Jewish Plays Project Presents SIX at 14th Street Y, 6/23-25

The Jewish Plays Project, LABA and Highbrow are co-producers of SIX by Zohar Tirosh-Polk, a fully staged work featured in OPEN: The New Jewish Theater Residency at the 14th Street Y (344 East 14th Street). SIX will perform on June 23rd at 8:00 pm, June 24th at 3 pm and June 25th at 7 pm. Tickets are free by reservation at www.jewishplaysproject.org/tickets.

SIX will star: Daniel Oreskes (Billy Elliot, Russian Transport at the
New Group), Hani Furstenberg (The Loneliest Planet with Gael Garcia Bernal opening October 2012, Israeli Oscar Winner for Campfire), Quincy Dunn-Baker (Trust and Wildflower at Second Stage, Romeo and Juliette at the Public), Kate Skinner (The Graduate, Honey Brown Eyes), Shelly Feldman (Six at CCTP) and Richard Zekaria (The Sopranos, Aliens with Extraordinary Skills). The New Group’s Ian Morgan directs, with lighting design by Joshua Benghiat, Sound Design by Matt Sherwin and Video Design by David Bengali.

The OPEN residency is a unique partnership between LABA: The National Laboratory for New Jewish Culture at the 14th Street Y, a major cross-cultural Jewish center, and the Jewish Plays Project, an innovative young arts venture. It is providing space and significant resources to five teams of artists, including four days of ancient text study, three weeks of rehearsal, and six workshop presentations open to the public between June 23 and July 1st.

SIX - A quick- paced, jet-lagged and sun-drenched six-day trip to Israel collides with family, love and the Six-Day War.

ZOHAR TIROSH-POLK (Playwright): Pieces, Land/Holy, This Bloody Mess, Waltz, Fog and Six have been developed/produced by: Lincoln Center Theater's Directors Lab, The New Group, Magic Theatre, New Repertory Theatre, The Cape Cod Theatre Project, Rising Phoenix Rep, the Lark Play Development Center, The Brick, Columbia University, and HERE Arts Center. Ms. Tirosh-Polk was the production dramaturg for Higher by Carey Perloff at A.C.T. and has worked with Rina Yerushalmi's Itim Theatre Ensemble in Tel Aviv and Centerstage in Baltimore. Her English translation of Hanoch Levin's play Those Who Walk in the Dark is published in Wanderers: and Other Israeli Plays by Seagull Books. She is the winner of the 2012 JCC Metrowest Jewish Playwriting Contest and a recipient of the Foundation for Jewish Culture's New Jewish Theatre Project's Grant.

Ian Morgan (Director) is the Associate Artistic Director of The New Group, where he has developed and directed new work, including The New Group (naked) Second Stage series and The New Group/New Works play development program. For The New Group, he has directed the Drama Desk-nominated The Accomplices by Bernard Weinraub, which went on to productions across the country, as well as Rich Boyfriend by EVan Smith, Critical Darling by Barry Levey and A Spalding Gray Matter by Michael Brandt. Also for Michael Brandt, he directed his play Missing Time (CSV) and just workshopped his new play Flood (Epic Theatre Ensemble). Other productions include: Rough Sketch by Shawn Nacol (59E59); Ham Lake by Nat Bennett and Sam Rosen (Soho Playhouse); Sparrow by Linda Faigao-Hall (Theatre Row); and Progress by Matei Visniec (HERE). He has collaborated several times with playwright Brett Neveu, directing the world premieres of Ethnic Cleansing Day (The Production Company) and Eric Larue (HERE, later produced at the Royal Shakespeare Company), as well as the New York premieres of Neveu's Eagle Hills, Eagle Ridge, Eagle Landing and Twentyone. He has directed and workshopped new work at the Atlantic, the O’Neill, the Public, Rattlestick, New York Theater Workshop, New Dramatists, and Ensemble Studio Theatre. He workshopped SIX at Cape Cod Theatre Project, the Magic Theatre, and The New Group. In addition, Ian oversees and directs for The New Group's "Life Stories" youth ensemble for New York City high school students.

HIGHBROW (Co-Producer) is a Production Company focused on nurturing and providing resources for independent film and theatre during the critical stages of development from concept to completion. Highbrow has co-produced the Off-Broadway productions MASKED (nominated for 2007/2008 Drama Desk Award), DAI (2008 Lucille Lortel Award), and The Man Who Ate Michael Rockefeller, as well as the independent films30 Beats, Je Fais Feu de Tout Bois, Tickling Leo, and The Tollbooth and documentary films Destiny Hills and New York Street Games. Highbrow’s president, actor Ronald Guttman (see imdb.com for credits), also collaborated on Dario Fo’s Tale of a Tiger, on Christine Jorgensen Reveals (Drama Desk Award 2006), and on Rope. Following roles as Carlo Treviso in the HBO miniseries MildrEd Pierce with Kate Winslet and as Don Draper’s father-in-law in AMC’s Mad Men, Mr. Guttman will appear in the upcoming films Imogene with Kristen Wiig, Pawn with Forest Whitaker, and Black Dog, Red Dog with James Franco; he is also a co-executive producer on the British crime thriller Welcome to the Punch with James McAvoy (dir. Eran Creevy). For more, go to www.highbrow.net.

Six is presented by the Jewish Plays Project and Highbrow and Salt of the Earth is presented by LABA Fellow Zvi Sahar. The Golems of Gotham, Klauzal Square and Mahalla were selected from a field of twenty-five submissions by an artistic panel of 8 emerging New York actors, writers and directors working alongside a community panel of 12 active New York City residents. The artists rated scripts on their aesthetic merit and production readiness, while the community members judged the importance of the subject matter to the Jewish community both at home and abroad.

The other four projects that will be presented as part of the Jewish Plays Project’s OPEN are: SALT OF THE EARTH directed by Zvi Sahar; THE GOLEMS OF GOTHAM co-adapted and co-directed by Sherry Teitelbaum and Fran Sperling, based on the novel by Thane Rosenbaum; KLAUZAL SQUARE by Sarah Gancher; and MAHALLA directed by Melissa Moschitto.

Selections from the other four shows will be performed on June 28th at 8 pm, June 30th at 8 pm and July 1st at 3 pm. Tickets are $18 and are available for purchase at www.jewishplaysproject.org/tickets.

ABOUT THE LABA: LABA is a Jewish house of study for culture-makers located at the 14th Street Y. 10 fellows -- a mix of artists, writers, dancers, musicians, actors, and more -- partake in a yearlong study of classical Jewish texts centered around a theme, and then interpret these texts in their work. For more, visit www.labajournal.com.

ABOUT THE JEWISH PLAYS PROJECT: The Jewish Plays Project is a development house for 21st Century Jewish theater that seeks to ignite an explosive engagement between cutting-Edge Theater artists and Jewish audiences by developing and advocating for a new generation of plays and musicals that embrace and investigate the intersection of Jewish identity and secular self. For more, go to www.jewishplaysproject.org.

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