Plays by Eleanor Burgess and More Slated for Keen Company's 'Keen Teens' Series

The Drama Desk and Obie Award-winning Keen Company will present the Eleventh Season of Keen Teens.

This season's offerings will be:

- RAT COURT by Boo Killebrew, directed by Daisy Walker, and featuring: Roza Chervinsky, Tashi Everett, Jaylene Gonzalez, Pamela Guerrero, Alonnie Johnson, Jaylen Key, Emerson Thomas Gregory, SaCha Stewart-Coleman, Giovanni Santalucia, and Madelyn de Los Santos. Initiation into a high school sorority tests three young women -- and their friendship -- to the breaking point. Meanwhile, a young man struggles to chart his own future, or believe he's worthy of one.

- Tilda Swinton BETRAYED US by A. Rey Pamatmat, directed by Zi Alikhan, and featuring: Saman Bayako, Petra Brusiloff, Marina Davey, Jake Dylan, Tashi Everett, MaEve Farrell, Natalya Gammon, Irene Lauren, Sadie Parker, and Craig Steely, Jr. An actress's fan club finds its survival threatened when the actions of their beloved icon leave the group sharply divided on how to respond. Discovering that they can't address this incident without acknowledging broader cultural truths, they realize the only way forward is to discuss the difficult and complicated things we don't like talking about.

- AND...ACTION by Eleanor Burgess, directed by Julie Kramer, and featuring: Emma Callahan, Roza Chervinsky, Marina Davey, Julia Dec, Malcom Grant, Rose Hornyak, Irene Lauren, Mohammad Murtaza, Josiah Thorpe, and Rachida Williams. Things get weird both onscreen and off when a group of friends film a Tarantino-inspired heist flick. When it's your first time behind the camera, what story do you tell, and how do you choose to tell it?

Molly Meador serves as Keen Teens Producer, with Hope Chavez Keen Teens Line Producer. Brendan Boston will provide scenic design, with costume design by Katja Andreiev, lighting design by David Shocket, and sound design by Julian Evans.
Keen Teens is presented by Keen Company and Samuel French, Inc. Keen Teens is made possible by The Axe-Houghton Foundation and the Keen Teens Angels.

Performances begin Friday May 12th and continue through Sunday May 14th only at The Lion Theatre in Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street, between 9th and 10th Avenues). Tickets are only $19.25 and may be purchased by calling Telecharge at 212-239-6200 or online at www.telecharge.com. Tickets will go on sale April 1st.

Keen Teens is a unique educational theatre program which seeks to improve the quality of plays written for high school students by commissioning scripts from highly regarded professional writers. Playwrights write plays 30 minutes in length that involve a large cast and also reflect Keen Company's mission of producing plays that provoke identification, reflection and emotional connection. The plays are performed by high school students from across the metropolitan area, as part of a free program which allows students an immersive experience in new play production. The productions are all designed and directed by theatre professionals, allowing the students a unique opportunity to work alongside some of the most talented emerging artists working in New York today. Keen's program partner, Samuel French, Inc., then publishes the plays and make them available for future productions around the globe. In our first ten years, Keen Teens presented new work by Courtney Baron, Barton Bishop, Hannah Bos and Paul Thureen, Bekah Brunstetter, Jonathan Caren, Kristoffer Diaz, Bathsheba Doran, Anton Dudley, Halley Feiffer, Kenny Finkle, Liz Flahive, Nick Gandiello, M arcus Gardley, Madeleine George, Jason Grote, Naomi Iizuka and Ryan Pavelchik, Greg Kotis, Mike Lew, Cheri Magid, Winter Miller, Michael Mitnick, Anna Moench, Janine Nabers, Qui Nguyen, Max Posner, Jenny Schwartz, Jen Silverman, Max Vernon and Jason Kim, Kathryn Walat, and Lauren Yee.

