Ensemble Studio Theatre Launches 35th Marathon of One-Act Plays Today

The Ensemble Studio Theatre Marathon of One-Act Plays, the original festival of its kind, returns for its 35th incarnation tonight, May 13, at 7:00pm at the Ensemble Studio Theatre, 549 West 52nd Street.

Beginning with 1,078 submissions for this year's Marathon, Artistic Director William Carden selected 14 plays by 15 playwrights. The plays will be presented in three separate evenings from May 13 through June 27.

Mr. Carden says about this year's selections: "From a science lab in Siberia to the red-light district in 18th century Japan to a taxi in Manhattan to a police station in Kenya, the 14 plays in this year's Marathon take our audience on a series of surprising adventures. This diverse and eclectic mix of plays--including a musical, a dance piece, and a nod to Kabuki--combines traditional and experimental forms in ways that are moving, entertaining, challenging, and fun. A healthy mix of familiar veterans, newly recognized writers, and brand new voices join us to celebrate our 35th Marathon."

Series A begins previews May 13, opens May 18 (runs through June 6):

52nd to Bowery to Cobble Hill, in Brooklyn by Chiara Atik; directed by Adrienne Campbell-Holt
Trapped in a cab on a Saturday night, two frenemies are forced to come to terms with their feelings.

Chiara Atik is a member of EST/Youngblood and her plays include Five Times in One Night (EST) and Women, a mashup of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women and HBO's Girls (The People's Improv Theater and the Hollywood Fringe Festival). Chiara's writing has been featured in Glamour Magazine, The Atlantic, The Today Show (Today.com), The Hairpin, NYMag.com, and Elle.com.

I Battled Lenny Ross by Anna Ziegler & Matt Schatz; directed by Daniella Topol
A new musical about the toughest interview of Mike Wallace's career.

Anna Ziegler has had plays produced at Seattle Rep, Cincinnati Playhouse, Magic Theatre, EST, New Georges, and Theatre503 (UK), among others. Productions are upcoming at The Old Globe, City Theatre, The Playwrights Realm, Theater J and Lantern Theater.

Matt Schatz won the Kleban Prize for Musical Theatre for Trapezoid (Astoria Performing Arts Center). He is an alumnus of the EST/Youngblood program and his plays and musicals include Georama (St. Louis Rep), The Burdens (Playwrights Union), and Where Ever It May Be, among others.

Silver Men by Amy Fox*; directed by Matt Dickson
Who painted the barn pink and why are men walking around with nickels in their boots? A family grapples with memories and mystery in the aftermath of a father's death.

Amy Fox is an alumnus of EST/Youngblood and is participating in her fourth Ensemble Studio Theatre Marathon. Ms. Fox was commissioned to write the screenplay for the feature film Equity. Fox also wrote the screenplay for the 2005 Merchant Ivory Film Heights, based on her one-act play. Ms. Fox's plays have been produced by theaters in New York, London, Tehran, Austin, and San Francisco, and are published by Dramatists Play Service.

The Big Man by Will Snider; directed by Matt Penn*
An American aid worker negotiates with Kenyan police for the release of his truck, but gets more than he expected in this menacing thriller about political power.

Will Snider's plays include How to Use a Knife, Extinction, Sundowners, and Death of a Driver and have been produced or developed at MCC, Ensemble Studio Theatre, SPACE on Ryder Farm, Great Plains Theatre Conference, #serials@theflea, FringeNYC, the claque, and MAKEHOUSE.

Until She Claws Her Way Out by Mariah McCarthy; directed by Sydney Erik Wright
In Elissa's head, she and Max will always be dancing. And no matter what anyone said, she broke her own rib.

Mariah MacCarthy won the Doric Wilson Independent Playwright Award, the Lotos Foundation Prize in the Arts and Sciences, the Indie Theater Hall of Fame and was a PoNY nominee. Her work has been developed/presented at: EST, Rattlestick, Primary Stages, Culture Project, New Dramatists, La MaMa, HERE Arts Center, Dixon Place, The Brick, Atlantic Stage 2, Fringe NYC. She is Executive Artistic Director of Caps Lock Theatre, Associate Artistic Director of The Brick, writer-in-residence of The Propulsion Lab, and a member of EST/Youngblood and Lather/Rinse/Repeat.

