Audrey Esparza, Teddy Canez, John Martin Green & Wade Allain-Marcus Lead Rattlestick's POST NO BILLS, Opens 11/19

Rattlestick Playwrights Theater continues its 15th anniversary season with the world premiere of Post No Bills, a Tex-Mex play with music by Mando Alvarado. Directed by Michael Ray Escamilla, performances begin Thursday, November 11th, 2009. Opening night is Thursday, November 19th at 7pm. The show is scheduled to run through Sunday, December 13th, 2009.

Fleeing the Texas border town she grew up in, Reyna arrives in the big city, with nothing but her dream of becoming a singer/songwriter. Taking up with a pair of street musicians, she discovers that love is violent, friendship is pain and the true music comes from the depths of your soul.

The cast of Post No Bills includes Audrey Esparza, Teddy Canez, John Martin Green, and Wade Allain-Marcus.

The creative team is comprised of Raul Abrego (sets), Ren Ladassor (costumes), Joel Moritz (lights), Eric Shim (sound), Eugenia Furneaux-Arends (props) and Randall Eng (music direction). Melissa Mae Gregus is Production Stage Manager and Katrina Renee Hermann is Assistant Stage Manager.

Post No Bills will have the following performance schedule: Monday at 8pm; Wednesday - Saturday at 8pm; Sunday at 3pm. Tickets are $45.00 and are available through SmartTix (212-868-4444) or www.smarttix.com. Rattlestick Theatre is located at 224 Waverly Place (off Seventh Avenue South - between West 11th & Perry Streets).

MANDO ALVARADO (Playwright) is a director, writer and an actor from Pharr, TX. He just completed production on the film "Cruzando," which he co-wrote and co-directed. He is a member of INTAR's Hispanic Playwright in Residence Laboratory. As part of HPRL, he's developed two plays, Post No Bills and Gehenna, TX. Post No Bills received a staged reading as a part of the New Works Lab. His plays have received developmental support from The Kennedy Center, Rattlestick Theater, Sonnet Rep, District of Columbia Arts Center, Theater Alliance, Woolly Mammoth Theater, The Round House Theater, and Nuyorican Poet's Café. His ten-minute play, The Lion and the Mouse: a Radio Show is being performed by LEAP throughout schools in Manhattan, the Bronx, and Brooklyn as part of its Aesop Fables for Youth series. His play Throat was developed at The Field ArtWard Bound Residency Program. Throat received a staged workshop production produced by Allison Prouty (V-Day, Vagina Monologues, The Good Body) in February 2006. It went on a three-city tour in the spring of 2007 to DC, McAllen, TX, and Minneapolis, MN. In May of 2007, he was a playwright-in-residence at the PANGEA PROJECTS at Theatre Alliance in Washington, DC developing his new play Basilica and is currently under development at the Rattlestick Theater. As an actor, he has been seen in "The Sopranos," "The Black Donnelley's," "Law and Order: Criminal Intent," "Law and Order: SVU," and the feature film "The Choking Man." He is a graduate of North Carolina School of the Arts. He also serves as co-creative director for Those Guys and That Girl Films based in Texas.

Michael Ray Escamilla (Director) is an award-winning actor/director/writer based in New York City. He has originated roles for award-winning playwrights and screenwriters such as Jose Rivera, Craig Wright, Naomi Iizuka, and has been seen in the feature films "Sibling," "Heavy Petting," "Death Warmed Over," and "Salvation," as well as independents filmed in NY. His television credits include "Law and Order (SVU)," "Law and Order (CI)," "The Job" (Dennis Leary), "Conviction" (recurring role of John G.) and "Jack's Big Music Show." He has performed in both on and Off-Broadway productions in theatres such as Lincoln Center Theatre, The Public Theatre NYC, Second Stage Theatre, Classic Stage Company, Theatre for a New Audience, Cherry Lane Theatre, Soho Repertory Theatre, INTAR and is the recipient of the prestigious Helen Hayes and OBIE awards for acting. He has collaborated with Mando Alvarado since they were kids and has directed many of his plays. They are both in development for their next feature "First Born," a psychological thriller based on cult activity on the Mexican border during the Reagan era. He continues to direct plays and film and is currently signed on to direct "Sympatico," an online film noir based on the trials and tribulations of living in New York City. He also serves as co-creative director for Those Guys and That Girl Films based in Texas.

Rattlestick Playwrights Theater is a multi-award-winning company which has produced over forty world premieres in the past fourteen seasons and was the recipient of the 2007 Ross Wetzsteon Memorial OBIE Award for its work developing new and innovative work. Rattlestick's Advisory Board participates in The Emerging Playwrights Project, which matches a new playwright with an established artist for an experienced eye and creative support. Playwright and artist mentors have included Edward Albee, Jon Robin Baitz, Zoe Caldwell, Arthur Kopit, Craig Lucas, Joe Mantello, Terrence McNally and Marsha Norman. Previous plays include Two Boys in a Bed, Message to Michael, Carpool, Volunteer Man, A Trip to the Beach, Ascendancy, Stuck, Vick's Boy, The Messenger, Saved or Destroyed, Neil's Garden, My Special Friend, Faster, Bliss, St. Crispin's Day, Where We're Born, Five Flights, Boise, Finer Noble Gases, God Hates The Irish: The Ballad of Armless Johnny, Miss Julie, Acts of Mercy: passion-play, Cagelove, It Goes Without Saying, Dark Matters, Stay, American Sligo, Rag and Bone, War, Geometry of Fire, That Pretty Pretty; or The Rape Play, The Amish Project, Killers and Other Family, the Off-Broadway GLAAD Award-nominated hit The Last Sunday in June and Craig Wright's The Pavilion (Drama Desk nominee - Outstanding Play of 2005) and Lady (Drama Desk nominee - Outstanding Play of 2008). www.rattlestick.org.

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