American Stage Theatre Announces HOT OFF THE PRESSES Reading Series 12/7, 12/14, 1/4/2010

American Stage Theatre Company has announced a reading series for new plays by local playwrights called HOT OFF THE PRESSES. Tickets are free to the public for all readings. All readings will be followed by a talkback with the playwright and an evaluation form to help guide the plays development. Performances are Dec. 7, 14 and Jan. 4.

The first plays announced as part of this series are:

THE HURRICANE BROTHERS
Book, Music and Lyrics by Rob Hartmann and Todd Olson
Monday, December 7 at 7 p.m.

It was 1900 - the dawn of a new century - and Americans were unshakable with pride. Two brothers, Isaac and Joseph Cline, worked diligently in the Galveston Weather Bureau office in the late summer of 1900...but on September 8, Texas was hit with what is still the deadliest natural disaster in our nation's history. And while the last known survivor of Galveston only died two years ago, this cataclysmic event is largely forgotten. The Galveston Hurricane killed 16 times more people than the Chicago Fire two years before...six times as many as the Titanic 12 years later...four times as many as in The World Trade Center 101 years later...seven times as many as Hurricane Katrina 105 years later...and more than all of the U.S. fatalities from 300 tropical storms and hurricanes since. Now, through letters, wires and witness accounts, the ghosts of Galveston, as well as the Cline Brothers, come back to tell their story of what really happened that fateful night.

Rob Hartmann is adjunct faculty in the graduate musical theatre writing program at the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, and composer of Macabaret, Hereafter, and The Vanashing Point. Todd Olson is producing artistic director at American Stage and creator of My Way, I Left My Heart and Casa Blue.

FOUR MIDDLE-AGED JEWISH MEN DISCUSS LOVE, DEATH, AND THE INESCAPABLE PRESENCE OF GOD
by Mark E. Leib
Monday, December 14 at 7 p.m.

Thirty years after they roomed together at the University of Michigan, four best friends come together and speak their hearts about love and sex, death and aging, religion (and the lack of it). A serio-comic look at middle-age and the secrets only friends share.

Mark E. Leib is the theatre critic for Creative Loafing, and author of plays such as Art People, Terry by Terry, The Return to Zion, How They Wrestled Until Morning, American Duet, and A River in the Desert.

 

ROADHOUSE THAT COULD
by T. Scott Wooten
Monday, January 4 at 7 p.m.

Slashed budgets and mass layoffs - there's trouble at the city's Performing Arts Center. Artistic leadership is deposed and the CEOs takes over, planning a massive remodeling project. The resident art-house theatre company faces eviction. But...if the artists leave, will the art survive? An unexpected homecoming of a wayward, prodigal son could change everything - but first, he has to find some motivation....

T. Scott Wooten is an artistic associate at American Stage and has written Refer Madness: The Play!!!, Mr. wooten's Big Night!, An Almost Unfortunate Occurance, Adventures of Ernie Tripe Private Detective Litter Division, and a new adaptation of Aristophanes' Lysistrata.

Tickets prices are FREE

Please call the American Stage Box Office at (727) 823-PLAY (7529)
or go to www.americanstage.org for more information and to purchase tickets.

American Stage Theatre Company is located at the Raymond James Theatre, 163 3rd Street North in the heart of downtown St. Petersburg, Florida.

American Stage Theatre Company is a not-for-profit professional theatre founded in 1977. The company's mission is to create the most satisfying live theatre in the Tampa Bay area, accessible to all members of the community. Their vision is to preserve the
greatest human stories from our past, while creating the most defining stories and
storytelling of our time. American Stage presents its six play Mainstage Series in its brand new, 182-seat Raymond James Theatre each year. The very popular American Stage in the Park celebrates its 25th Anniversary year. The theatre's other programming includes: "After Hours" Series, School Tour, and camps and classes for children. The Hough Family Foundation is the Season Sponsor, Raymond James is the Mainstage Sponsor, Bank of America is the Education Partner and WUSF 89.7 is the Radio Sponsor of American Stage.

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