Pipeline Theatre Company Partners with NYPL to Present MATCHSTICK SERIES: WHILE WE SLEPT

This November, Pipeline Theatre Company is partnering with the New York Public Library (NYPL) to present six never before seen plays written by Pipeline's PlayLab Class of 2017 for this year's Matchstick Series: While We Slept, performed at the Jefferson Market Library (425 6th Ave, New York, NY 10011).

This year's PlayLab includes: J. Julian Christopher, A.J. Ditty, Taylor Edelhart, Aeneas Sagar Hemphill, Francesca Pazniokas, and Charly Evon Simpson. Performances will be November 4-6th at 8PM. Thanks to the collaboration with the NYPL tickets are FREE and available for reservation online at www.pipelinetheatre.org/tickets. The show runs approximately 75 minutes, with no intermission.

Each evening of the Matchstick Series: While We Slept will showcase all six short plays, imagined by the PlayLab Class of 2017 and inspired by the childhood dreams of the Pipeline Ensemble. The directors are Lauren Z. Adleman, Shariffa Ali, Jaki Bradley, Tom Costello+, Felicia Lobo, and Courtney Ulrich. The show will feature Janice Amaya*, Willy Appelman+, Seth Clayton*+, Jenny Donheiser+, Ava Eisenson*, Alex Grubbs*, Jacquelyn Landgraf*, Sonia Mena, Erik Olson+, Ashley Ortiz, Arielle Siegel*+, Nicole Spiezio+, and Natalie Walker. The production will include Production Design by Christopher Bowser+, Costume Design by Heather McDevitt Barton withan original score by Composer and Music Director Nate Weida+. Line produced by Zach Donovan with Production Manager Kristy Bodall and Stage Manager Emily DeNardo.

The PLAYLAB CLASS OF 2017, led by Pipeline's Director of Artistic Development Tom Costello+, Literary and Community Manager Felicia Lobo, and Playwright-in-Residence A.P. Andrews, features a group of six writers who gather for a year-long series of monthly meetings. The PlayLab serves as a workshop for the playwrights to build new plays with constructive feedback from fellow writers, directors, and the artistic staff of Pipeline. Following the Matchstick Series, each PlayLab member will publicly present the full-length play that they have developed through the program in the Bonfire Reading Series in June 2017.

+Members of the Pipeline Ensemble
*These actors are appearing courtesy of Actors' Equity Association - Equity Approved Showcase

CLASS of 2017:

J. Julian Christopher (a.k.a Christopher Julian Jiménez) received an MFA in acting from The Actors Studio Drama School at the New School (now called The New School for Drama). There he studied acting and appeared in various productions including TBA, Holiday Movies (directed by Liz Swados), and The Karaoke Show (directed by Diane Paulus). Awards include The 2009 Public Theater Emerging Writers Group Fellowship, a 2015 Queens Arts Council Grant, and The 2014 Best New Work Motif Award. Julian is an internationally produced playwright with productions in NYC, Chicago, Montréal, and Melbourne. He has workshopped his plays at LAByrinth Theater, TerraNova Collective, Fuse Theatre, Horse & CArt Theatre, and The Working Theatre. Julian's short plays, Metro Psalm and SCHWARZ! (Hansel und Gretel)were selected as finalists in the Off-Off Broadway Samuel French Short Play Festival two years in a row (2009 & 2010). In November of 2015 his play, Animals Commit Suicide, received its world premiere at First Floor Theater in Chicago. His latest play, Locusts Have No King, had its world premiere in March at INTAR Theater. Some of his other plays include, Alligator Mouth, Man Boobs, Nico was a Fashion Model, and ¡OSO FABULOSO! & The Bear Backs (music by Steve Sclafani). He is also the co-producer and co-writer of the hit web series, Bulk- The Series and half of the electronic rock duo RUBBER.

A.J. Ditty is an actor/writer/slash-mark enthusiast currently living in Queens. His first full-length play, How the Great Grapefruit Danced in the Moonlight, was staged in a workshop production at the Lee Strasberg Institute of Theatre and Film in spring 2010 and again in the fall of 2010, making it the only original student work to be revived in the history of the Institute. His other plays include Eloise Parker Goes to the Moon; The Minotaur: A New York Apartment Play; Deaf, Dumb, and Blind; Magellanica (Access Theater); A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dragon (#serials@theflea); "RIP" (The Secret Theater); The Chicken-Man; or, A Supposedly Fun Thing I Did for Six Months (Undiscovered Countries Festival);Heartbreak; or Why Sara Bareilles' 'King of Anything' is the Greatest Song In The History of Goddamn Time (Undiscovered Countries Festival); Arthur Miller is Trapped in a Tiny Box; Bad Company(Brandspankin' Festival, NYU); and UTurn which received a reading at the La Jolla Playhouse in 2009.

