Sarah Shaefer's I CAN'T EXPLAIN IT BETTER THAN THAT Set for Rising Phoenix Rep's Cino Nights Tonight

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 continues the series tonight, November 26th at 8 p.m. with a new play by Sarah Shaefer titled I Can't Explain It Better Than That.

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 will be directed by Evan Caccioppoli and features 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.

Rising Phoenix Repertory continues its acclaimed CINO NIGHTS SERIES with I CAN'T EXPLAIN IT BETTER THAN THAT, a new play by Sarah Shaefer, directed by Evan Caccioppoli.

TICKETS & INFO: Fully produced on half a shoestring and performed, warts and all, ONE NIGHT ONLY, Tuesday, November 26th at 8:00 p.m. Featuring Nic Grelli, Sevrin Anne Mason, and Briana Packen Seventh Street Small Stage, 43 East Seventh Street (6 to Astor Place, R/W to 8th Street, F to 2nd Ave) Back by popular demand! Rising Phoenix Rep has added more world-premiere plays through spring 2014 to be performed in the extremely intimate close quarters of the basement space of downtown restaurant Jimmy's No. 43. Admission is FREE; space is extremely limited. Reservations are strongly encouraged and can be made by calling 212-946-5198. Waiting list starts at 7:30 p.m. on the day of performance. First eight plays in the series collected in Cino Nights book, available now. For more information, visit www.RisingPhoenixRep.org.

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).

2007 Caffe Cino Fellowship and New York Innovative Theatre Award winning Rising Phoenix Repertory was founded in 1999 by Artistic Director Daniel Talbott, and produces both in the Indie Theatre and Off-Broadway, in traditional spaces and site-specifically around New York City. Recent productions include the Lucille Lortel Award winning Off-Broadway run of All the Rage (co-produced with piece by piece productions and The Barrow Group), and the acclaimed productions of Elective Affinities (co-produced site-specifically with piece by piece and Soho Rep), Slipping (produced with piece by piece and Rattlestick), and Too Much Memory (also with piece by piece), which transferred to the New York Theatre Workshop's Fourth Street Theatre after winning the FringeNYC award for Outstanding Play in 2008. RPR produces an ongoing series called Cino Nights, inspired by Joe Cino and his Caffe Cino-one of the original birthplaces of Off-Off-Broadway theatre-for which the company commissioned over twenty playwrights to write new, full-length plays which are fully produced site-specifically in the intimate back room of East Village restaurant Jimmy's No. 43 on a shoestring budget. The first volume of plays from the series, Cino Nights: Plays from Rising Phoenix Rep, was published by The New York Theatre Experience and is available online at Indie Theater Now. 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 (Seventh Street Small Stage); Gift by Mark Schultz and Ponies by Mike Batistick (FringeNYC). Rising Phoenix Rep serves as a home base for a company of theatre professionals that encourages an open exchange of work and ideas within the greater theatre community. The company is a proud member of A.R.T./New York, League of Independent Theaters/NY, and The Dish. www.RisingPhoenixRep.org.

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