Rising Phoenix Rep Cino Nights Presents ROW AFTER ROW May 22

Following the sold out performances and overflow crowds at its first seven Cino Nights presentations (of new plays by Gary Sunshine, Mando Alvarado, Courtney Baron, Florencia Lozano, Kristen Palmer, Emily DeVoti, and Lucy Thurber) Rising Phoenix Rep continues the series on May 22nd at 7 p.m. with Jessica Dickey's Row After Row. In the play, two civil war re-enactors arrive for their annual Gettysburg beer only to find a stranger sitting at their table, and their time-honored traditions are called into question.

The production will be directed by Stephen Brackett and features Sevrin Anne Mason (The Crucible/Broadway), Michael Kingsbaker (Night Windows/The Shelter), and Bjorn Thorstad (Clean/Urban Stages).

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-New York Innovative Theater Award winning company Rising Phoenix Rep has commissioned twenty 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 produced critically acclaimed and award winning productions for the past five 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 work was joined with a scrappy, do-it-yourself work ethic. All shows will be rehearsed for a week and then fully mounted and produced, warts and all, for one night only with free admission.

Cino Nights are currently scheduled through May 2012 and will celebrate the spirit of indie theatre as a home for new plays and theatre artists as well as hopefully honor 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 plays will be fully produced for one night only on a more or less monthly basis through May 2012. The remaining playwrights, in the order their plays will appear, are:

Jessica Dickey's Row After Row will premiere on May 22, 2011; directed by Stephen Brackett and featuring Sevrin Anne Mason, Michael Kingsbaker, and Bjorn Thorstad.

Adam Szymkowicz: June 19, 2011

Laura Eason: July 17, 2011

Daniel Reitz: September 25, 2011

Crystal Skillman: October 23, 2011

Cusi Cram: October 2011

Megan Mostyn-Brown: November 13, 2011

Charlotte Miller: December 11, 2011

Keith Reddin: January 2012

Dael Orlandersmith: February 2012

Jonathan Blitstein: March 2012

Daniel Talbott: April 2012

Melissa Ross: May 2012

The previous productions in the series were:

Gary Sunshine's BEST SEX EVER premiered on October 3, 2010. It was directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel and featured Stephen Bel Davies, Cathy Curtin, Jimmy Davis, Mike Doyle and Jeffrey Nauman.

Mando Alvarado's (O)N THE 5:31 premiered on October 24, 2010, directed by Taibi Magar and featuring Jolly Abraham, Sarah Baskin, and Bernardo Cubria.

Courtney Baron's HERE I LIE premiered on November 7, 2010, directed by Daniel Talbott and featuring Denis Butkus and Samantha Soule.

Florencia Lozano's BUSTED premiered December 12, 2010, directed by Portia Krieger and featuring Maggie Bofill, Audrey Esparza, Nate Miller, Puy Navarro, Ana Reeder, and Jeanine Serralles.

Kristen Palmer's THE STRAY DOG premiered on January 23, 2011, directed by Julie Kline and featuring Stephen Brown, Chad Goodridge, Brian Miskell, Laura Ramadei, Jelena Stupljanin, and Haynes Thigpen.

Emily DeVoti's THE UPSTART premiered on February 13, 2011; directed by Taibi Magar and featuring Edward Carnevale, Julie Kline, and Anne O'Sullivan.

Lucy Thurber's NAMED premiered on February 27, 2011; directed by Jenna Worsham and featuring Lila Dupree, Ronete Levenson, Katie Meister, and Sarah Tolan-Mee.

Reservations will be available one week before the performance each month. Seating is extremely limited. For reservations please call 212-946-5198; for more information please visit www.RisingPhoenixRep.org.

Playwright Jessica Dickey hails from Waynesboro, Pennsylvania and received her BFA from Boston University and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. Jessica made her playwriting debut with The Amish Project, which made its critically acclaimed world premiere at the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. The Amish Project just completed a five week run at the City Theatre in Pittsburgh, and a three week run in Korea, and is slated for production at the American Theatre Company in Chicago this fall; it is published by Samuel French. As an actor, Jessica has been seen on stage and screen--recent credits including the world premiere of Dan O'Brien's Angel In The Trees, the Lifetime movie Amish Grace, and the upcoming independent film Dogs Lie. www.jessicadickey.com.

Director Stephen Brackett most recently directed Be A Good Little Widow by Bekah Brunstetter at Ars Nova. Other credits include Trixie and Monkey: All or Nothing created with Kim Rosenstock (Ars Nova), Nick Jones and Rachel Shukert's The Sporting Life (Studio 42/Vineyard Theater), Dylan Dawson's Cinemediocricy (Ant Feast), Dan Fishback's You Will Experience Silence (Dixon Place), Sam Forman and Eric Davis' F#@king Up Everything (NYMF), Confidence Man (Woodshed Collective), Bixby Elliot's PN1923.45LS01 Volume 2 (FringeNY), Whore and The Ones That Flutter (SPF/Public Theater), and Kilroy Was Here: A Styx Rock Opera (Williamstown). He is a co-founder of The Bushwick Hotel with playwright Rachel Shukert; their collaborations include Johnny Apple@#%*er (Ice Factory), Sequins for Satan (Galapagos Art Space) and Bloody Mary (Third Man Productions). Stephen was the Assistant Director of Passing Strange at the Public and Belasco Theaters. He is a founding member of 425D Director's Lab, a former member of the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab and the 2010 Director in Residence at Ars Nova. Upcoming: From the Front Porch: An Evening with David Mixner at Dixon Place and The Tenant with Woodshed Collective.

Founded in 1999 by Artistic Director Daniel Talbott, Rising Phoenix Repertory began by producing an ongoing reading series of new plays and has continued to add workshops, festivals, and highly praised productions of new plays. Recent productions include the acclaimed, sold-out Off-Broadway runs of Slipping, produced with Piece by Piece Productions and Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, and Too Much Memory (also with Piece by Piece Productions) which transferred to the New York Theatre Workshop's Fourth Street Theatre after winning the FringeNYC award for Outstanding Play in 2008. Other recent productions include Ceremony, Afterclap, Birthday and Don't Pet the Zookeeper (Seventh Street Small Stage); 365 Days/365 Plays (Jimmy's No. 43 and The Public Theater); What Happened When (HERE Arts Center); Fall Forward (part of the Sitelines/River to River festival produced by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council); The Telling Trilogy (including The Ride, 2006 NYIT Award Nominee - Outstanding Original Short Script- Crystal Skillman), Rules of the Universe (Winner, 2007 NYIT Awards for Outstanding Original Short Script - Daniel Reitz and Director - Daniel Talbott), and Three Sisters (both at the Seventh Street Small Stage); Gift by Mark Schultz and Ponies by Mike Batistick (FringeNYC).

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