27th Annual NEW PLAYS FESTIVAL Celebrates New Voices, Runs 4/15-19

The Brown University Literary Arts Program and the Brown/Trinity Repertory Consortium are pleased to announce the second installment of the 27th annual NEW PLAYS FESTIVAL. A celebration of the diversity and strength of new theatrical voices, the NEW PLAYS FESTIVAL has been instrumental in bringing the work of America's finest emerging playwrights to life for nearly three decades. Alumni include Pulitzer Prize-winning Nilo Cruz (Anna in the Tropics), Pulitzer-nominated and MacArthur Genius Grant-recipient Sarah Ruhl (In the Next Room, The Clean House), and Pulitzer and Tony-nominated Quiara Alegría Hudes (In the Heights, Elliot: A Soldier's Fugue).

This second installment of the festival features world-premiere plays by MFA-candidate playwrights Mallery Avidon and Joe Waechter, directed by MFA-candidate directors Mia Rovegno and Jesse Geiger, respectively. The plays run in repertory at the McCormack Family Theater (70 Brown
Street, Providence, RI 02912) from Wednesday to Sunday. This year's festival also features an assortment of special events, including a a panel discussion of Avidon and Waechter's work with Brown faculty and special guests, a reading of in-progress work by fellow MFA-candidate writers Mia Chung and Jackie Sibblies (whose work was featured in the first installment of the festival in February), and the late night "Smoke and Mirrors Cabaret" of new music, fiction, poetry, photography, and playwriting. All additional events, with the exception of the late night Cabaret, will also take place in the McCormack Family Theatre.

The NEW PLAYS FESTIVAL is organized and presented by the Brown University Graduate Program in Literary Arts in conjunction with the Brown/Trinity Rep Consortium. Working under the direction of Lisa D'Amour (Head of MFA Playwriting), Curt Columbus (Artistic Director, Trinity Rep), Stephen Berenson (Chair, MFA Programs), and Beth Milles (Head of MFA Directing), MFA-candidate playwrights, directors, and actors unite with professional artists and the greater Brown and
Providence communities to collaborate on this stimulating weekend of theater. Artistic Director Nadia Mahdi and Production Coordinator Rob Jarbadan helm the festival. Other artistic and production staff include set designer Andrew Evans, costume designer Jessie Darrell, lighting designer Jen Rock, sound designer Peter Wood, technical director Eric Rudisaile, properties master KrisTina Brown, props artist Nicole LeDuc, production stage manager Sarah Perlin, stage manager Valerie Halstead, and sound operator Stephen Hebson. The acting company includes David Cipoletti, Paul Cooper, Nate Dendy, Craig Divino, Doug Eacho, Lynette Freeman, Anthony Goes, Paola Grande, Dennis Kozee, Parker Leventer, Elise Morrison, Greg Moss, Andrew Oates, Michael Propster, John Racioppo, Aaron Rossini, Russ Salmon, Jude Sandy, Joe Short, Angela Thomas, Hans Vermy, and Leandro Zaneti.

Tickets are FREE and available on a first-come, first-served basis. For reservations, visit http://mf.students.brown.edu/boxoffice/

Once reserved, tickets will be available for pick-up in the lobby of the McCormack Family Theater 45 minutes before each respective performance. Unclaimed tickets will be released 10 minutes prior to curtain. If the performance is sold out, please contact NPF271@gmail.com to add your name to a wait-list.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS...

fracture/mechanics by Mallery Avidon, directed by Mia Rovegno

WEDNESDAY, April 15th & FRIDAY, April 17th at 8 PM
SATURDAY, April 18th at 2 PM

Does our accumulation of lovers define who we are? In this episodic collage, a woman struggling to understand her intimate relationships stumbles upon confronting herself. fracture/mechanics is a play about sex, love and how things break.

MALLERY AVIDON (Playwright). Mallery's plays have been developed or produced in New York by Target Margin Theater, Clubbed Thumb, Little Theater @ The New Dixon Place, ART/NY, Bee Sting Theater Company; in Chicago by The Pavement Group; and in Seattle by Live Girls! Theater, angry blvd, Strike Anywhere Productions, and Cornish College of the Arts. She was a member of the 2007/2008 Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, holds a BFA in Original Works from Cornish College of the Arts, and is currently pursuing her MFA in playwriting at Brown University. She has also worked in various capacities for the Empty Space Theater, Intiman Theatre Company, the Seattle Repertory Theatre, the Lark Play Development Center, Jake Hooker & Grammar School and PL115.

