote, "Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself."

David Cote is an arts journalist, playwright and librettist. Plays include Otherland and Fear of Art. In 2015, Otherland was an O'Neill National Playwrights Conference finalist. Opera libretti: Three Way with composer Robert Paterson (BAM and Nashville Opera); The Scarlet Ibis (NYC's Prototype festival) and Fade with Stefan Weisman; and We've Got Our Eye on You with Nkeiru Okoye. David has written choral works and a song cycle with Paterson, and is currently developing an opera with Weisman for soprano Lauren Flanigan called American Atheist. As a reporter and critic, his writing has appeared in The Village Voice, American Theatre, The New York Times, Opera News and The Guardian. He's a contributing critic on NY1's "On Stage" and was the longest serving theater editor and drama critic of Time Out New York (2003-'17).

May Adrales is a freelance director based in NYC and has directed over thirty world premieres in New York and around the country. Most recently she helmed the world premieres of Chisa Hutchinson's Somebody's Daughter (Second Stage Theater) and Qui Nguyen's Lortel Award winning Vietgone (Manhattan Theatre Club, South Coast Rep, Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Seattle Rep). She has just been named Associate Artistic Director of Milwaukee Rep. She is a Drama League Directing Fellow, TCG New Generations Grantee, NYTW fellow, Van Lier Fellow. She is a former Artistic Associate at The Public Theater and former Director of Artistic Programs at The Lark. She has taught on faculty at Yale and Brown University. www.mayadrales.net

GTG Artistic Director David Staller and Associate Director Stephen Brown-Fried oversee GTG's PRESS CUTTINGS program.

Now celebrating its 12th year, Gingold Theatrical Group's Project Shaw made history in December 2009 as the first company ever to present performances of every one of Shaw's 65 plays (including full-length works, one-acts and sketches). They are now also including plays by writers who most inspired Shaw to begin his playwriting career, including work by Chekhov, Ibsen, Wilde, Barrie, and Harley Granville-Barker--while continuing its new play development and educational programs. For those interested in lively off-site discourses, each Project Shaw event is followed by a talkback with cast members. GTG's David Staller also hosts a monthly Shaw Club discussion group that meets the Wednesday before each Project Shaw event. For more information, contact info@gingoldgroup.org.

The 2017 Project Shaw Season WOMEN TAKE THE STAGE: Celebrating 100 years of Women's Rights in NY continues with Super Shaw Women (July 17), Rachel Crother's A Man's World (September 18), Captain Brassbound's Conversion (October 23), Elizabeth Robins's Votes for Women (November 20), and Oscar Wilde's A Woman of No Importance (December 18).

For more information about PRESS CUTTINGS: New Work Program, Project Shaw and Gingold Theatrical Group call 212-355-7823, email info@gingoldgroup.org or visit online at www.projectshaw.org.

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