Jennifer Ikeda to Lead TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY at Page 73; Cast Announced!

Page Seventy-Three Productions (Page 73) has announced casting for the world premiere of TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY, a new play by Susan Soon He Stanton.

Directed by Kip Fagan (The Profane), TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY begins previews on Tuesday, November 28, 2017 at The New Ohio Theatre (154 Christopher Street) with an opening date set for Thursday, December 7, 2017 for a limited run through Saturday, December 23, 2017. Tickets are on sale now at www.page73.org.

TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY will feature Jennifer Ikeda (Vietgone) as "Emily." The cast will also include Jonathan Brooks (Neil Young's Greendale), Ugo Chukwu (Ripcord), Ron Domingo ("The Blacklist"), Emily Kuroda ("Gilmore Girls"), and Nadine Malouf (Ultimate Beauty Bible).

Emily, a would-be writer, retreats home to O'ahu after Manhattan finally gets the best of her. Trading one island for another doesn't help, though, and when she stumbles into a gig as an actor on a shock-jock radio dating show, she finds herself strangely determined to turn fantasy into reality. Told through a playful mixture of phone calls, voicemails, and live radio spots, TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY is a comedy about loneliness in the age of connection.

TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY will feature scenic design by Dane Laffrey (Once on This Island), costume design by Jessica Pabst (Marvin's Room), lighting design by Jennifer Schriever (Eclipsed), sound design by Palmer Hefferan (Charm) and props by Alison Mantilla (Oedipus El Rey). Kara Kaufman will serve as Production Stage Manager, with Justin Myhre as the Assistant Stage Manager. Intuitive Production Management will serve as Production Manager.

Tickets for TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY are on sale now. Tickets range from $20 to $40 and can be purchased in advance at www.page73.org or by calling 866-811-4111. From November 28 through December 10, $20 tickets will be available for each performance. For all other performances, general admission tickets are $30, with $40 reserved seats available for all performances. The box office for TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY opens thirty minutes prior to every performance.

The performance schedule is as follows: Tuesday through Sunday at 7:30pm. Exceptions: There will be additional 3pm performances on Saturday, December 9; Friday, December 15; Saturday, December 16 and Saturday, December 23. There will be an additional 7:30pm performance on Monday, December 18. There will be no evening performance on Saturday, December 23.

PAGE 73 is now in its 20th year producing and supporting the most talented early-career playwrights and introducing them to New York audiences by producing their first Off-Broadway debuts in the city. Page 73's 2016-17 season included the world premiere of Caroline V. McGraw's ULTIMATE BEAUTY BIBLE, directed by Stephen Brackett, and the New York premiere of Basil Kreimendahl's ORANGE JULIUS, directed by Dustin Wills. Their season also fostered the work of Hansol Jung and John J. Caswell, Jr. through the prestigious P73 Playwriting Fellowship, now in its 14th year of singling out exceptional talent.

Prior Page 73 seasons have included world and New York premieres of Leah Nanako Winkler's KENTUCKY, directed by Morgan Gould; Max Posner's JUDY, directed by two-time Obie Award winner Ken Rus Schmoll; Clare Barron's critically acclaimed YOU GOT OLDER, which was recognized at the 2015 Obies with awards for Playwright, Performance (Brooke Bloom), and Direction (Anne Kauffman) - each artist was also nominated for a Drama Desk Award, along with co-star and Tony Award winner Reed Birney; the first New York City production of George Brant's critically acclaimed GROUNDED, directed by Ken Rus Schmoll and starring Drama Desk nominee Hannah Cabell; and Cori Thomas' WHEN JANUARY FEELS LIKE SUMMER, directed by Daniella Topol. They have co-produced from time to time with such renowned new play theaters as Soho Rep, Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, and Ensemble Studio Theatre.

Today, Page 73 annually serves twelve to fifteen early career playwrights through its productions and development programs. Each year, PAGE 73 produces New York City or world premieres by early-career playwrights and offers a slate of new play development programs: the P73 Playwriting Fellowship, Interstate 73 writers group, and a week-long Summer Residency.

Close to two-thirds of the over 100 playwrights they've supported have enjoyed New York or regional theatre productions after receiving a Page 73 premiere or development support. These include, among others, writers whose professional debuts in New York City were produced by Page 73, such as Samuel D. Hunter (2015 MacArthur "Genius" Grant), Quiara Alegría Hudes (2012 Pulitzer Prize), Dan LeFranc (2010 New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award), Heidi Schreck (2014 Tow Playwright in Residence at Playwrights Horizons), and Clare Barron (2015 Obie Award).

SUSAN SOON HE STANTON's plays include Today Is My Birthday; We, the Invisibles; Takarazuka!!! (Clubbed Thumb Summerworks); Cygnus (Women's Project Lab); The Things Are Against Us (Washington Ensemble Theater), and Navigator (Honolulu Theater for Youth). Most recently, she worked in London as a staff writer for the TV series Succession on HBO. She is a member of Page 73's 2017 Interstate 73 writers group, a two-time Sundance Institute Theater Lab Resident Playwright, and an alumna of The Public Theater's Emerging Writers Group, Soho Rep Writer-Director Lab, and The Women's Project Lab, among other writers groups. Her work has been included on the Kilroy's List in 2015, '16, and '17, and she was recently awarded the Leah Ryan's Feww Award for We, The Invisibles as well as an inaugural Venturous Playwrights Fellowship for Today Is My Birthday. She received a Feature Film Development Grant and Screenwriting Award from the Sloan Foundation. Originally from Hawai'i, Susan holds a BFA from NYU Tisch's Dramatic Writing program and an MFA from Yale School of Drama.

Kip Fagan has previously directed for Page 73 the 2010 world premiere of Samuel D. Hunter's Jack's Precious Moment and the 2012 musical workshop of Carlos Murillo's A Thick Description of Harry Smith: Volume 1. Recent directing credits include: NYC: Zayd Dohrn's The Profane, Heidi Schreck's Grand Concourse (Playwrights Horizons); Jenny Rachel Weiner's Kingdom Come (Roundabout Underground); Ike Holter's Exit Strategy (Primary Stages); Jesse Eisenberg's The Revisionist and Asuncion, Halley Feiffer's How to Make Friends and Then Kill Them, Heidi Schreck's There Are No More Big Secrets, Sheila Callaghan's That Pretty Pretty; or, The Rape Play (Rattlestick); Ariel Stess's The World My Mama Raised and I'm Pretty Fucked Up, Sheila Callaghan's Roadkill Confidential, Rachel Hoeffel's Quail (Clubbed Thumb); Reggie Watts and Tommy Smith's Radio Play (P.S. 122). Regional: Alliance, Long Wharf, Woolly Mammoth, Williamstown, Humana, George Street Playhouse, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Portland Center Stage, Marin Theatre Company, City Theatre. Taught and/or directed at Juilliard, NYU, SUNY Purchase, National Theatre Institute, Strasberg Center. NEA/TCG directing fellow, Clubbed Thumb affiliated artist, co-founder of Printer's Devil in Seattle.

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