WILL WORK FOR, BEAUTIFUL BOY and more Set for terraNOVA Collective's 11th Season

terraNOVA Collective and Producing Artistic Director, Jennifer Conley Darling have announced the 11th Season promoting distinct and powerful voices. The Season will include World Premiere and New York Premiere productions and commences in September, at IRT Theater, with the launch of soloNOVA Arts presenting WILL WORK FOR, Dacyl Acevedo's one-woman tour-de-force which premiered in last season's soloNOVA Festival and SEXLESS IN THE BOROUGHS by Colleen O'Connor, a co-production with The Glass Eye led by Kyle Metzger and Jared Weber. IRT Theater is located in the Archive Building at 154 Christopher St, New York.

Darling says, "This year we celebrate playwrights with whom we spent the last three years developing work. We are delighted and honored to give World Premiere and New York Premiere productions to work by J. Julian Christopher and Leah Nanako Winkler. Plus our new Groundbreakers Residency program will support development productions by Jen Silverman and Andrew Rosendorf. Additionally, our Groundworks: New Play Series will feature work by Kate Cortesi and Eric Conger. We continue to celebrate the art of the solo performer with work by Dacyl Acevedo, Charlotte Bydwell, and Colleen O'Connor in our new soloNOVA ARTS stream, and we look forward to working with both emerging and established playwrights as part of the 2014 Groundbreakers Playwrights Group."

The two new terraNOVA production streams are soloNOVA ARTS and Groundworks Residency. Since 2003, terraNOVA has presented over 300 solo performers as part of the annual soloNOVA Arts Festival--in its 11th season, soloNOVA ARTS will present the art of one-person storytelling outside the traditional festival structure. soloNOVA ARTS productions included WOMAN OF LEISURE AND PANIC written and performed Charlotte Bydwell, presented in August as part of The New York International Fringe Festival, garnered rave reviews and a Time Out New York Critics' Pick; the upcoming WILL WORK FOR written and performed by Dacyl Acevedo; and Colleen O'Connor's SEXLESS IN THE BOROUGHS.

WILL WORK FOR had its world premiere at the 10th Annual soloNOVA Arts Festival in May 2013. This September, Dacyl Acevedo's charming and hilarious cautionary tale returns to IRT Theater for 11 performances. Directed by Jo Cattell, WILL WORK FOR tells the true story of the adventure of unemployment and recovery; a farcical and satirical journey into the new world of work and tells of how one person is surviving.

SEXLESS IN THE BOROUGHS is based on Colleen O'Connor's blog recounting the journey of a 26-year old virgin in NYC. Written and performed by Colleen O'Connor and directed by Kyle Metzger, SEXLESS IN THE BOROUGHS will be presented at IRT Theater October 25, 26, 27 and November 1, 2 3, all performances at 8pm.

A highlight of the season is the Groundbreakers Residency Productions, a mini festival of four new plays developed through terraNOVA Collective's Groundbreakers Playwrights Group. In November and December, terraNOVA Collective will present four productions in rep: TRANQUIL by Andrew Rosendorf, directed by Lucie Tiberghien (Nov 6-23); WINK by Jen Silverman, directed by Jessi D. Hill (Nov 7-24); DEATH FOR SYDNEY BLACK by Leah Nanako Winkler, directed by Kip Fagan (Dec 1-15); and the final production will be ANIMALS COMMIT SUICIDE by J. Julian Christopher, directed by Jose Zayas (Dec 1-15).

Through Groundworks: New Play Series, terraNOVA's initiative to showcase new play development projects and expose this work to artistic leaders, industry professionals and the general public, readings by Eric Conger and Kate Cortesi, both to be directed by Kimberly Faith Hickman and featuring Frances Sternhagan and Alysia Reiner (Orange is the New Black) take place in September.

BEAUTIFUL BOY by Eric Conger (Sept 22 - 23) features Lauren Blumenfeld, Tony Carlin, Melissa Saint-Amand, Frances Sternhagen, and Brigitte Viellieu-Davis. GREAT KILLS, by Kate Cortesi (Sept 25) features Cheo Bourne, Emma Galvin, Darren Goldstein, Donnetta Lavinia Grays, Jay Potter, and Alysia Reiner (from Orange is the New Black).

Now in its 5th year, terraNOVA's Groundbreakers Playwrights Group is a playwriting intensive that gathers six innovative voices in a room once a week for eighteen weeks to work on each individual writer's play. Each writer receives three opportunities to bring their play to the group to be read by professional actors and receive feedback from the writers group and terraNOVA's artistic staff. The 2014 Groundbreakers Playwrights Group will run from January - June 2014, culminating in each playwright having a workshop and staged reading of their play in terraNOVA's Groundworks New Play Series in June 2014.

"We are thrilled that after a record number of applications in 2013, the number of applicants to the 2014 program has nearly tripled. Each year we treasure the opportunity to cultivate our relationships with budding artists, and enable them to have the creative and additional support they require to develop interesting and compelling new work. We gather an eclectic group with differing interests and styles, to maximize the growth opportunities for every participant. We always are eager for the moment in the spring where we get to share this work with the terraNOVA audiences," says Jessi D. Hill, Associate Artistic Director. Playwrights in the 2014 program will be announced in October 2013.

terraNOVA Collective is an ever-expanding collective of artists devoted to nurturing distinct and innovative theatrical voices. It is dedicated to cultivating environments where the art of storytelling thrives, and actively seeks stages for the new theatre it develops.

Since its inception, terraNOVA has staged 9 full-scale productions, over 30 plays within 9 new play workshop series, and 10 annual solo performance festivals that feature diverse artists of many disciplines. Over the past 10 years, terraNOVA has developed more than 90 plays through Groundbreakers and Groundworks, and has given a platform to approximately 330 solo artists in the soloNOVA Arts Festival.

terraNOVA has been hosted within several artistic homes, including IRT Theater, Performance Space 122, the DR2 Theatre and D-Lounge at the Daryl Roth Theatre (theatre-in-residence for two seasons), Barrow Street Theatre, HERE Arts Center and New Ohio Theatre.

terraNOVA Collective has received many accolades including 40 New York Innovative Theatre Award nominations, 10 of which were for the productions of 'PS Jones and the Frozen City' by Robert Askins, 'Feeder: A Love Story' by James Carter and 'Blue Before Morning' by Kate McGovern. The remaining nominations have been for shows within the soloNOVA Arts Festival, of which 6 were awarded.

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