MIA ROVEGNO (Director) is a director, actor, playwright, and puppeteer. She is the founding artistic director of HummingbirdWORKS
Multimedia_Performance_Project and a company member with fools FURY in San Francisco. She has directed and performed with The Bread and Puppet Theater, Redmoon Theater, Shadowlight Productions, Perishable Theater, and Intersection for the Arts, among others. Her plays have been developed by the foolsFURY Incubator, Fury Factory, the Page 73 Yale Summer Residency and the Empire Street Lab at Perishable Theater. Mia has developed work for the Brown University/A.R.T. Institute Bakeoff, the Harvard Playwrights Festival, and the Brown Summer Playwrights Rep. She received her BS in Performance Studies from Northwestern, and is a candidate for the MFA in Directing at the Brown University/Trinity Rep Consortium ('09). Consortium productions include: Polaroid Stories, Elektra, 365Days/365Plays, Inked Baby, Some of the Rooms, Diagram of a Kidnapping, and The Maids. Former adjunct faculty at New College of California's Experimental Performance Institute, she currently teaches acting and directing to undergraduates at Brown University.

The Strangler
by Joe Waechter, directed by Jesse Geiger

THURSDAY, April 16th & SATURDAY, April 18th at 8 PM
SUNDAY, April 19th at 2 PM

Somewhere in a small suburban town, a storm is gathering and a killer is on the loose. Mr. and Mrs. Thompson settle in for a normal night at home, until someone knocks on their front door...and it's not their daughter.

JOE WAECHTER (Playwright). Joe's plays have been developed or produced by Ars Nova, Clubbed Thumb, McCarter Theatre, Electric Pear Productions, 24Seven Lab, Kids With Guns, and the A.R.T. Insitute. He is the recipient of a 2008-9 Lucille Lortel Playwriting Fellowship, the Kennedy Center/ACTF National 10 Minute Play Award, and an ACTF Short Play Award. His play Dragonflies is available from Dramatic Publishing, and his articles have appeared in The Dramatist magazine. Joe is currently pursuing his MFA in playwriting at Brown University.

JESSE GEIGER (Director) most recently directed Full Circle, The Learned Ladies and Angels in America: Perestroika for the Brown/Trinity Consortium, as well as workshop productions of Grand Motherland for the Brown New Plays Festival and Ann Marie Healy's The Gentleman Caller for The Empire Street Lab. Jesse comes to Providence from Chicago, where he directed New Kid (Selected for the 2005 Chicago Children's Humanities Festival) and Cyrano for CTYA and co-directed the world premiere of Funeral Wedding: The Alvin Play for The Strange Tree Group (Chicago Tribune best of "On The Fringe 2006"). He has developed new work for the Brown University/ART Institute Bake-off and The Metropolis Performing Arts Center. From 2003-2006, Jesse was the Associate Artistic Director of the Chicago Theatre for Young Audiences (CTYA), where he ran their New Play Workshop. He has also worked or performed with The Public Theatre/NYSF, Northlight, Redmoon, Writers' Theatre, Steppenwolf and About Face Theatres. Jesse received a B.S. in Theatre and Certificate in Musical Theatre Performance from Northwestern University and is currently an M.F.A. candidate in Directing in the Brown/Trinity Rep Consortium class of '09.

Smoke and Mirrors Cabaret

Late-night! FRIDAY, April 17th at 11 PM
(Location TBD)

Following its unprecedented success at NPF27.1, the Smoke and Mirrors Cabaret returns for a second NEW PLAYS FESTIVAL appearance. Enjoy new music, fiction, poetry, photography and playwriting converge alongside artists from every corner of the Brown/RISD community. Curated by Ryan Hartigan, Elise Morrison, and Jackie Sibblies. (No ticket reservation required)

First Look: Plays-in-Progress
Readings of new work by Mia Chung and Jackie Sibblies

SATURDAY, April 18th from 5 - 6 PM

MFA-candidate playwrights Mia Chung and Jackie Sibblies, whose work was previously seen in the first installment of the festival in February, present excerpts from their more recent work. A fantastic opportunity to preview what's in store from the writers of Exquisite Corpse and Mo'Reece and the Girls. (No ticket reservation required)

Part Two: a Panel Discussion

SUNDAY, April 19th from 11 AM - 12 NOON

Join Brown faculty and special guests from the theater community as they discuss the world-premiere plays of Mallery Avidon and Joe Waechter featured in this second half of the festival. (No ticket reservation required)

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