Second Stage Theatre Announces Uptown Series Selections

Second Stage Theatre (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director; Ellen Richard, Executive Director) has announced the two plays to be presented as part of the company's sixth Second Stage Theatre Uptown Series this summer: Carly Mensch's Len, Asleep in Vinyl, directed by Jackson Gay, and Rajiv Joseph's Animals Out of Paper, directed by Giovanna Sardelli.

Len, Asleep in Vinyl playwright Carly Mensch is in her final year at Juilliard; her play, All Hail Hurricane Gordo, is receiving its world premiere this year at the Humana Festival.  Rajiv Joseph returns to Second Stage Theatre Uptown where his play, All This Intimacy, premiered in the
summer of 2006.  Animals Out of Paper was commissioned as part of the Time Warner Commissioning Program at Second Stage Theatre and is the first play from the program to be produced.

Both plays will be presented at Second Stage Theatre's uptown home, the McGinn/Cazale Theatre on Broadway at 76th Street.  Len, Asleep in Vinyl will run May 13 - June 22.  Animals Out of Paper will run July 15 - August 24. Tickets for both shows can be purchased by calling the Second Stage Theatre Box Office at 212-246-4422.

Created as a program to help develop and provide exposure for the voices of a new generation of theatre artists, the Second Stage Theatre Uptown Series seeks to develop the skills of emerging playwrights, to provide early-career artists with the support of a major artistic institution, and to create new plays for the American Theatre.  Each show has a limited rehearsal period, as well as a streamlined budget.  The series has helped launch and advance the careers of several up-and-coming playwrights, including Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (whose play, Good Boys and True, is part of Second Stage's current mainstage season, beginning performances on April 23); Adam Bock (The Receptionist, The Drunken City), and Brooke Berman (Hunting and Gathering).

Second Stage Theatre's Artistic Director Carole Rothman says, "I am so pleased to announce our sixth season of Second Stage Theatre Uptown. Thanks to the generosity of Time Warner which enabled us to establish the Time Warner Commissioning Program at Second Stage Theatre, this summer we present Rajiv Joseph's Animals Out of Paper, the very first play produced from the program.  Rajiv's play as well as Carly Mensch's Len, Asleep in Vinyl, continues our strong tradition of providing emerging playwrights with opportunities to develop their craft.  I look back on past Uptown seasons with great pride as playwrights who started Uptown continue to move forward with their careers - both on our stage at 43rd Street and in other theaters across the city and the country."

The series premiered in 2002 with three new American plays: …in the absence of spring…, written and directed by Joe Calarco; The Notebook, written by Wendy Kesselman and directed by Evan Yionoulis; and Hunt Holman's Spanish Girl, directed by Erica Schmidt.  Second Stage Theatre Uptown was on hiatus in 2003 due to theatre repairs.  The 2004 season saw the New York premiere of Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa's The Mystery Plays, as well as Brooke Berman's The Triple Happiness, starring Ally Sheedy.  In 2005, the series presented the New York premiere of the critically acclaimed comedy Swimming in the Shallows, written by Adam Bock and starring Logan Marshall-Green, as well as the world premiere of Dan O'Brien's The Dear Boy.  The 2006 series featured two world premiere comedies: Getting Home, written by Anton Dudley and directed by David Schweizer, and Rajiv Joseph's All This Intimacy, directed by Giovanna Sardelli.

Last season's Uptown Series featured two world premiere comedies: Marisa Wegrzyn's The Butcher of Baraboo, directed by Judith Ivey, and Josh Tobiessen's

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, directed by Jeremy Dobrish.

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