Rising Phoenix Rep's Cino Nights Presents sex and death in london 2/12

Rising Phoenix Repertory announces the 15th play in the CINO NIGHTS SERIES: sex and death in london- a new play BY crystal skillman and directed by michael padden. 

The show is fully produced on half a shoestring AND performed, warts and all, for ONE NIGHT ONLY – SUNDAY, February 12th at 7PM, featuring Shyko Amos, Megan Hill, Nathan Hinton and James Leighton at the Seventh Street Small Stage, 43 East Seventh Street (6 to Astor Place, R/W to 8th Street, F to 2nd Ave). 

THE FIFteenth IN a year-and-a-half-long series of
TWENTY-one world-premiere plays commissioned by rising Phoenix rep
to BE performed in the extremely intimate close quarters of the basement space of downtown restaurant Jimmy’s No. 43

Performances from September 2010 – June 2012

Admission is free; space is extremely limited reservations are strongly encouraged and can be made by calling 212-946-5198

for more information please visit www.RisingPhoenixRep.org

Following performances for its first year of 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, and Keith Reddin), Rising Phoenix Rep continues the series on February 12th at 7 p.m. with SEX AND DEATH IN LONDON by Crystal Skillman.

The play takes place in a South London pub that two girls have broken into during the riots of 2011, where they find themselves confronted by their worst fear as the violence mounts around them: their best friend’s father looking for his missing daughter. SEX AND DEATH IN LONDON is directed by Michael Padden and features Shyko Amos, Megan Hill, Nathan Hinton and James Leighton.

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-one 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 six 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 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 June 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. The remaining playwrights, in the order their plays will appear, are:

March 11th – Jonathan Blitstein

March 25th – Charlotte Miller

April 22nd – Brooke Berman

May 2012 – Melissa Ross

June 10th – Daniel Talbott

June 17th – Cusi Cram

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.

Jessica Dickey’s ROW AFTER ROW premiered on May 22, 2011; directed by Stephen Brackett and featuring Sevrin Anne Mason, Michael Kingsbaker, and Bjorn Thorstad.

Adam Szymkowicz’s CLOWN BAR premiered on June 19, 2011; directed by Kip Fagan with lyrics by Adam Szymkowicz and Adam Overett, and music by Adam Overett. The cast featured Alex Anfanger, Brett Aresco, Stephen Bel Davies, Sam Breslin Wright, Jamie Effros, Jessy Hodges, Beth Hoyt, Jessica Pohly, Dominic Spillane, and Stephen Stout.

Laura Eason’s The Undeniable Sound of Right Now premiered on August 28, 2011; directed by Kirsten Kelly and Laura Eason and featuring Daniel Abeles, Estelle Collins Bajou, Jimmy Davis, Jeff Still, and Lusia Strus.

Daniel Reitz’s BLOOD STROKES premiered on September 25, 2011; directed by Daniel Reitz and featuring Tom Bozell, Joel Johnstone, and Chet Siegel.

Megan Mostyn-Brown's EDIE & ALEXANDER premiered on November 13, 2011; directed by Mia Rovegno and featuring Erin Gann and Molly Ward.

Dael Orlandersmith’s KILLING FLOOR premiered on January 15th, 2012; directed by Christian Parker and featuring Jack Gwaltney and Stephen Payne.

Keith Reddin’s SOLITARY MAN premiered January 29th, 2012; directed by Meg Gibson and featuring Sam Breslin Wright, Katie Kreisler, Stephen Park, and Mandy Siegfried.

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.

Crystal Skillman (Playwright) is a Brooklyn based playwright. Her play CUT, produced by The Management in Spring 2011, earned a critic's pick in a rave from the New York Times which noted: “A playwright of growing downtown renown, Ms. Skillman seems to be acquiring something suspiciously Midtown: polish." CUT will be published by Sam French this fall and is scheduled to open in Boston this spring. Recent productions also include: THE VIGIL or THE GUIDED CRADLE (Impetuous Theater Group/Theater; 2010 New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Full-Length Script); NOBODY & BIRTHDAY (Rising Phoenix Rep in NYC, Side Project in CH, U.K Premiere in 2010 at Waterloo East, Camden Fringe 2011); ACTION PHILOSOPHERS! (Stage adaptation from the graphic novel premiered Comic Book Theater Festival Summer 2011). Upcoming plays include: ANOTHER KIND OF LOVE (Overturn Theatre Ensemble Residency at IRT March 26 and 27th); 4 EDGES (TerraNOVA Collective’s Groundbreakers Presentation Spring 2012); WILD (Debuting in Chicago with Kid Brooklyn Productions June 14th - July 1st 2012 under the direction of Evan Caccioppoli); THE SLEEPING WORLD (Upcoming Member’s Workshop this fall at Ensemble Studio Theater directed by Daniel Talbott) and her new play commission for Vampire Cowboys, GEEK, will premiere in Spring 2013 in NYC. Crystal was recently named one of Manhattan “Best Ofs” for OurTownNY magazine, and was selected as one of nytheatre.com’s fifteen People of the Year for 2011. She is represented by Joseph Rosswog at The Gersh Agency and is a member of the MCC Theater Playwrights’ Coalition, Rising Phoenix Rep, as well as an alumni member of the Women’s Project and Soho Rep lab. You can learn more about her at: https://profiles.google.com/crystalskillman/about

Michael Padden (Director) Gloves for Guns by David Lawson (TNC’s Dream Up Festival), Currently Developing: The Mother of Invention by James Lecense, Choker by Jonathan Edwards. Upcoming Work: Oleanna starring Austin Pendleton, Fury by Jonathan Blitstein (part of RPR’s Cino Nights). AD credits include: Broadway: Brighton Beach Memoirs, The House of Blue Leaves. New York: When the Rain Stops Falling (Lincoln Center Theater), David Cromer's Our Town (Barrow Street Theatre). Regional: The Glass Managerie (Kansas City Repertory Theater), The Farnsworth Invention (Alley Theater.)

2007 Caffe Cino Fellowship and New York Innovative Theatre Award winning Rising Phoenix Repertory was founded in 1999 by Artistic Director Daniel Talbott. The phoenix takes the energy of the old, combines it with the new, and soars into the future. By learning from the traditions of the past and the teachings of the present, we want to rediscover the craft of a raw and vital living theatre. Rising Phoenix Rep started by producing an ongoing reading series of new plays as well as workshops and festivals, and now produces both in the Indie Theatre and Off-Broadway. Upcoming Off-Broadway productions include the world-premieres of 3C by David Adjmi (co-produced with Rattlestick and piece by piece productions) and Analphabet by Martin Moran (co-produced with piece by piece and The Barrow Group). Recent productions include the acclaimed, sold-out Off-Broadway runs of Elective Affinities (co-produced 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 is currently in the middle of a year-and-a-half-long event called Cino Nights, inspired by Joe Cino and his Caffe Cino—one of the original birthplaces of Off-Off-Broadway—for which the company has commissioned twenty-one playwrights to write new, full-length plays to be fully produced in the intimate back room of East Village restaurant Jimmy’s No. 43 on a shoestring budget. 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 the Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York and The Dish. www.RisingPhoenixRep.org

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