Lee Strasberg Institute and the Clifford Odets Ensemble Present LOVELAB, Now thru 12/8

The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute (www.strasberg.com) will present LOVELAB by playwright Lila Feinberg, who is the first recipient of The Clifford Odets Ensemble Play Commission. The Clifford Odets Ensemble Play Commission is an annual playwriting commission that encourages early career playwrights to write plays for large ensembles of emerging actors.

LOVELAB is by Feinberg and directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch. The show features Strasberg students Guillermo Arribas, Davis Cannada, Victor Cervantes, Addie Doyle, Josh Greenwald, AnnaLee Hurst, HAnna Lee, Jessica Sharples, Olivia Songer, Noam Tomaschoff, Michael Turner. Walt Odets and Mrs Anna Strasberg will both attend tonight's December 5 Gala Performance.

Meet neuropsychiatrist Dr. Stone, leading expert on the science of love. When three young couples embark on a retreat to his world-renowned physiology lab, the fracture lines in each relationship slowly oxidize with every test. LOVE LAB, a new dark comedy by Lila Feinberg, explores the desperate measures we take to choose our life partner, in an age when everlasting love is an unpromising statistic.

All shows play the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute in The Marilyn Monroe Theatre, located at 115 East 15th Street, Lee Strasberg Way, New York, NY. Opening night is tonight, December 5, featuring a gala performance and reception following the show. The run continues Thursday, December 6 through Saturday, December 8 at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets: General Admission - $10; Students/Alumni - $5. Tickets available by emailing reservations@strasberg.com or calling 212-533-5500. For additional information visit www.strasberg.com.

The Clifford Odets Ensemble Play Commission is made possible by The Lee Strasberg Creative Center, a 501 (c) 3 dedicated to the preservation of Lee Strasberg's legacy through the development of outreach programs, the preservation of archival materials, the incubation of young artists and the fostering of a community of alumni and professionals devoted to Lee Strasberg's work. The Clifford Odets Ensemble Play Commission seeks to expand on the lineage of The Group Theatre, the great work of Strasberg, and playwright Clifford Odets whose plays for this storied ensemble transformed the American Theatre. Through the commission, The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute and The Lee Strasberg Creative Center seeks to partner talented emerging playwrights, directors and Method trained actors and encourage the synergy of great acting with the development of new works. This commission will provide an incubating space for the development of true ensemble plays in New York City, and develop the next generation of collaborating artists. The Commission thanks the Clifford Odets Estate and Walt Odets for their generous consent to this partnership.

Lila Feinberg received an MFA in Dramatic Writing from Columbia University in May. Her thesis play Vertebrae won The Araca Group’s 2012 National Graduate Playwriting Award and had a workshop production at New York Theatre Workshop and a reading at Ars Nova. Last summer, her commissioned play Night Float was paired with The Catherine Wheel by Craig Lucas for its premiere at Playwrights Horizon. An excerpt from her commissioned play Perched (Cherry Lane studio) was published in the anthology What We Brought Back.

The commission will be directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch, whose credits include Harper Reagan (Atlantic Theatre Company) and Blue Bird (Atlantic Theatre Company). Upchurch also served as associate director to Sam Mendes on Richard III starring Kevin Spacey, and The Bridge Project. She has developed new work at New Dramatists, The Kennedy Center, LCT’s Directors’ Lab, and The Playwrights’ Center.

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