EBE Ensemble Announces 2010-2011 Season

EBE Ensemble's fifth season will include a world premiere by acclaimed Texas playwright Steven Michael Walters, six new one-act plays as a part of the NYIT-award-winning festival Elephants on Parade, and two free repertory productions as a part of their second annual Shakespeare in the Pagoda.

The season begins December 3rd with the world premiere of Steven Michael Walters' (NBC's "Friday Night Lights") The Girl from Nashville, directed by new resident artist Kristine Ayers (EBE Ensemble's Julius Caesar) at the Dorothy Strelsin Theatre, 312 West 36th Street, 1st Floor, with a preview on December 2nd. It will play a limited engagement through December 18th, 2010. Tickets are $18 and are on sale now at www.smarttix.com or call 212-868-4444.

Walters' unflinching new drama tells the story of a high school football coach who inexplicably murders his star quarterback in the middle of playoff season. Fading between present-day interrogation room drama and moments from the coach's past hiding out with his 16-year-old student, The Girl from Nashville explores questions of right and wrong, good and evil, and the nature of redemption.

Steven Michael Walters has been named "Best Local Playwright" by the Dallas Observer. His plays have won and been nominated for numerous Dallas/Ft. Worth Theatre Critics Forum Awards, Column Awards, and Leon Rabin Awards. Kristine Ayers has developed new work with EBE Ensemble and the Gallery Players, and Serena Pomerantz of TheaterOnline called Ayers' production of Julius Caesar "excellent Shakespeare in the Park".

In April, EBE will present the fourth annual Elephants on Parade 2011, their New York Innovative Theater Award-winning festival of new one-act plays. The six plays included in this year's festival (by Danny Carroll, Matthew Hanf, Alexander Motyl, Michael Niederman, Chris Purnell, and Tom Sime) include five world-premieres and one regional premiere. Last year, Michael Roderick of BroadwayWorld called the festival's plays "golden," with "crisp and varied performances from a very talented group of young actors" and a "talented new batch of directors."

The season is rounded out with the company's second annual Shakespeare in the Pagoda 2011, free outdoor repertory productions in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. In June/July of 2011 the company will produce Much Ado About Nothing and Henry VI in fast, physical, modernized productions in the historic Music Pagoda performed by a repertory company of 11 actors. Last year's inaugural productions of Romeo & Juliet and Julius Caesar were called "fast-moving, exciting, and powerful" by Dumbo Books of Brooklyn.

EBE Ensemble is dedicated to developing and presenting new and unique works of theatre. They believe that making theater accessible enhances a community and that, through an ensemble-based approach, they can better present quality theatre that strives for an emotional truth. For more information, visit www.ebeensemble.com.

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