Taylor Edelhart makes new theatre. Their work deals with the sinister, the power of objects & the intersection between theatre & games. They've worked with The Flea, Ars Nova, Clubbed Thumb, Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Public and Playwrights Horizons, and have shown their work at The Brick, Dixon Place, and Playwrights Horizons Theatre School. A genderqueer person, Taylor uses 'they/them' pronouns & is an advocate for queer rights in artistic workspaces. Recently, they wrote an open letter to Public Theater artistic director Oskar Eustis that was co-signed by over 300 people and covered by Flux Weekly, Huffington Post, and American Theatre Magazine. tayloredelhart.com.

Aeneas Sagar Hemphill is a New York-based writer and performer earning his MFA in Playwriting at Columbia University. He makes work that is contemporary, political, and mythic. His most recent play, Black Hollow, about the aftermath and recovery of a town after a mass shooting, was read at IRT with Dreamscape Theatre. He is currently developing his thesis play under the mentorship of Naomi Wallace.

Francesca Pazniokas is a writer and musician whose work has been produced and developed in NYC, Chicago, Washington DC, London, and Melbourne. Recently produced works include Keep(Owl and Cat Theatre, Wide-Eyed Productions and Mastodon Theatre) Red Snow (devised with Insomnium Theatre Company), Everlast (Source Festival) and Goodnight (Actors Theatre of Louisville). She holds a BA in Art History from Georgetown University and an MA in Playwriting from Royal Holloway, University of London.

Charly Evon Simpson is a playwright and performer. Her plays include Hottentotted, or what she will, Fish Out of Water, who we let in, While We Wait and more. Her work has been developed, seen, and/or heard at Ensemble Studio Theatre, Ars Nova, The Flea, The Tank, Crashbox Theater Company, SPACE on Ryder Farm, and HERE. Charly is an alum of Youngblood at Ensemble Studio Theatre and a former Playwright-in-Residence with Philadelphia Dramatists Center. Charly received her B.A. from Brown, a master's in Women's Studies from Oxford, and is currently pursuing her MFA in Playwriting at Hunter College.

PIPELINE THEATRE COMPANY (Artistic Director, Ari Schrier; Producing Director, Natalie Gershtein) believes that an unbridled imagination is a force of magic with the power to provoke a more courageous and compassionate world. Our company thrives on adventure and believes no story is worth telling without a little risk. We love our villains as much as our heroes, especially in those puzzling moments when we can't quite tell them apart. Above all, we aim to leave you with stories that stick somewhere in your heart, your brain, or your guts.

Pipeline Theatre Company was founded in 2009 as part of a class project at the Atlantic Acting School. Since then, Pipeline's productions have included: Alex Mills' Shakespeare the Dead (World Premiere, part of the Dream Up! Festival at Theater for the New City); Bekah Brunstetter's Fat Kids on Fire (directed by Tony-nominee Peter Frechette); Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle (2011 NYIT Award for Best Original Score for composer Cormac Bluestone, Nomination for Best Lighting Design for Eric Southern, ITBA Special Citation for Outstanding Production); Evan Twohy's Bubble and Squeak (Finalist in the 35th Annual Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival); Colby Day's Felix & The Diligence (World Premiere, 2012 NYIT Award Nomination for Best Set Design for Andy Yanni); a workshop reading of Nate Weida's musical I's Twinkle (part of Judson Memorial Church's Magic Time series); Timberlake Wertenbaker's The Ash Girl (directed by Jessika Doyel), Colby Day's Giant Killer Slugs (World Premiere, part of the Dream Up! Festival at Theater for the New City), Adam Szymkowicz's Clown Bar, (New York Times Critics' Pick, 2013 NYIT Award Nominations for Outstanding Featured Actor for Andrew Farmer, Outstanding Featured Actress for Kelley Rae O'Donnell, Outstanding Ensemble, and Outstanding Costume Design for Meghan Gaber), Nate Weida's folk gibberish musical BYUIOO (World Premiere) and most recently, Andrew Farmer's The Gray Man (World Premiere). Upcoming: BEARDO written by Jason Craig and Dave Malloy.

Photo Credit: Alexander Burgos

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