Keen Company's 2016 Keen Playwrights Lab to Launch This Today

Join the Drama Desk and Obie Award-winning Keen Company for Keen on New Work: Presentations from the 3rd Annual Keen Playwrights Lab, beginning performances Friday April 15th.

Launched in 2013, the Keen Playwrights Lab brings together three American playwrights in mid-career to develop new work and facilitate that work's exposure to a greater audience. Over the course of a season, each playwright develops a new full-length play inspired by Keen's mission. The program culminates in a public reading series, where these new plays are shared with the Keen community, the larger theater industry, and the general public.

All readings take place at the Bruce Mitchell Room of ART-NY (520 8th Avenue/3rd Floor), and are free. Reservations strongly suggested. To reserve space, visit www.keencompany.org/readings

This year's plays are:

Friday, April 15th at 3pm:

It Goes Without Saying by Michele Lowe, directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch, featuring Antoinette LaVecchia, Gus Halper, Sean Patrick Reilly, Lauren Karaman, Mary Katharine Harris, Michael Labbadia, Bobby Moreno, Michael Calciano, Benton Guinness, and Max Stampa Brown.

It's December 1963 in a small town on Long Island. Three Great Danes, two ghosts and and a visitor from Dallas wreak havoc on the Neve family, forcing them to reckon with their futures in Michele Lowe's new play with music.

Monday, April 18th at 3pm

A License For Seal Boy by Ken Weitzman, directed By Mark Armstrong. Cast to be announced.

In a barely altered reality, all parents need licenses. As Meg feverishly prepares for her exams, an unexpected complication emerges: she gives birth to a seal. Can she get her license, avoid liability and make motherhood work? A hilarious and heartfelt look at the way we fetishize motherhood and the struggle that ensues.

Friday, April 22nd at 3pm:

WHEN IT'S YOU by Courtney Baron. Cast to be announced.

A new play exploring discontent in America.

"The last two Keen Playwrights Labs were tremendous successes in showing us the diversity and depth our mission inspires with new work. I am excited to see what kind of new work Michele, Ken and Courtney dreamt up for the third year of the Lab," said Keen Artistic Director Jonathan Silverstein.

In the Keen Playwrights Lab, under the leadership of Armstrong, each playwright develops a new full-length play inspired by Keen Company's mission - enduring stories that provoke identification, reflection and emotional connection. The collaborative and supportive environment brings together three acclaimed American playwrights in mid-career to develop new work and facilitate that work's exposure to a greater audience. Launched in October of 2013, previous Playwrights Lab writers included Brooke Berman, Kate Moira Ryan, Kenny Finkle, Jessica Dickey, Gabe McKinley and Qui Nguyen.

"Now in our third season, the Keen Playwrights Lab continues to make space for mid-career playwrights to explore and expand their work. Michele, Ken and Courtney are all writers who've captured Keen Company's imagination and spirit and we're thrilled to have them as part of our community," said Mark Armstrong, Keen's Director of New Work.

For more information about the Playwrights Lab and other programs of Keen Company, go to www.keencompany.org

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHTS:

Ken Weitzman's plays include, among others, The Catch (Denver Center Theatre Company), Fire in the Garden (Indiana Repertory Theatre), The As-If Body Loop (Humana Festival), Arrangements (Atlantic Theater Company), Spin Moves (SPF), Memorabilia (Alliance Theatre), Hominid (Out of Hand Theatre/Oerol Festival), Halftime with Don (in-progress, O'Neill National Playwrights Conference). National awards include The L. Arnold Weissberger Award (Arrangements), TCG Edgerton New American Play Award (The Catch), the Fratti/Newman Political Play Contest Award (Fire in the Garden), the Elizabeth George Commission for an Outstanding Emerging Playwright. In addition to the Playwrights Lab at Keen Company, Ken is a Core Writer at the Playwrights Center of Minneapolis, a member of Meeting of the Minds at the Lark Play Development Company. Ken received his MFA from UCSD and has taught at Indiana University, UCSD, Emory University and, currently, at Stony Brook University.

Courtney Baron's play Eat Your Heart Out premiered as part of the Humana Festival of New American Plays and was subsequently produced at Rivendell Theater in Chicago. Her play A Very Common Procedure was produced at MCC, the Magic Theater and as part of the Cherry Lane Theater Mentor Program. Her play Here I Lie was produced as part of the Rising Phoenix Rep's Cino Nights. Her play To Know Know Know You was written and produced for Keen Teens. Her plays Consumption and Purge are both commissions from the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. Consumption was produced at the Guthrie Lab. She is currently working on a commission for MTC. Her short film "18" (directed by Michelle Bossy) will premiere at the Austin Film Festival this fall.

Michele Lowe's plays include The Smell of the Kill (Broadway debut), String of Pearls (Outer Critics Circle nomination), Map of Heaven, Mezzulah 1946, Backsliding in the Promised Land, and the musical 1000 Words Come to Mind, which she co-wrote with composer Scott Davenport Richards. She's a major contributor to the play Motherhood Out Loud. She's currently writing the The Proxy Marriage with composer Adam Gwon and The Break with Scott Davenport Richards. She's received commissions from Signature Theater, Denver Center Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and Geva Theatre. She won the Francesca Primus Prize for Inana and was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Both Inana and Victoria Musica were finalists for the American Theater Critics' Association/Steinberg New Play Award, which marked the first time in the ACTA's 33-year history that a playwright was nominated for two plays in one season. www.michelelowe.net

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