Photo Flash: Sarah Shaefer's I CAN'T EXPLAIN IT BETTER at Rising Phoenix Rep's CINO NIGHTS

Following the sold out performances and overflow crowds for its Cino Nights presentations (including new plays by Gary Sunshine, Mando Alvarado, Courtney Baron, Florencia Lozano, Kristen Palmer, Emily DeVoti, Lucy Thurber, Jessica Dickey, Adam Szymkowicz, Laura Eason, Daniel Reitz, Megan Mostyn-Brown, Dael Orlandersmith, Keith Reddin, Crystal Skillman, Charlotte Miller, Brooke Berman, Cusi Cram, Daniel Talbott, Diana Stahl, Micheline Auger, Halley Feiffer, Steve DiUbaldo, Catya McMullen, Alec Silberblatt, and Emily Zemba), Rising Phoenix Rep continued the series on Tuesday, November 26th at 8 p.m. with a new play by Sarah Shaefer titled I Can't Explain It Better Than That. BroadwayWorld has photos from the show below!

In I Can't Explain It Better Than That, Jessica walks in on what everyone knows is a big fat transgression. Not able to deal, she escapes the dreaded truth by heading out to grab some carryout, but when she returns, she brings back a little something more. I Can't Explain It Better Than That was directed by Evan Caccioppoli and featured Nic Grelli, Sevrin Anne Mason, and Briana Packen.

Inspired by Joe Cino and his Caffe Cino-one of the original birthplaces of Off-Off-Broadway theatre and early home to such writers as Doric Wilson, Robert Patrick, John Guare, Sam Shepard, Lanford Wilson, and William M. Hoffman-Lucille Lortel and New York Innovative Theatre Award-winning company Rising Phoenix Rep has commissioned over two dozen playwrights to write new, full-length plays for the Seventh Street Small Stage, the intimate back room space at Jimmy's No. 43 in the East Village, where the company has mounted critically-acclaimed and award-winning productions of new plays for the past eight years.

Rising Phoenix Rep artistic director Daniel Talbott described the series as a place to tap into the raw, inspired, inventive, and pioneering work of the Caffe Cino, where the love of theatre and new plays was joined with a scrappy, do-it-yourself work ethic. All shows are rehearsed for a week and then fully mounted and produced, warts and all, for one night only with free admission.

The Cino Nights series celebrates the spirit of indie theatre as a home for new plays and theatre artists as well as hopefully honoring what has been said of the Caffe Cino: "the first studio of theater where playwrights can experiment as painters and poets have done for a century, free from the tyranny of audience, box-office, church, and criticism." The series will continue this winter/spring with new plays by Troy Deutsch,?Mariah MacCarthy, and Kathleen Warnock (dates to be announced).

The New York Theatre Experience has published the first of two volumes of the Cino Nights plays, and they are available on Amazon, in local bookstores, and online at Indie Theater Now [www.indietheaternow.com]. A second volume of Cino plays will be released in early 2014.

Sarah Shaefer (Playwright) is a playwright and an actor. The Gin Baby, a play about how a young woman's life falls apart after getting sober, will be directed by Daniel Talbott and goes up at IRT Theater January 19 through February 2, 2014. In fall of 2014, All's Well That Ends Well, a black comedy about two ambitious porn actors who go to any lengths to make it, will be directed by Evan Caccioppoli and produced by Kid Brooklyn Productions. She'll also be one of the inaugural playwrights for Rising Phoenix's new project 10x10 next fall, as well as The Beach Plays this summer. She was also commissioned to write a play as part of Kid Brooklyn Productions' next endeavor La Ronde Project, going up at IRT Theater July 3, 5 and 6, 2014. Sarah's other plays have been produced and/or developed by Kid Brooklyn Productions, Rising Phoenix Rep, Caps Lock Theatre, ESPA at Primary Stages, Fresh Produce'd, Glass Eye and Core Ensemble at the Barrow Group, HB Studios, and New River Dramatists.

Evan F. Caccioppoli (Director) is a theatre director, producer, developer of new work, and teacher. He is the Artistic Director of Kid Brooklyn Productions and a proud company member of Rising Phoenix Rep. Past directing credits include the world premiere of WILD by Crystal Skillman (Kid Brooklyn Productions), the American premiere of Unbroken by Alexandra Wood (Kid Brooklyn Productions), The Beach Plays: San Francisco (Rising Phoenix Rep and Kid Brooklyn Productions), The Little Dog Laughed, and The Last Five Years. He also staged his original devised works Shattered Silence and 8:46:60 (The September 11th Project). He served as assistant director to Daniel Talbott on Eigthythree Down (Hard Sparks) and Much Ado About Nothing (Boomerang Theatre Company) and Pedro Pascal on Yosemite (Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre). He received his BFA in Theatre Performance from the University of Illinois at Chicago and MA in Educational Theatre from NYU. Upcoming directing projects include the New York production of WILD (Sanguine Theatre Company at IRT Theatre March/April '14), Encounters: the la ronde project (Kid Brooklyn Productions at IRT Theatre July 3,5,and 6 '14), and the world premiere of All's Well That Ends Happy by Sarah Shaefer (Kid Brooklyn Productions Fall/Winter '14).

For more information, visit www.RisingPhoenixRep.org.

Photo Credit: Daniel Talbott

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