Works by Alex Lewin, Cusi Cram and Mona Mansour Set for Labyrinth Theater's 2015 Barn Series, 3/23-30

Labyrinth Theater Company has announced the line-up for the second half of their 16th Annual Barn Series, the award-winning company's free play reading series. Running March 23-30, the Barn Series lets audiences encounter new plays written by or starring Labyrinth Company Members.

This year's addition includes new work by Alex Lewin, directed by Josh Hecht; Cusi Cram, directed by Adrienne Campbell-Holt; and Mona Mansour, directed by Mimi O'Donnell. Participating actors include Labyrinth Company Members Raul Castillo, Deirdre O'Connell, and Portia, among others, in addition to guest artists Nadia Bowers, Scott Drummond, Jessica Hecht, Gayle Rankin, and more.

All readings in the Barn Series take place at the Bank Street Theater, located at 155 Bank Street in Manhattan. Tickets will be available beginning at 6pm the day of the reading only, all performances are at 8pm. Tickets are released on first-come, first-served basis; there are no advanced ticket reservations. For more information, visit labtheater.org.

BARN SERIES SCHEDULE:

Monday, March 23 at 8pm
The Interview
Written by Alex Lewin
Directed by Josh Hecht

Jake, an aspiring filmmaker, submits to a screening interview so that he can volunteer as a "big brother." But Sheila, the social worker who's asking the questions - questions that are personal and probing - begins to wonder about the young man's sexual predilections. Soon Jake realizes he may be the victim of a secret agenda - an agenda that is propelling him and Sheila towards a major confrontation.

Friday, March 27 at 8pm
...in the fountain
Written by Cusi Cram
Directed by Adrienne Campbell-Holt

Kate Maxwell has the seemingly perfect job of headmistress at a small American private school in Rome. But amidst the wine, sunshine and glorious architecture of the "eternal city" some questionable behavior is afoot, and Kate's freewheeling teachers are the culprits. As she strives to protect her students, her teachers and her school's reputation, Kate slowly realizes that la dolce vita may be far more dangerous than she ever imagined.

Monday, March 30 at 8pm
The Way West
Written by Mona Mansour
Directed by Mimi O'Donnell

In a modern-day California town on the verge of falling apart, Mom shares death-defying tales of pioneer crossings with her two squabbling daughters as she waits for her bankruptcy to come through. Stories are stretched, songs are broken into, and checks are forged as Mom and her grown girls scrape for survival.

About the artists:

Alex Lewin's plays have been presented and developed at the O'Neill Playwrights Conference, the La Jolla Playhouse, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Chautauqua Theatre Company, Geva Theatre Center, MCC - where he was, for five years, a member of the MCC Playwrights Coalition - The New Group, Ensemble Studio Theatre, the Alliance Theatre, Arena Stage, the New Harmony Project, P73, The Playwrights Realm, and the Absolut Gay Theatre Festival (Dublin), among others. Alex was a 2012-13 Jerome Fellow; he's an artistic associate at New York Theatre Workshop; and he's currently a member of the Writers' Workshop at Center Theatre Group (Los Angeles). Alex has been a finalist for the Weissberger Award, the Kendeda Prize, and the Heideman Award, among others, and was a 2014 resident at Yaddo artists' colony. Commissions: La Jolla Playhouse, Ensemble Studio Theatre/Sloan Foundation, and KBEM/Jazz 88 (St. Paul, MN). Alex holds an MFA in Playwriting from the University of California at San Diego and a BA in Creative Writing & Professional Writing from Carnegie Mellon University, where he graduated with High Honors and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa.

