LAByrinth Theater Company Announces Roster of Actors for 11th Annual Barn Series

LAByrinth Theater Company (Co-Artistic Directors Stephen Adly Guirgis, Mimi O'Donnell, Yul Vázquez and Managing Director, Danny Feldman), Off-Broadway's home of exhilarating and incendiary theater, has announced the full roster of actors and directors for the 11th Annual Barn Reading Series, a festival of staged readings highlighting 14 new plays.

The Barn Series is a second step in LAB's play development process, allowing artists to assess how audiences connect with their work, and letting them shape and refine the text in preparation for production. The festival gives audiences an opportunity to see exciting new work, to engage in LAB's development process by giving feedback to the artists, and to catch an early glimpse of future productions.

The Barn Series is open to the public beginning Monday, November 29th through Tuesday, December 21st at The Cherry Pit (155 Bank Street). All are welcome. Admission is free. Reservations are not necessary and seating will be on a first-come, first-served basis at each performance. Patrons should arrive at the theater 1/2 hour before the performance they would like to attend. (Plays and Schedule below.)

BARN SERIES SCHEDULE

November 29 - December 21, 2010

Channel
by John Jiler
Directed by Brian Roff*

The illness of a child hurls together a rough-hewn white actor
and an elegant black doctor....with violent, awakening results.
Featuring Charles Goforth*, Ron Cephas Jones*

November 29 & December 9 at 8:00 p.m.

* * *
Marcy Comes Home
by Adam Bock
Directed by Trip Cullman

When you drive out of town, but then come back on the
Greyhound bus - well, that can be hard.
Featuring Vanessa Aspillaga*, Quincy Tyler Bernstine*, Zack Booth,
Ari Graynor, Jason Butler Harner, Linda Larkin, Maulik Pancholy

November 30 at 8:00 p.m.

* * *
If You Love Me
by Lyle Kessler
Directed by Lola Glaudini*

Extremism in the name of love.
Featuring Elizabeth Rodriguez*, Yul Vazquez*

December 1 & 2 at 8:00 p.m.

* * *
You Are Here
by Melissa Ross*
Directed by Mimi O'Donnell*

In You Are Here, six New Yorkers befriend and brutalize each other in a desperate attempt
to control their out of control lives. As they stumble through the dive bars, cramped
apartments and cut-throat boardrooms of a ruthless city, they wrestle with the reality of
rapidly approaching middle age while still struggling to hold on to their disappearing youth.
Featuring Max Casella, Sarah Nina Hayon*,
Jennifer Mudge, Amanda Perez

December 3 & 10 at 8:00 p.m.

* * *
The Bends
by Megan Mostyn-Brown*
Directed by Josh Hecht

When an alcohol fueled reunion between former college friends treads dangerous territory,
everyone is forced to ask can we ever out run who we were? or is the past always there to haunt us?
Featuring Jeff Biehl, Caitlin Fitzgerald, Michael Gladis, Sarah Nina Hayon*,
Greg Keller*, Alexa Scott-Flaherty*

December 4 & 5 at 8:00 p.m.

* * *
Oh, The Power
by David Bar Katz*
Directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman*

Ten years after they were forced to disband, a group of superheroes
gather for cocktails in a finished basement in the suburbs to try to
unravel the mysteries of their final mission.
Featuring Tina Benko, Saidah Arrika Ekulona, Jeffrey Horwitz,
Joseph Parks, Ed Vassallo*, Yul Vazquez*

December 7 & 8 at 8:00 p.m.

* * *
Rivers Of January
by Ben Snyder
Directed by Stephen Adly Guirgis*

Rio de Janeiro. New Year's Eve. Three old friends struggle to make
peace with the past, get a grasp on the present, and avert a tragic future.

December 11 at 7:00 p.m. & 9:00 p.m.

* * *
Heal Me Television
by Martha Wollner*
Directed by Kevin Geer*
1959. Small town, South. Lawerence Welk's on TV; home made ice cream with your peach cake; communion at home when you' re too sick for church; and a lynchin' just down the road. For goodness sake, don't just stand there gawking! Come on in!
Featuring Japhet Balaban, Elizabeth Canavan*, Scout Cook, Andrea Haring*, Scott Hudson*,
Russell G. Jones*, Florencia Lozano*, Kelley Rae O'Donnell*, Richard Petrocelli*,
Yolonda Ross*, Finnerty Steeves, Sidney Williams*

December 12 at 7:00 p.m. & 21 at 8:00 p.m.

* * *
The Walking Game
by Daniel Harnett*
Directed by Padraic Lillis*

A young man is having trouble holding on to reality and the room he's checked

into - in this new musical one act.

Featuring Scout Cook, Kevin Geer*, Charles Goforth*, Marshall Sharer*

December 13 at 7:00 p.m. & 9:00 p.m.

