Mark St. Germain's RELATIVITY Continues Rolling Premiere in Seattle

National New Play Network, the country's alliance of nonprofit theaters that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays, celebrates the opening of the Rolling World Premiere (RWP) of Relativity by Mark St. Germain at Associate Member Taproot Theatre Company (Seattle, WA, September 20-October 21, 2017).

The Roll kicked off at NNPN Core Member Florida Studio Theatre (Sarasota, FL), which originally commissioned the play, and continued at Riverside Theatre (Iowa City, IA, April 14-30, 2017) and Associate Member Northlight Theatre (Skokie, IL, May 11-June 18, 2017).

NNPN provides production support to the playwright and the partnering theaters, including assistance with the creation and the contracting of the premiere agreement, collaborative interactions between the theaters, and funds for the playwright's residence in each city to further develop the play.

ABOUT RELATIVITY
In 1902, Albert Einstein's daughter was born. In 1904 she disappeared and Einstein never spoke nor wrote of her again. What happened? With playfulness and intensity, Relativity imagines one theory that bridges the Einsteins: the beloved public figure to the perplexing private man and the father to the lost child.

ABOUT Mark St. Germain
Mark has written the plays Freud's Last Session (Off-Broadway Alliance Best Play), Becoming Dr. Ruth, Camping with Henry and Tom (Outer Critics Circle Award and Lucille Lortel Award), Out of Gas on Lover's Leap, Best of Enemies, Forgiving Typhoid Mary (Time Magazine's "Year's Ten Best"), Ears on a Beatle, The God Committee, and Dancing Lessons.

Mark co-wrote the screenplay for Carroll Ballard's Warner Brothers film, Duma. He directed and co-produced the documentary, My Dog: An Unconditional Love Story. My Dog features Richard Gere, Lynn Redgrave and Glenn Close among many others. Television credits include Writer and Creative Consultant for The Cosby Show, and Dick Wolf's Lifestories and Crime and Punishment.

With Randy Courts, he has written the internationally produced musical The Gifts of the Magi, Johnny Pye and the Foolkiller, winner of an AT&T "New Plays for the Nineties" award and Jack's Holiday at Playwrights Horizons. His musical, Stand by Your Man: The Tammy Wynette Story was created for Nashville's Ryman Theater and has toured nationally. He co-wrote the libretto for Charles Strouse's American Tragedy.

Mark wrote the children's book Three Cups, illustrated by April Willy, published by Thomas Crown. He is an alumnus of New Dramatists, where he was given the Joe A. Callaway Award, a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Writer's Guild East and an Associate Artist of the Barrington Stage Company. He was awarded the "New Voices in American Theatre" award at the William Inge Theatre Festival. He is represented by Susan Gurman of the Gurman Agency.

ABOUT FLORIDA Studio Theatre
Florida Studio Theatre (FST) is Sarasota's contemporary theatre, located in the heart of downtown. It has been in operation in Sarasota since 1973. The Florida Studio Theatre campus is a village of theatres - the historic Keating and Gompertz Theatres, the Parisian-style Goldstein and John C. Court Cabarets, and Bowne's Lab Theatre. Near the Sarasota bayfront, FST brings an energy and vitality to the downtown area. Each theatre is small in size and large in impact - providing an intimate and engaging setting for high-quality, professional performances. Hip and historical, entertaining and challenging, we are the theatre where the street meets the elite, where everyone is welcome to come and engage in the art of theatre. floridastudiotheatre.org

ABOUT RIVERSIDE THEATRE
Riverside Theatre is a professional theatre in Iowa City, IA that connects artists and audiences through intimate, engaging, and provocative productions from the classics to new works, and provides an artistic home for regional theatre professionals. Founded 1981, we're currently in our 35th season. We believe the shared experience of live theatre is magical and important. Community members, artists, and collaborators are our life blood. >From September through April we produce a full season of work at our theatre on Gilbert Street. In June and July, we produce a summer season centered around the classics. riversidetheatre.org

ABOUT Northlight Theatre
Northlight Theatre aspires to promote change of perspective and encourage compassion by exploring the depth of our humanity across a bold spectrum of theatrical experiences. Founded in 1974, Northlight is one of the the Chicago area's premier theatre companies, serving audiences totaling over 50,000 each season. Northlight mounts five mainstage productions each season and also serves nearly 4,000 students in Chicago area schools through our expansive and comprehensive arts education outreach programs. Northlight is a regional magnet for critical and professional acclaim, and has a strong reputation for commissioning, developing, and producing new work through Interplay, our new play development program. northlight.org

ABOUT TAPROOT THEATRE COMPANY
Taproot Theatre Company creates theatre experiences to brighten the spirit, engage the mind and deepen the understanding of the world around us while inspiring imagination, conversation, and hope. Taproot Theatre Company was founded in 1976 by six friends, five of them graduates from Seattle Pacific University. From its humble beginnings as a touring group, the company is now Seattle's largest mid-size theatre company. Today, Taproot Theatre serves over 150,000 people annually throughout the Pacific Northwest with its Jewell Mainstage season, Isaac Studio Theatre season, Touring programs, and Acting Studio. taproottheatre.org

ABOUT NNPN
National New Play Network (NNPN) is the country's alliance of non-profit professional theaters dedicated to the development, production, and continued life of new plays. Since its founding in 1998, NNPN has supported more than 250 productions nationwide through its innovative National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere program, which provides playwright and production support for new works at its Member Theaters. Additional programs - its annual National Conference, National Showcase of New Plays, and MFA Playwrights Workshop; the NNPN Annual and Smith Prize commissions; its residencies for playwrights, producers and directors; and the organization's member accessed Collaboration, Festival, and Travel banks and online information sessions - have helped cement the Network's position as a vital force in the new play landscape. NNPN also strives to pioneer, implement, and disseminate ideas and programs that revolutionize the way theaters collaborate to support new plays and playwrights. Its most recent project, the New Play Exchange, is changing the way playwrights share their work and others discover it by providing immediate access to information on more than 14,500 new plays by living writers. NNPN's 30 Core and 80 Associate Members - along with the more than 250 affiliated artists who are its alumni, the thousands of artists and artisans employed annually by its member theaters, and the hundreds of thousands of audience members who see its supported works each year - are creating the new American theater. nnpn.org | newplayexchange.org

Pictured: Mike Nussbaum and Katherine Keberlein at Northlight Theatre in Skokie, IL. Photo by Michael Brosilow.

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