Series A Performance Schedule:
Previews May 13 at 7:00pm, Opens May 18 at 7:00pm
Evening Performances at 7:00pm are May 13, May 14, May 15, May 16, May 17, May 18, May 20,
May 21, May 30, June 1, June 4, and June 6;
Matinee Performances at 2:00pm are May 16, May 17, and May 30
Closes June 6

Series B begins previews May 28, opens June 1 (runs through June 21):

John, Who's Here From Cambridge by Martyna Majok; directed by Nick Leavens
Overworked, under-qualified, and broke, Jess takes on yet another job to make ends meet as a personal caregiver for a graduate student named John. John has cerebral palsy. John is beautiful. And John is here from Cambridge.

Martyna Majok is the 2015-2016 PoNY Fellow at the Lark Play Development Center. Other awards include David Calicchio Emerging American Playwright Prize, New York Theatre Workshop's 2050 Fellowship, Global Age Project Prize, NNPN/Smith Prize for Political Playwriting, Jane Chambers Student Feminist Playwriting Prize, Merage Fellowship for the American Dream. She is a member of Youngblood.

Cora and Dave by Julia Cho; directed by Marcia Jean Kurtz
A not-so-young couple confronts the biggest threat to their marriage: their happily married best friends.

Julia Cho's plays include The Language Archive (Susan Smith Blackburn Award), The Piano Teacher, Durango, The Winchester House, BFE, The Architecture of Loss and 99 Histories. Honors include the NTC's Barrie Stavis Award, the Claire Tow Award for Emerging Artists, and the Weissberger Award for Playwriting. She has been the recipient of a New York Foundation for The Arts grant and a Van Lier Fellowship from New York Theatre Workshop. She was also a Lila Acheson Wallace Playwriting Fellow at The Juilliard School and a resident at New Dramatists.

The Hour of All Things by Caridad Svich; directed by William Carden
A play in portraits that confronts the soul of America. A story of love, country and bad shopping.

Caridad Svich received the 2012 OBIE Award for Lifetime Achievement, a 2012 Edgerton Foundation New Play Award, NNPN Continued Life Fund rolling world premiere for Guapa, and the 2011 American Theatre Critics Association Primus Prize for her play The House of the Spirits, based on Isabel Allende's novel. She has won the National Latino Playwriting Award twice, and has been short-listed for the PEN Award in Drama four times.

We Can All Agree To Pretend This Never Happened by Emma Goidel; director by Abigail Zealey Bess
When two gung-ho researchers decide to fake results in their Siberian lab, a series of misunderstandings take over the lives of the whole research team.

Emma Goidel is a Playwrights Realm Writing Fellow, member of the Ars Nova Play Group, and Core Playwright at InterAct Theatre Company. She is a founding member of the Philadelphia playwrights producing collective, Orbiter 3. Her plays include Local Girls, The Gap and A Knee That Can Bend. Fellowships include a Core Apprenticeship at the Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis and the Dasha Epstein Playwriting Fellowship at New York Stage & Film/Powerhouse Theater.

Series B Performance Schedule:
Previews May 28 at 7:00pm, Opens June 3
Evening Performances at 7:00pm are May 28, May 29, May 30, May 31,June 3, June 5, June 7, June 14, June 17, June 19 and June 21
Matinee Performances at 2:00pm are May 31 and June 6
Closes June 21

Series C begins previews June 13, opens June 18 (runs through June 27):

Devil Music by Angela Hanks; director TBA
Devil Music will close its doors in a matter days. Geraldine and J.J., longtime employees of the store, discuss body modification, Billy Ocean, and their relationship until they have to call it quits.

Angela Hanks Plays include: Good Latimer, Myrna In Transit, Big Tex, breathe into this bag, Heloise Sails the Boat, and High Five. She is an alumna of EST/Youngblood, a recipient of a MacDowell Colony Fellowship, and a participant in the Lincoln Center Directors Lab.

Double Suicide at Ueno Park! by Leah Nanako Winkler; directed by John Giampietro
Two courtesans in 18th century Japan are set free from the red-light district once a year to see the cherry blossoms at Ueno Park. As the seasons pass, the best friends make a dangerous pact.