Performances are Friday, May 12th at 8pm, Saturday, May 13th at 3pm & 8pm and Sunday, May 14th @ 2pm & 5pm at The Lion Theatre in Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street, between 9th and 10th Avenues). For more information, go to www.keencompany.org

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHTS:

Eleanor Burgess's plays have been produced at the ALLIANCE THEATRE, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Centenary Stage Company, the Samuel French Festival and the Boston Theatre Marathon, and developed at Ensemble Studio Theatre, Huntington Theatre Company, the Lark Play Development Center, the Kennedy Center/NNPN MFA Playwrights Workshop, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Ryder Farm, and Luna Stage. She's been the recipient of an EST/Sloan commission, the 2016 Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Award, the Susan Glaspell Award for Women Playwrights, and a Playwriting Fellowship at the Huntington Theatre in Boston, and a member of the writers' group at the Arcola Theatre in London, the Everyday Inferno Theatre Development Lab, and the Patriot Program at Merrimack Rep. Before becoming a writer, Eleanor taught history and creative writing in London, Boston, and New Haven. She has also worked as a gardener, a pastry chef, and a social media manager. She grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts, studied history and comparative theology at Yale College, and received an M.F.A in Dramatic Writing in 2015 from NYU/Tisch.

Boo Killebrew is a playwright, actress, and co-founder of CollaborationTown Theatre Company. Boo was a Lila Acheson Playwriting Fellow at The Juilliard School and the recipient of The Paula Vogel Award at The Vineyard Theater. She is a resident of The SPACE Working Farm, an alumni of the Emerging Writers Group at The Public Theater, a recipient of a NYFA Fellowship, an alumni of TerraNova's Groundbreakers, an Affiliated Artist and Kitchen Cabinet Member with New Georges, and a Usual Suspect with New Theater Workshop. Her plays include Miller, Mississippi (The Leah Ryan Prize 2015, Dallas Theatre Center 2017); Romance Novels For Dummies (Williamstown Theater Festival, 2016), Days Like Diamonds, The Play About My Dad, The d Life, Caveat Emptor and The Momentum NYC Fringe Festival Excellence Award for Overall Production of a Play; GLAAD Media Award Nominee). Her work has been presented at The Roundabout Theatre, The Public Theater, Williamstown Theater Festival, The Atlantic, New York Theater Workshop, New York Stage and Film, Perry Mansfield, Portland Center Stage, New Georges, Clubbed Thumb, The Huntington Theatre Co., 59e59 Theatres, The New Ohio, The Labyrinth, The Alley Theatre, and Boston Playwright's Theatre. Boo was an Edward F. Albee Foundation Fellow, an Artist in Residence at NYFA, Robert Wilson's Watermill Center, The New York Theater Workshop, The MacDowell Colony, Williamstown Theater Festival, and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Boo has received two New York Innovative Theater Awards, two Fringe Excellence Awards, and The Bette Davis Foundation Award. She is currently commissioned by Victory Gardens, The Dallas Theatre Center, and Manhattan Theatre Club. Boo is a writer for "Longmire" on Netflix and created the television pilot "Aim High" which is currently in development at AMC.

A. Rey Pamatmat's plays include after all the terrible things I do (South Coast Rep commission, Milwaukee Rep world premiere, Huntington Theatre Company); Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them (Rolling World premiere at The Actors Theatre of Louisville's Humana Festival of New American Plays, Company One, Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award Citation, GLAAD Media Award nomination, Lambda Literary Award Finalist); A Power Play; Or, What's-its-name (2014 O'Neill Playwrights Conference, development at A.R.T. Institute and Berkeley Rep's Ground Floor). House Rules (Ma-Yi Theatre Company); Thunder Above, Deeps Below (developed at O'Neill Playwrights Conference, world premiere by Second Generation, Lambda Literary Award Finalist); A Spare Me (Waterwell's New Works Lab). Rey is Co-Director of the Ma-Yi Writer's Lab, and a past recipient of the Playwright of New York (PoNY) Fellowship, Princeton's Hodder Fellowship, Princess Grace Award for Playwriting, Princess Grace Special Projects Grant, NYFA Playwriting Fellowship, and a Truman Capote Literary Fellowship.

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