Rehearsals Begin For SLIPPING, Opening Night Set For 8/4 At The Rattlestick Playwrights Theater

Rehearsals start today, Thursday, July 2, for Slipping, written by Daniel Talbott and directed by Kirsten Kelly. Presented by Piece by Piece Productions and Rising Phoenix Repertory in association with Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Slipping begins performances for its New York premiere Tuesday, July 28 at 8pm at the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, 224 Waverly Place. The opening night is set for Tuesday, August 4 at 7pm.

Alone, numb, and friendless after the violent death of his father, high school senior Eli moves with his mother from San Francisco to a fresh start in Iowa. A new relationship with a boy at school exposes Eli again to the possibility of closeness and the danger of being swallowed by it.

Slipping was originally workshopped and developed at The Royal Court Theatre and Rattlestick, was given its world premiere in Chicago by The Side Project, directed by Artistic Director Adam Webster, and was recently read as part of the Robert Chesley/Jane Chambers Playwright Project at TOSOS in New York.

The cast of Slipping is MacLeod Andrews (Somewhere in the Pacific), Adam Driver (Theatre of War), Meg Gibson (The Ride Down Mt. Morgan), and Seth Numrich (Iphigenia 2.0, Too Much Memory).

Daniel Talbott has most recently worked as an actor in The Merry Wives of Windsor (Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis), Master Builder (Irish Rep), Rocket City (Alabama Shakespeare Festival), Tartuffe (McCarter Theatre/Yale Rep), Marat/Sade (Classical Theatre of Harlem) and the feature film "Pretty Bird." Recent directing work includes Birthday and Nobody, both by Crystal Skillman (Rising Phoenix Rep at the Seventh Street Small Stage at Jimmy's No. 43), The Umbrella Plays (the teacup company/FringeNYC - Overall Excellence Award: Outstanding Play), Fall Forward (Sitelines/River to River Festival produced by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council), and The Reaching (Rising Phoenix Rep). His play Slipping was produced by The Side Project in Chicago in 2008 and was also part of the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival, and his play What Happened When was produced at HERE Arts Center and The Side Project this past winter, and was published as part of the Plays and Playwrights 2008 anthology. He received a 2007 New York Innovative Theatre Award for directing, a Drama-Logue Award and two Dean Goodman Choice Awards for acting and was also named one of the 15 People of the Year 2006 by nytheatre.com. He is a graduate of Juilliard and of Solano College Theatre's ATP, and is a literary manager of Rattlestick Playwrights Theater and the artistic director of Rising Phoenix Rep (recipient of the 2007 NYIT Caffe Cino Fellowship Award).

Kirsten Kelly is a film and theatre director from New York. Recent directing credits include: ART (Two River Theatre Co); The Government Inspector (Calvin College Guest Director); 365-Week 47 (Rising Phoenix Rep/Public Theatre); Slipping by Daniel Talbott for Rattlestick Dirty Works; Co-creator of the CPS! Shakespeare program at Chicago Shakespeare Theater where she directed productions of Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet, and Hamlet; the Washington D.C. premiere of Boy Gets Girl by Rebecca Gillman for Theatre Alliance (Helen Hayes Nomination, Best Direction); the Midwest/Chicago premiere of Mamet's Boston Marriage (After Dark Award, Best Director), and Sam Shepherd's Savage Love/Tongues with the Juilliard Percussion Ensemble at Lincoln Center. Film credits include: Front of House (Web Pilot Series for Strike TV); Tokyo/Vermont Counterpoint short film (Beyond The Machine concert, Lincoln Center); Asparagus! (Stalking the American Life) (award-winning documentary on the 2006-7 film festival circuit; DVD released 2008; PBS broadcast Spring 2009); Production Manager for three National Geographic Explorer episodes. Prior to NY, Kirsten directed many Chicago productions and was the Artistic Director of Strawdog Theatre there. Kirsten is a graduate of the Master's Directing program at Juilliard where she received the Andrew W. Mellon Directing Fellowship, and is a proud member of Rising Phoenix Repertory.

The set design for Slipping is by Lauren Helpern; costume design is by Chloe Chapin; lighting design is by Joel Moritz; sound and projection design are by Brandon Epperson.

Founded in 1999 by Artistic Director Daniel Talbott (named one of nytheatre.com's People of the Year in 2006), Rising Phoenix Repertory began by producing an ongoing reading series of new plays and has continued to add workshops, festivals, and highly praised productions of new plays. Recent productions include Birthday and Don't Pet the Zookeeper at Seventh Street Small Stage, 365 Days/365 Plays at Jimmy's No. 43 and The Public Theater, What Happened When at HERE Arts Center, Fall Forward in the Sitelines/River to River festival produced by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, The Telling Trilogy (including The Ride, 2006 NYIT Award Nominee - Outstanding Original Short Script), Rules of the Universe (Winner, 2007 NYIT Awards for Outstanding Original Short Script (Daniel Reitz) and Director (Daniel Talbott), and Three Sisters at the Seventh Street Small Stage at Jimmy's No. 43. Its acclaimed, sold-out production of last season's Too Much Memory (in FringeNYC and remounted with Piece by Piece at New York Theatre Workshop) was Rising Phoenix Repertory's third FringeNYC production, following Gift by Mark Schultz in 2005 and Ponies by Mike Batistick in 2003, and received the Fringe award for Outstanding Play.

Piece by Piece Productions is a not for profit organization that was started in 1999 by Wendy Vanden Heuvel. Its mission is to produce film and theater that is socially, politically, and spiritually relevant to our times. Piece by Piece is also very interested in supporting the development of theatre artists and their original work through workshops, readings, and the productions of new plays. Productions have included: Medea directed by Deborah Warner with Fiona Shaw, The Tricky Part by Martin Moran, Ode to the Man Who Kneels by Richard Maxwell, in association with the NY City Players, and The Walworth Farce by Enda Walsh, as well as the upcoming 2009 "comeback" of Mabou Mines DollHouse, both in association with St. Ann's Warehouse. Films: Fierce Grace: Ram Dass by Mickey Lemle, and The Rest I Make Up: Documenting Irene by Michelle Memran (a documentary about the life and work of the playwright Irene Fornes). Wendy Vanden Heuvel also served as co-artistic director with Rosemary Quinn of The Other Theater; her past producing and associate producing credits include: Three by Beckett '94 and '96 directed by Joseph Chaikin, Mud by Irene Fornes, Women. War. Comedy. by Thomas Brasch, Springtime by Irene Fornes, Counting the Ways by Edward Albee, and My Name is Rachel Corrie (with Royal Court Theatre).

Slipping plays Monday through Friday at 8pm, and Saturday at 5pm and 9pm, with a special added performance on Sunday, August 2 at 7pm, at the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, 224 Waverly Place. Performance times for the run's final day-Saturday, August 15-are 6pm and 9pm. Tickets are $20, are on sale now, and may be purchased by phoning SmartTix at 212 868-4444 or by visiting www.smarttix.com. For more information about Slipping, visit www.risingphoenixrep.org.

Photo credit by Paula Court. Pictured: Seth Numrich and MacLeod Andrews

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