Josh Hecht is a Drama Desk Award-winning director of new plays. His productions have been seen in New York at The Duke on 42nd (Wearing Lorca's Bowtie, a devised piece), New World Stages (Bradford Louryk's Christine Jorgensen Reveals - Drama Desk Award, GLAAD Media nomination), Culture Project (Drew Larimore's Out Of Iceland), MCC Theater (Bob Morris's Assisted Loving), The Theatre at St. Clement's (Jake Jeppson's The Clearing), The Cherry Lane (Megan Mostyn-Brown's (girl), 13P (Winter Miller's The Penetration Play), the DR2 (Anna Ziegler's BFF), PS 122 (Joseph Keckler's JOBZ), Ars Nova, Partial Comfort, Joe's Pub, the Ontological and others. Regional productions at the Humana Festival (Allison Moore's Slasher), The Guthrie Theater (Megan Mostyn-Brown's Lizards...), No Rules / Signature Theatre D.C. (Brian Sutow's The Personal(s) - named one of 2013 Favorite Directors, (DCMetroTheatreArts), The Berkshire Theatre Festival (Rachel Schroeder's Heliantha), The Kennedy Center (Ping Chong and Co's Inside / Out - writer/performer), the Boston Center for the Arts (Christine Jorgensen - IRNE nomination), and many others. Christine Jorgensen Reveals also played internationally at the Dublin Arts Festival and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (Fringe First Award). Inside / Out has also been presented at the Flynn Center in Burlington, VT; The Round House Theater in Bethesda, MD; and the Amaryllis Theater in Philadelphia, PA. He develops between one and two dozen plays a year at such theaters and play development centers as Signature Theatre Company (NYC), The Juilliard School, MCC Theater, NYTW, Playwrights Horizons, Primary Stages, The Kennedy Center, The Public Theater, The New Group, Rattlestick, LAByrinth, New Georges, The Geva, New Dramatists, New York Stage and Film, the O'Neill, the Playwrights Center, the Lark, the New Harmony Project, the Orchard Project, Voice and Vision, P73, JAW at Portland Center Stage, PlayPenn and many others. For 5 years, he was the Director of Playwright Development at MCC Theater where he helped found and run the Playwrights Coalition, initiating a spectrum of development programs for emerging writers and working with some of today's most honored playwrights. He is currently on the faculty of Fordham's MFA Playwriting program and at ESPA / Primary Stages, and has previously been a faculty member of the New School for Drama's MFA program and Purchase College, SUNY's BFA Dramatic Writing Program in addition to guest artist positions at universities around the country. He is a NYTW Usual Suspect.

Cusi Cram's plays have been produced by Primary Stages, Labyrinth Theater Company, The Williamstown Theater Festival, South Coast Repertory, The Denver Theater Center, The Atlantic Theater Company, and New Georges, amongst many others. She is currently a 2014-15 Audrey Resident at New Georges, where she is developing a new play entitled Forgiven, which she will also direct. She has received three Emmy award nominations for her extensive writing in children's television, most notably for WGBH's Arthur. She was also a writer on the Showtime series The Big C, starring Laura Linney. She recently wrote and directed her first film, Wild & Precious, in conjunction with AFI's Directing Workshop for Women, where she was awarded The Adrienne Shelly and Nancy Malone Awards. The film has played at over 15 festivals around the country and garnered several awards. She is the Director of Outreach for The Lilly Awards Foundation and sits on the board of Leah Ryan Prize. She is also member of New Georges Kitchen Cabinet and a proud member of Labyrinth Theater Company. She teaches dramatic writing in the Fordham/Primary Stages MFA Writing Program.

Adrienne Campbell-Holt is the Founding Artistic Director of Colt Coeur. Recent: World Premiere of Dry Land by Ruby Rae Spiegel (workshops at New York Stage & Film and Ojai Playwright's Conference, production with Colt Coeur @ HERE, NYC), Red starring Tim Daly (Dorset Theater Festival, VT), World Premiere of Greg Moss' REUNION (South Coast Rep) and Wildrose by Anna Moench (New Georges/Dixon Place). Select other credits: World Premiere of Everything is Ours by Nikole Beckwith (Colt Coeur @ HERE), The Scene (Dorset Theatre Festival, starring Tim Daly), Recall (Colt Coeur @ Wild Project), Flu Season (American Conservatory Theater, SF), Fish Eye (Colt Coeur @ HERE), The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Yale), Dead Man's Cell Phone (NYU), Seven Minutes in Heaven (Emerging America Festival, Huntington Theatre Company and Colt Coeur @ HERE), Missed Connections (Ars Nova), One Child Born: The Music of Laura Nyro (Joe's Pub), The Long Tail with Mark Leckey (Abrons Art Center/Gavin Brown Enterprise), and Autobahn (NYU). Devised work includes Tunnel to Bang (EdgeFest LA), In Communicado (nest at Diavolo, LA), Radio Sintesi (nest, Brooklyn). Regional work: Young Jean Lee's Church (choreographer, Harbor Stage Company), Mormons, Mothers and Monsters (Barrington Stage), and Three Days of Rain (Amphibian Stage, Fort Worth, Texas) and three summers at Williamstown Theater Festival. Adrienne has directed workshops/ readings for the Roundabout, Playwrights Horizons, The Civilians, LAByrinth, La Jolla Playhouse, South Coast Rep, the Orchard Project, Hartford Stage, New Georges & Clubbed Thumb. She is a Time Warner/Women's Project Lab 2014-2016 Fellow, a recipient of a Jerome Foundation/Tofte Lake Fellowship, the EST/Sloan grant, an alum of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab, and a New Georges Affiliated Artist and Audrey Resident. BA Barnard College, Columbia University.

