Heavy Hitters Join Talkbacks for The Platform Group's ROUGHLY SPEAKING

Shara Ashley Zeiger's Roughly Speaking, a new play with rap based on over 200 interviews with New York City's homeless, has announced the initial slate of participants for its after-show talkbacks. A line-up which includes experts on the homeless, a member of the New York State Assembly, TED Talk Presenters, artists and members of the Roughly Speaking cast and creative team. Scheduled to take place after every Wednesday and Sunday performance, the first such discussion will be held on Wednesday, November 2.

Conceived and produced by The Platform Group, in cooperation with Xavier Mission's Welcome Table Soup Kitchen, Roughly Speaking will be presented at Tada, located at 15 West 28 Street from October 29 through November 20.

Members of the press are invited to all performances. Please email bnchpeop@aol.com to reserve your complimentary tickets.

"The talkbacks are a natural extension of the play," explained Zeiger. "Just as Roughly Speaking humanizes the homeless, the talkbacks allow for a deeper discussion, to continue the conversation, a third act if you will."

The current list of talkback participants for Roughly Speaking is as follows:

Wednesday November 2:

Juan De La Cruz (Coalition for the Homeless)

Cassandra Agredo (Xavier Mission)

?

Sunday November 6:

Kevin F. Adler (Founder of Miracle Messages & TED Resident)

Andrew Hevesi (NY State Assembly & on the Mayor's Task Force for the Homeless)

Gary Bagley (Executive Director of New York Cares)

?

Wednesday November 9:

Clayton Brooks (Covenant House)

Kim Hopper (Psychology Professor at Columbia University)

?

Sunday, November 13:

Shara Ashley Zeiger (Playwright)

Celine Rosenthal (Director)

Members of the cast & creative team of Roughly Speaking (TBD)

Sunday, November 20:

Willie Baronet (Artist Behind the "We Are All Homeless" Art Installations, TEDx Talks, DNC & RNC, Upworthy Viral Video of 6 million hits). One of Mr. Baronet's installations will be in the lobby of Tada for the run of the show.

Roughly Speaking presents a look into the world we walk by through the eyes of Lightning Bolt, a rapper bound only by his wheelchair and a cast of diverse characters on a not so typical day at the soup kitchen. An existential struggle of survival begs questions of love, loss, and what's next. Roughly Speaking is a drama with rap about those who are caught in a system which exists more to maintain the status quo, rather than offer a way out. It's funny. It's sad. It's not a docudrama monologue play.

Show times for Roughly Speaking are Wednesday-Saturday at 8pm, Sunday at 2pm. There will be an additional performance on Monday, November 14 at 8pm and no performance on Sunday October 30, or Wednesday, November 16. All tickets are $25.00, with $3.00 from each ticket sold going towards purchasing backpacks for the homeless. Reservations: 212-868-4444 or www.theplatformgroup.org. The approximate running time of the show is 90 minutes.

The Roughly Speaking cast will feature Franz Jones* (Broadway's Big River), Danny Bolero* (Broadway's In the Heights & Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat), Christopher Michael McLamb*, Steven J. Michel*, Michael Twaine* (European Tour of West Side Story), Madeline McCray*, Troy Valjean Rucker* (National Tour, Jesus Christ Superstar), Shara Ashley Zeiger* and Joanie Anderson. (* - Member of Actors' Equity)

Roughly Speaking will be directed by Celine Rosenthal (Broadway's Leap of Faith & Seminar). Set Design is by Jonathan Wetjen. Lighting Design is by Sophie Talmadge Silleck. Costume Design is by Shirlee Idzakovich. Stage Manager is Megan Roberts. Assistant Stage Manager is Ari Grossman. Assistant Director is Benjamin Abraham. Dramaturg is Nancy Kelly.

The Platform Group previously presented a successful staged reading of Roughly Speaking this past June at Manhattan Theatre Club. Those who attended the reading call the work "funny, sad and moving," "well-written, with good comic timing and heartfelt stories of anguish and struggle," and that "it captured the magic, sadness, reality, pain and humanity of the guests of Xavier."

Shara Ashley Zeiger is the founder and Artistic Director of The Platform Group, where she acted in and produced Savage in Limbo and The Ladder Series. Her play The Dark Place was part of the 2014 Emerging Artist Theater's New Works Festival. As a devised work teaching artist she has developed 14 new plays with The Queens Theatre. Shara's theatre acting credits include the National Tour of Moliere's Imaginary Invalid and appearances at La Mama E.T.C., PS 122, Theater for the New City, Kitchen Theatre, Bristol Riverside Theatre and Buck's County Playhouse. She is on the reader selection committee for The O'Neill Center's National Playwrights Conference and sits on the board for NY's Educational Theater Association. www.SharaAshleyZeiger.com

Celine Rosenthal is a Tony-nominated producer (Leap of Faith, Seminar), an NYU Tisch alum, and graduate of The New School for Drama's MFA Directing Program. She is a founding member of Neela Theatre Project in Mumbai, and a Musical Theatre Factory Board Member. Her work has been seen at NYMF, New York City Center, MMAC, 54 Below, 59E59 and in the Broadway's Future Songbook Series at Lincoln Center. Recent projects include Rajiv Joseph's Gruesome Playground Injuries, David Grieg's Yellow Moon, and Bekah Brunstetter's Little Man.

The Platform Group was formed in early 2010 as a call to action by Artistic Director Shara Ashley Zeiger. Their mission is to create work that challenges, inspires and provides a place to stand on. They seek to elevate both their audiences and creators. In early 2011 they produced a sold-out Off-Broadway run of John Patrick Shanley's Savage in Limbo. In 2012 they produced The Ladder Series, a staged reading series of 9 new full length plays, working with over 80 theatre artists, which lead to further development, world premieres, and publishing of some of the works. http://www.theplatformgroup.org.

Funding for Roughly Speaking is made possible through a very successful Kickstarter campaign and a grant from The Puffin Foundation. The production team is currently fielding various funding sources and hopes to take the play to a future life once the Tada run is finished.

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