Orlando Shakespeare Theater Joins Florida New Play Reading Tour

Orlando Shakespeare Theater in Partnership with UCF invites audiences to a shared festival of staged readings of two new plays, The Luckiest People and Dark Damocloid, at the Florida New Play Reading Tour on March 19, 2016. A collaboration between Orlando Shakespeare Theater, Florida Studio Theatre in Sarasota, and Florida Repertory Theatre in Ft. Myers, the Florida New Play Reading Tour gives playwrights three opportunities to hear their works in front of various audiences in a compressed two-week timeframe. Tickets to individual Florida New Play Readings ($8) may be purchased online at www.orlandoshakes.org, by phone at (407) 447-1700 ext. 1, or in person at the John and Rita Lowndes Shakespeare Center (812 East Rollins Street).

The Florida New Play Reading Tour encourages the mingling of audiences and artists who wouldn't otherwise have access to each other. Each reading will be followed by a brief talkback with playwright, director, and actors. The two new plays performed at Orlando Shakes will be given readings with the same casts at Florida Studio Theatre in Sarasota on Saturday, March 26 and at Florida Repertory Theatre in Ft. Myers on Sunday, March 27.

"Receiving feedback from a live audience is vital to the success of any new play," said Orlando Shakes Director of New Play Development, Cynthia White. "The Florida New Play Reading Tour is an excellent opportunity for new playwrights to showcase a new project and for Central Florida audience members to shape what could soon be nationally produced productions."

FLORIDA NEW PLAY READINGS

The Luckiest People | Saturday, March 19 at 12 p.m.

Written by Meridith Friedman | Directed by Cynthia White

Read by JD Sutton, Steven Lane, Alex Mrazek, and Suzanne O'Donnell

What is our responsibility to our parents when they need us? In the days following his mother's funeral, Richard is forced to grapple with that question. His father Oscar's growing suspicions over the circumstances of his wife's death lead him to make a startling accusation against his son. The Luckiest People explores the great dichotomy of the father-son bond: a relationship of profound awe and unparalleled fear.

Dark Damocloid | Saturday, March 19 at 3 p.m.

Written by Thomas Gibbons | Directed by Jason Cannon

Mark, a philosopher at the Future of Humanity Institute, has been invited to deliver a TED talk about his surprising bestselling book exploring the myriad ways that humanity might be driven to extinction. He rehearses his speech for his wife Allison and daughter Sarah, presenting various scenarios: the eruption of a supervolcano, climate change, the creation of malevolent artificial intelligence, or-perhaps the most unpredictable of all-a collision with a dark Damocloid, an undetectable asteroid. As Mark rehearses, the truth of his and Allison's troubled marriage emerges: while he focuses on hypothetical futures, she resents his neglect of the here and now... and she wants a change. That change, however, is something neither of them could have foreseen. By turns mysterious, funny, romantic, bleak, and paradoxically hopeful, Dark Damocloid frames our darkest urgency in the most personal immediacy.

The Florida New Play Reading Tour is graciously underwritten by the National New Play Network. Orlando Shakespeare Theater is supported by United Arts of Central Florida, host of the collaborative Campaign for the Arts. Orlando Shakespeare Theater is also sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture.

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