Nylon Fusion's UNMENTIONABLES Opens Tonight at Theatre 54

Nylon Fusion Theatre Company presents an unflinching look at the Hollywood machine and the secrets and lies that feed it, in Joseph Samuel Wright's Unmentionables. Directed by Montserrat Mendez, Unmentionables will be performed at Theatre 54, located at 224 West 54th Street, between tonight, April 2 and April 19. Members of the press are invited as of Saturday, April 4th.

Top talent agent and lawyer James Johnson knows the importance of secrets, his own and those of his clients, zealously protecting those he represents while putting together deals that have made him one of Tinseltown's biggest power brokers. He's on the verge of the biggest deal of his life: signing his longtime client and top film star Joan Madison to an exclusive contract with the studio that will make him the mogul he's always wanted to be. But Joan has a secret - her last chance at motherhood - and she won't give it up without a fight. James has to weigh Joan's secret against his ambitions, but when his own most personal secret - one he keeps as close as his skin - is splashed across the gossip pages, he must fight to control the damage, and if that means sacrificing more than one innocent in the process, so be it.

An Equity Showcase, the cast of Unmentionables features Rick Zahn*, Jeanine Bartel*, Jimmy Betts, Heather Cunningham*, Danielle Boivin, Meghan Jones and Christina Toth. The stage manager is Laura Malseed, Costumer is Debbi Hobson, Sound is by Andy Evan Cohen, Set is by Kyi Shin and lighting design is by Gilbert Peatro.

"Nylon Fusion Theatre Company (www.nylonfusion.org) is exactly the right kind of theatre for New York City now," says advisory board member John Patrick Shanley. "It is young, multicultural and fearless. It provides an open door, inviting unrecognized talent on to the stage, providing entry, excitement, recklessness, candor and comedy, in a joyous atmosphere. There are new actors, directors, and playwrights in abundance. You will discover artists here. You will experience the rush of seeing them first. That's what New York is all about. Discovery!"

Joseph Samuel Wright is an O'Neill semi-finalist playwright whose work has been showcased by Nylon Fusion, Culture Project, Sightline, A.N.D., the Nest, Roots and Wings, Core Ensemble, LSU's Outworks Festival, University of Tennessee, Maryville College, Lark Play Development Center, and BE Theatre. Recent NYC productions: I, Salome, RISE, Miss Hope's, Bck to the Grnd, What If, You Are Here, Unbecoming, Mask of Medusa, and My Big, Thick Schtick. Joseph is a member of the Nylon Fusion Writers Collective and has contributed to TimeOutNY.com, Theasy, TheaterOnline, and BroadwaySpace. Joseph assisted author Iris Rainer Dart on workshops of People in the Picture and Beaches.

Montserrat Mendez is an award winning writer and director. Directing highlights includes. Billy Carver and the Children in Mind (NYIT Nomination), The Birthday Boys, Luft Gangster (co-director with Austin Pendleton, winner NYIT Award). Montserrat is the founder of MozzleStead, a film and TV Production Company. Their first film Chisholm, about America's first black congresswoman, Shirley Chisholm, is currently in pre-production.

Unmentionables will be performed from Thursday, April 2nd through Saturday, April 18th. Show times are Tuesday-Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 2pm. All tickets are $18.00. Reservations: Unmentionables.brownpapertickets.com or 347-524-0514.

* - member of Actors' Equity Association

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