Summer Uptown Series Announced for Second Stage Theatre
By: Kelsey Denette Feb. 09, 2012
Second Stage Theatre (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director) has announced the two world premiere plays which will be presented as part of the company's tenth annual Second Stage Theatre Uptown Series this summer: Alena Smtih's The Bad Guys, and Kenneth Lin's Warrior Class, directed by Evan Cabnet.
Both plays will be presented at Second Stage Theatre's uptown home, the McGinn/Cazale Theatre on Broadway at 76th Street. The Bad Guys will run May 21 – June 17, with an Opening night set for June 4th. Warrior Class will run July 11 – August 11, with an Opening night set for July 23rd. Tickets for both shows can be purchased by calling the Second Stage Theatre Box Office at 212-246-4422 or online at www.2ST.com.
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 (Christopher Burney, Associate Artistic Director and Curator), 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 Rajiv Joseph(Gruesome Playground Injuries and Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo), Leslye Headland (Bachelorette), Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (Good Boys and True, HBO's "Big Love"), Adam Bock (A Small Fire, The Drunken City), and Brooke Berman(Hunting and Gathering).
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. The 2007 series featured Marisa Wegrzyn's The Butcher of Baraboo, directed by Judith Ivey, and Joshua Tobiessen's Election Day, directed by Jeremy Dobrish. The 2008 series featured Carly Mensch's Len, Asleep in Vinyl, directed by Jackson Gay, and Rajiv Joseph's Animals Out of Paper, directed by Giovanna Sardelli. The 2009 series presented two world premiere plays: Zakiyyah Alexander's 10 Things To Do Before I Die, directed by Jackson Gay, and Lila Rose Kaplan's Wildflower, directed by Giovanna Sardelli. The 2010 season's series featured the New York premiere of Michael Golamco's Year Zero, directed by Will Frears and the New York premiere production of Leslye Headland's critically acclaimed hit comedyBachelorette, directed by Trip Cullman.
Last season's series featured two world premiere comedies: Michael Mitnick's Sex Lives of Our Parents, directed by Davis McCallum and Anna Kerrigan's The Talls, directed by Carolyn Cantor.
Play #1:
The Bad Guys
World premiere
Written by Alena Smith
May 22 – June 17
Five childhood buddies reunite on a late summer afternoon for some beer, grilling and weed, but deep within their friendship lurk ghosts that rock the patio beneath them. Bitingly comic and ruthlessly recognizable, this is the story of a generation at war with itself over what it means to "man up."
Alena Smith (Playwright) Alena Smith's plays have been seen/developed at The Public Theater, Playwrights Horizons, Joe's Pub, the Summer Play Festival, A.R.T. Institute, the Ohio Theatre, P.S. 122, Chashama, the Foundry, and the Yale Cabaret. Outside of the U.S., her work has been seen at the Southwark Playhouse in London, and at Theater Bielefeld in Bielefeld, Germany. She was a member of the Public's 2009 Emerging Writers Group, and was a 2008-09 Artist Fellow in Playwriting with the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA). MFA, Yale School of Drama; ASCAP Cole Porter Prize in Playwriting.
Play #2:
Warrior Class
World Premiere
Written by Kenneth Lin
Directed by Evan Cabnet
July 12 – August 11
When Assemblyman Julius Lee makes a bid for Congress, the ghosts of his college days come back to haunt him. Nothing reveals true colors like a sprint to the finish, when friends become enemies and allies can turn on a dime. A political battle of race, romance, forgiveness and debt.
KENNETH LIN (Playwright). Kenneth Lin's plays Fallow, Intelligence-Slave, Po Boy Tango (TCG Edgerton New Play Prize), said Saïd (Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Competition Winner, L. Arnold Weissberger Award, Princess Grace Award), Life On Paper, Agency* and Genius in Love have been seen at theaters throughout the country, including the ALLIANCE THEATRE, Northlight Theatre Company, Alley Theatre, People's Light and Theatre Company, South Coast Rep, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Marin Theater Company and East West Players.
Evan Cabnet (Director). World Premieres include: Outside People (Vineyard/Naked Angels), All-American (Lincoln Center Theater/LCT3), The Dream Of The Burning Boy (Roundabout Underground, Drama League Nomination, Distinguished Production), Oohrah! (Atlantic Theater Co.), Elizabeth Meriwether's Oliver Parker! (stageFARM) and The Mistakes Madeline Made (Naked Angels), Map Of Heaven (Denver Center), Donald Margulies' Shipwrecked! (Long Wharf, East Coast premiere), The Gingerbread House (stageFARM/Rattlestick), and his own adaptations of Ubu Roi and Salman Rushdie'sHaroun And The Sea Of Stories (Williamstown). He is the recipient of the 2008 Claire Tow Award for Emerging Artists, the 2003 Bill Foeller Fellowship, and the 2002 Boris Sagal Fellowship.
SCHEDULE AND TICKET INFORMATION
The Bad Guys will be performed at the McGinn/Cazale Theatre (Broadway & 76th Street, 3rd floor) from Tuesday, May 22- Sunday, June 17 on the following schedule: Tuesday-Saturday at 7:30pm, Saturday at 2:00pm, and Sunday at 3:00pm.
Warrior Class will be performed at the McGinn/Cazale Theater (Broadway & 76th Street, 3rd floor) from Thursday, July 12 – Saturday, August 11 on the following schedule: Monday-Saturday at 7:30pm, and Wednesday and Saturday at 2:00pm.
Tickets for performances of both plays can be purchased at the Second Stage Theatre Box Office (305 West 43rd Street) or by calling (212) 246-4422. Advance tickets are not available at the McGinn/Cazale Theater. Single tickets are $50; advance youth tickets (age 30 and under) are $20; and student RUSH tickets are $10 (available 30 minutes prior to curtain). A 2-play subscription is available for $60.
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