Leah Nanako Winkler's plays include Kentucky, Death for Sydney Black, The Internet, and she co-wrote Flying Snakes in 3-D!!! with Teddy Nicholas. She is an alumna of terraNova Groundbreakers, New Group/UAI (res. Playwright) and A/P/A commission w/the Japanese American National Museum.

Good Afternoon by Daniel Reitz; director TBA
An ex-Internet reputation specialist who's lost his own reputation pays a visit to new neighbor. Over tea, cookies and bourbon, they discover they share a similarly sordid past.

Daniel Reitz's awards include a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship, a New York Innovative Theatre Award and New Dramatists' Lippmann Award. Plays have been developed or produced at EST, MCC, Mark Taper Forum, Naked Angels, New York Stage and Film, Playwrights Horizons, Primary Stages and the Public, among others. He adapted his play Urban Folk Tales as the feature film Urbania released by Lionsgate Films. He is a member of Rising Phoenix Repertory and an alumnus of New Dramatists.

The Science of Stars and Fathers and Daughters by Darcy Fowler; directed by Linsay Firman
Astronomy, disappointment, and Neil Diamond in a rowboat on a summer night are part of a father/daughter tradition spanning decades.

Darcy Fowler is a playwright, screenwriter, and actress whose work has been read and work-shopped at EST, Goodspeed Opera House, Primary Stages, Ars Nova, The Bushwick Starr, Theatreworks Palo Alto, Harmony Gold Preview House and Noho Playhouse, among others. She is developing a screenplay and two pilots, and is working on a musical with musician/actor Heather Robb (Spring Standards). Her play, The Bird and the Two-Ton Weight, was selected as one of five American plays to be work-shopped at the Old Vic in London, as part of Old Vic/New Voices. She is a proud alumna of EST/Youngblood.

The Talk by France-Luce Benson; directed by Elizabeth Van Dyke
When a recently widowed woman wakes her adult daughter in the middle of the night to ask a very personal question, what ensues is a Caribbean-American take on an after school special about exploring one's sexuality gone horribly wrong.

France-Luce Benson's awards include: Lorraine Hansberry, Kennedy Center - Fati's Last Dance, 2008; Alfred P. Sloan screenplay competition - Healing Roots, 2007; Schubert Fellowship, 2006 and 2007; and Upright Citizens Brigade (three-time scholarship recipient). She has had plays produced and/or workshopped by Crossroads Theatre Company, The Fire This Time Festival, New Perspectives Theatre, Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre, Victory Gardens, and the Billie Holiday Theatre.

Series C Performance Schedule:
Previews June 13 at 7:00pm, Opens June 18
Evening Performances at 7:00pm are June 13, June 15, June 18, June 20, June 22, June 24, June 20, June 26, and June 27
Matinees Performances at 2:00pm are June 14, June 20, June 21 and June 27
Closes June 27
Box Office
Single general admission tickets are $18, student/senior $15. A two-series Marathon Pass is $30, and a three-series Marathon Pass is $45.

There's a performance grid at www.web.ovationtix.com/trs/cal/134/1430452800000. To order tickets call 866.811.4111 or click www.ovationtix.com/trs/cal/134.

Ensemble Studio Theatre (www.estnyc.org) - Ensemble Studio Theatre (William Carden, Artistic Director; Paul A. Slee, Executive Director) -- commonly known as EST -- was founded by Curt Dempster in 1968 on the belief that extraordinary support yields extraordinary work. It is a dynamic and expanding family of theatre people committed to the discovery and nurturing of new voices, and the continued support and growth of artists throughout their creative lives. Its ensemble works together repeatedly over time to develop and produce original, provocative, and authentic new plays. With 591 ensemble artists concentrated mainly in New York City, EST has been under the artistic direction of William Carden since 2007. EST was honored with 2012 Obie Awards for its under-30 playwrights program, Youngblood, and for Ensemble artist Steven Boyer for his outstanding performance in 2011's breakout success, Hand To God, developed and originally produced by EST. Hand To God opened to rave reviews at the Booth Theater on Broadway in March 2015. EST received two 2013 Drama Desk Award Nominations for its sold-out production of Finks by Joe Gilford. In 2014 its original production Year of the Rooster, by Eric Dufault, garnered a 2014 Drama Desk Award best featured actor nomination for Bobby Moreno and a NY Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Award for Eric Dufault for an outstanding Off Broadway debut by a playwright.

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