Mona Mansour's play The Way West had its world premiere in spring of 2014 at Steppenwolf, directed by Amy Morton. The play received the 2013 Sky Cooper New American Play Prize from Marin Theatre Company, where it will get its West Coast premiere in April 2015. The play received a BareBones workshop at the Lark Play Development Center (directed by Linsay Firman), where Mona was a Fellow in 2012. The Hour of Feeling (directed by Mark Wing-Davey) received its world premiere in the 2012 Humana Festival in Louisville. Following that, it was part of the High Tide Festival in the U.K. as part of the Rifle Hall plays. Urge for Going (directed by Hal Brooks) received a LAB production in the 2011 season at the Public Theater, and had its West Coast premiere at San Francisco's Golden Thread (directed by Evren Odcikin). The Vagrant, the third play in the trilogy, was commissioned by the Public Theater and workshopped at the 2013 Sundance Theater Institute with Mark Wing-Davey directing. Mona was a member of the Public Theater's Emerging Writers Group, a Core Writer at Minneapolis' Playwrights' Center, and is now a member of New Dramatists. Other plays include Across the Water, Girl Scouts of America and Broadcast Yourself (part of Headlong Theater's Decade). With Tala Manassah she has written The House, for Noor Theatre, After, and The Letter, and a musical, The Wife, which they worked on at Berkeley Rep's Ground Floor. They were given an EST/Sloan commission to write a play about 1970s Iraq, and their short play Dressing is part of Facing Our Truths: Short Plays about Trayvon, Race and Privilege, a collection of plays commissioned by the New Black Festival that has been presented at various theaters around the U.S., including the Goodman, Center Theater Group, and Joe's Pub. Other commissions include Unseen, a play for South Coast Rep's inaugural Crossroads program. 2012 Whiting Award. 2014 Middle East America Playwright Award. monamansour.com

Mimi O'Donnell is the Artistic Director at Labyrinth Theater Company, where she directed the World Premiere of Thinner Than Water, as well as a number of workshops and readings. As a producer with the Company, she was nominated for a Tony Award for the Broadway production of The Motherf**ker with the Hat and curated the annual Barn Series of new plays in development. Her acclaimed career as a Costume Designer includes many Labyrinth productions, including The Motherf**ker With The Hat, Jack Goes Boating, The Little Flower of East Orange, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, and the Off-Broadway, West End, and Donmar Warehouse productions of Jesus Hopped The A Train. Other notable productions include Modern Terrorism (Second Stage), Rapture, Blister, Burn (Playwrights Horizons), and The Blue Deep (Williamstown Theater Festival). Her film and TV credits include "Jack Goes Boating," Jonathan Demme pilot "A Gifted Man," (directed by Jonathan Demme), and four seasons as an assistant designer on Saturday Night Live.

About Labyrinth Theater Company - Labyrinth Theater Company (Artistic Director, Mimi O'Donnell, and Executive Director, Danny Feldman) is a home for diverse artists who have changed the face of American theater through groundbreaking productions of provocative new plays. Founded in 1992 by a group of actors who wanted to push their artistic limits and tell new, more inclusive stories that expanded the boundaries of mainstream theater, Labyrinth has grown into an award-winning, nationally renowned company of actors, directors, playwrights and designers from a wide array of cultural perspectives. Over the past 20 years, Labyrinth has developed hundreds of original works and premiered 58 new American plays here in New York including Jack Goes Boating, Jesus Hopped The A Train, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Our Lady of 121st Street, Sailor's Song, Thinner Than Water and the Company's multi-Tony nominated Broadway debut, The Motherf**ker With The Hat.

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