* * *
Utilities
by Jonathan Marc Sherman
Directed by David Bar Katz*

You should know how to break up with a friend.
You should know what your childhood idols are really like.
You should know what your partner is really feeling.
Shouldn't you? A story about how then became now.
Featuring Didi O'Connell*, Annie Parisse, Yul Vazquez*, Frank Whaley

December 14 & 15 at 8:00 p.m.

* * *
New Short Plays
by Israel Horovitz
Directed by Israel Horovitz and Scott Illingworth

Israel Horovitz's New Shorts include
Just The Way You Are (an intervention from hell)
Inconsolable (on suicide)
The Vote In Orange (on the night France elected a Fascist candidate for the presidency)
Beirut Rocks (on the radicalization of an American Arab)
What Strong Fences Make (on the radicalization of an Israeli Jew).
Four of these five recently-written short plays were seen in July at LAB's 2010 Summer Intensive.
Featuring Scout Cook, Jeremy Sisto, Francisco Solorzano

December 16 & 18 at 8:00 p.m.

* * *
They Killed Boo Boo?
by Maggie Bofill*
Directed by Jill DeArmon*

Sisters, Men, Wolves and Song....and Boo Boo. This is the story of...
Featuring Carlo Alban*, Raul Castillo*, Adam Cohen,
Angela Lewis*, Paula Pizzi*, Yolonda Ross*

December 17 & 18 at 11:00 p.m.

* * *
A Family For All Occasions
by Bob Glaudini*
Directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman*

A father without skills, nor the ability to show his feelings, attempts to navigate the
demands of a wife with a temper, a wayward daughter, who brings a man home to live,
and a son so bright he has trouble communicating.
Featuring Lex Friedman, Craig "muMs" Grant*, Didi O'Connell*,
Charlie Saxton, David Strathairn

December 17 & 19 at 8:00 p.m.

* * *
Untitled:
Work in Progress #1
Work in Progress #2
by Stephen Adly Guirgis*

Two new works in progress by one of LAByrinth's Artistic Directors.

December 20 at 7:00 p.m. & 9:00 p.m.

(*LAB Company Members)

The annual LAB fundraiser, Celebrity Charades, is set for Monday, December 6th at St. Paul of the Apostle Church at 59th and 9th Avenue. Celebrity guests and details to be announced shortly.

LAByrinth continues the 2010-2011 season in February with the world premiere of Thinner Than Water, a new play by Melissa Ross with direction by LAB co-artistic director Mimi O'Donnell. Performances begin February 8, 2011 for a limited run through March 6, 2011 at The Cherry Pit (155 Bank Street). Opening night is Sunday, February 13, 2011.

It was recently announced that Scott Rudin, The Public Theater (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis; Executive Director Andrew D. Hamingson), LAByrinth Theater Company and Stuart Thompson will present on Broadway the world premiere of the new play, The Motherf**Ker With The Hat by Stephen Adly Guirgis, starring Bobby Cannavale, Chris Rock, Elizabeth Rodriguez, Annabella Sciorra and Yul Vázquez. Directed by Anna D. Shapiro, the production will open on Monday, April 11, 2011 at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre (236 West 45th Street, New York City). The strictly limited 14-week engagement will begin previews on Tuesday, March 22, 2011.

This Spring, LAByrinth turns the focus home to the concrete backyards and side alleys by proudly presenting NewYorkNewYork!, in celebration of the plays, poets, playwrights, and New York artists past and present who have presented and represented the five great boroughs so memorably throughout the years. Expect a party. Expect to participate. Expect top line talent. All are welcome. Admission is free.

LAByrinth Theater Company offers an opportunity for theater patrons to get in on the ground floor and to be a part of the future of theater in New York with a LABPASS Membership. LABPASS ensures each member first-hand information on all the happenings on-stage and off with LAByrinth this year - plays, parties, and everything in between! And with play development at the forefront of LAB's creative mission, LABPASS members are more partners than patrons as the company presents new work with the knowledge that audiences' responses and insights serve only to strengthen the art.
For additional information, or to order a LABPASS Membership, please visit the website at www.labtheater.org
LAByrinth Theater Company was founded in 1992 by a group of actors who wanted to push their artistic limits, hone their craft, and create new plays that truly reflected their experience. Today, LAByrinth is comprised of more than 110 established and emerging theater artists from a wide array of cultural perspectives. The inclusive, multicultural ensemble encourages all members to write, act, direct, and design, and supports multidisciplinary growth and exploration in the creation of daring new work that celebrates the diversity of its New York City home.

Now in its nineteenth season, LAByrinth has developed more than 300 new plays and staged 51 productions, including The Little Flower of East Orange and UNCONDITIONAL (2008), A View from 151st Street and Jack Goes Boating (2007), A Small, Melodramatic Story and School of The Americas (2006), The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (2005), Sailor's Song and Guinea Pig Solo (2004), Dutch Heart of Man and Dirty Story (2003), Our Lady of 121st Street (2002), Where's My Money? (2001), Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train (2000), and In Arabia, We'd All Be Kings (1999). Raucous. Vital. Real. Since 1992.

Photo credit: Pat Cerasaro

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