Kane, Schwartz, Jesurun Part of Soho Rep's New Season

Soho Rep - the Obie Award-winning theatre company (46 Walker St.)  - will expand its main stage productions from two plays to three during the 2007-08 season, including John Jesurun's Philoktetes (Oct. 11-28), the Nature Theater of Oklahoma's No Dice (Dec. 8-31) and the NY premiere of English playwright Sarah Kane's Blasted (April 3-24, 2008), the late playwright's first and most controversial play, it has been announced by Sarah Benson, the Soho Rep's new Artistic Director, who will direct Blasted.  

"Under the leadership of Ms. Benson, Soho Rep will achieve an exciting new milestone this season when the company marks its long-overdue graduation from the ranks of an off-off-Broadway theatre to an Off-Broadway company, the first time in the company's 32-year history that is has produced a full season in the Off-Broadway arena," state press notes.  "Also new this season will be the unbeatable ticket price of 99 cents for all Sunday performances of main stage productions throughout the season.  As well, Soho Rep has expanded its workshop programming, entitled Soho Rep Studio, which features FREE performances -- open to the public -- of new works in development throughout the year.  Among those free offerings will be a presentation in May '08 of Somewhere Fun by Jenny Schwartz, the young playwright who is the first recipient of the Soho Rep Dorothy Strelsin Playwriting Fellowship."

Philoktetes by John Jesurun (Chang in a Void Moon, Obie Award for Deep Sleep; White Water and Black Maria) runs October 11 to 28 in its New York premiere.  The show is written, directed and designed by Jesurun, known for his "singular integration of text, direction, set and media design."  He is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship along with Fellowships from Rockefeller Foundation, Guggenheim Foundation and NEA. The production will perform Wednesdays through Sundays at 7:30pm at Soho Rep (46 Walker Street).

No Dice by Nature Theater of Oklahoma runs December 8-31.  "One of the company's generating the most heat in the downtown theatre scene presently, Nature Theater of Oklahoma performs in an idiosyncratic, physical style that suggests its own definition of what we think theatre is," state press notes. With No Dice, directed by Pavol Liska and Kelly Copper Nature Theater of Oklahoma takes on that very American peculiarity:  amateur dinner theatre.  Described as 'an epic of the everyday,' No Dice is culled from 70-hours of taped conversation with a wide variety of subjects.  No Dice began earlier this year as a work-in-progress at Under the Radar Festival.  It will perform Thursdays through Sundays at 7.00pm.

Blasted by Sarah Kane, directed by Sarah Benson, plays April 3-27 in its New York premiere. "The third and final main stage production of the 2007-2008 Soho Rep season, Blasted was given its World-premiere in London in 1995, where it initially outraged audiences and critics with its depiction of rape,  torture and violence. The first and probably most controversial play in the short life and career of the late Kane, Blasted was embraced by Kane's British contemporaries Harold Pinter, Caryl Churchill and Martin Crimp, and has subsequently been widely produced worldwide.  Kane's other plays include Phaedra's Love, Cleansed, Crave and 4.49 Psychosis.  Blasted will perform Wednesdays through Sundays at 7:30pm at Soho Rep (46 Walker Street).

In September, Soho Rep will introduce Soho Rep Studio, a series of workshops of new plays,  free and open-to-the-public: Soho Rep Studio will kick off September 17-24 with David Adjmi's Caligula on September 17 at 7pm; Debbie Tucker Green's Born Bad on September 19 and 20 at 7pm; Theatre of a Two-Headed Calf's Macbeth on September 24 at 7pm and 9pm. January will bring Sybil Kempson's Crime or Emergency on January 11th, 12th, and 13th at 7:30pm. All workshops will be held at Soho Rep (46 Walker Street) and are free and open-to-the-public.

Soho Rep will continue its ever popular Writer/Director Lab - now in its 9th season - which provides a welcome home for early career writers and directors to generate new plays, from "scratches through first drafts." Benson notes that 60 percent of Soho Rep's main stage productions in recent years have come through the Writer/Director Lab.  As well, an impressive number of Writer/Director Lab plays have gone on to further development and production beyond Soho Rep, such as Anne Washburn's The Internationalist (The Vineyard, 13P). he Writer/Director Lab will be free and open-to-the-public over six consecutive Mondays in April and May, 2008. Dates and Times TBA, the Writer/Director Lab will be held at Soho Rep (46 Walker Street).

Finally, Jenny Schwartz will be present at Soho Rep this season as the inaugural recipient of the Soho Rep Dorothy Strelsin Playwriting Fellow for the 2007-2008 season.  Schwartz - an emerging young playwright whose works include the acclaimed play God's Ear, as well as Cause for Alarm and Escaping the Modern World - will develop her new work Somewhere Fun as part of the Strelsin Playwriting Fellowship.   The play will have a spring workshop - free and open-to-the-public -on May 20th and 21st at 7pm at Soho Rep (46 Walker Street).

For information about the Soho Rep season, call 212 941 8632 or visit www.sohorep.org

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