Third Rail Rep's Mentorship Company Presents NEIGHBORHOOD 3: REQUISITION OF DOOM, Now thru 6/23

Third Rail Repertory Theatre's Mentorship Company presents Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom by Jennifer Haley, directed by Ryan Mooney with designs by Kaye Blankenship. The final production in Third Rail's inaugural Mentorship Class will run tonight, June 15 - 23, 2013.

Cast: Jahnavi Caldwell-Green, Kylie Clarke-Johnson, Alex Fox, Alecia Gatlin, Christina Holtom, Tyler Andrew Jones, Colton Ruscheinsky, Larra Snyder

Winner of the 2009 Primus Citations from the American Theatre Critics Association. In a suburban subdivision with identical houses, parents find their teenagers addicted to an online horror video game. The setting? A subdivision with identical houses. The goal? Smash through an army of zombies to escape the neighborhood for good. But as the line blurs between virtual and reality, both parents and players realize that fear has a life of its own.

Lawn gnomes, hedge trimmers, and evil Neighborhood Associations with draconian regulations. All the kids in the 'hood play an MMO (a Massive Multiplayer Online game), and the play centers on the unexpected and potentially violent ways the game impacts the lives of everyone around them. Family Values are tested, twisted and tortured in this cyber thriller.

In 2012 worldwide consumer spending on video games reached $67 billion. Compare this to the $62 billion movie-goers spent on the film industry the same year. As a response to the world wide popularity of video games, Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom comments on technology's hold on youth culture, the chasm of communication it creates among communities, and the contentious and quiet rage harbored due to the lack of communication within a failing traditional family structure.

The show runs Thursday-Saturday at 7:30pm, Saturday &Sunday at 2:00pm at the Portland Actors Conservatory 1436 SW Montgomery St, Portland, OR. Tickets available by phone at 503.715.1114 or online at boxofficetickets.com/bot/wa/event?id=224565. Prices: Single tickets $15.

The Playwright: Jennifer Haley is the winner of the 2012 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for her play, The Nether, which will see a world premiere by Los Angeles' Center Theatre Group at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Spring 2013. Her other plays include Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom, which premiered at the ActorsTheatre of Louisville 2008 Humana Festival and continues to see productions nationwide,Froggy, in development with The Banff Centre and American Conservatory Theater, Breadcrumbs, which premiered at the 2010 Contemporary American Theatre Festival, and Sustainable Living, written in the 2011-2012 CTG Writers' Workshop and featured at the Ojai Playwrights Conference.

Jennifer's plays have been developed at the Sundance Theatre Lab, O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, Lark Play Development Center, Summer Play Festival in New York, PlayPenn Playwrights Conference, Lincoln Center Director's Lab, Seven Devils Playwrights Conference and the Page 73 Productions Summer Residency at Yale, among other venues. Jennifer is a former fellow of the MacDowell Colony and Millay Colony for the Arts. Her work is published by Samuel French and Playscripts, Inc.; Neighborhood 3 is published in French by Espaces 34. She earned an MFA in playwriting at Brown University, where she studied playwriting with Paula Vogel (How I Learned to Drive) and screenwriting with Erin Cressida Wilson (Secretary). Jennifer Lives in Los Angeles, where she founded The Playwrights Union, a network of theater artists in Los Angeles writing for stage, tv and film

The Mentorship Company: Continuing its mission of enhancing Portland's theatre community, in the fall of 2012 Third Rail Repertory Theatre selected ten young professionals to take part in their inaugural Mentorship Program. These young professionals (known to Third Railers as "the Mentees") banded together to form the subsidiary group Third Rail Mentorship Company. The culminating project of their mentorship under the guidance of Third Rail, their parent company, is to fund and produce a full length theatrical production. In keeping with the pre-professional aspect of the company, TRMC is responsible for marketing, producing, fundraising, performing, and directing a full length play. As a result of this, TRMC receives real world experience by coming together as a company to collaborate on a self-selected, performance-based artistic work. Through hands-on community outreach and the creation of the mentorship program, Third Rail hopes to build and expand the pool of theatrical talent in Portland, Oregon.

About Third Rail Repertory Theatre: Third Rail is an artist-driven theatre company whose vitality is defined by its audience's sharp appetite for groundbreaking, innovative work. We promote new plays while exploring The Edges of theatrical style. Third Rail exists to provide a home for artists and theatergoers alike, offering a range of experiences to be shared by the audience and the community.

More information about Third Rail can be found at thirdrailrep.org.

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