American Stage Theatre Continues HOT OFF THE PRESSES Play Reading Series 10/27

American Stage Theatre Company has announced the continuation of its play reading series, HOT OFF THE PRESS, of new plays by local playwrights. Tickets are Pay-What-You-Can for all readings. All readings are followed by a talkback with the playwright to help guide the plays development.

The plays announced are:

HOW THEY WRESTLED UNTIL MORNING by Mark E. Leib
Wednesday, October 27 at 7 p.m.

In the clearing of a forest on a hill, halfway between a wedding party and a pond, the character T sits alone, nursing some secret wound. The problem, it turns out, is an unrequited love - and the woman in question is at this party, now, tonight. After several encounters, the object of T's love arrives. Together, she and T make one last attempt to decide what kind of future - if any - they can have.

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.

JOURNEYMEN by Jack Gilhooley
Monday, November 8 at 7 p.m.

JOURNEYMEN is inspired by a real 1949 off-field incident that rattled the baseball world. Because of a sensational crime, two men of different races (one the victim, the other the investigating officer) are able to bond due to their mutual, albeit thread-thin association with the sport. But their boyish love of the National Pastime cannot transcend the ancient darker American forces of racial division.

Jack Gilhooley is an alumnus of New Dramatists and has had many plays produced in New York, coast-to-coast, Europe, and in Australia. Recipient of numerous grants and prestigious Playwriting awards, Gilhooley's plays have also been developed at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, Aspen Playwrights Festival, Sundance Playwrights Lab, Avignon Festival, among others. He's twice been commissioned by Actors Theatre of Louisville and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. He's published by Samuel French, New American Library, Broadway Play Publishing, Smith & Kraus and Palmetto Press.

TRIP TO THE BALLPARK by T. Scott Wooten
Based on a True Story
Monday, November 15 at 7p.m.

Rodgy Rizzle is one of the best pitchers in Major League Baseball - unfortunately, his team is one of the worst. Now, late in the season on a team with a record of 32-70, Rizzle wants only one thing - his day off. A whole day away from the diamond with his girlfriend, a few cocktails, a massage and a little grass is how he'll spend the afternoon. But his day off gets interrupted when he forgets one crucial detail - and the hit of acid he just ate is starting to kick in....

T. Scott Wooten is an actor, director, writer and sound designer who has worked with American Stage Theatre Company for over seven years. His adaptation of REEFER MADNESS!!! THE PLAY!!! recently performed at the 2010 Orlando International Fringe Theatre Festival and won the "Best Play" Audience Pick Award.

SECTION 60, a rock musical
Music by Waldo John Wittenmyer
Lyrics by Waldo John Wittenmyer and Todd Olson
Book by T. Scott Wooten and Todd Olson
Saturday, December 18 and Sunday, December 19 at 3 p.m.

A new soldier comes to be buried in Section 60, the plot of land in Arlington Cemetery recently dedicated to the incoming dead from Iraq and Afghanistan. But he is not alone. There reside the ghosts of the newly dead, lamenting the freshness of their sacrifice, searching for answers and reaching out to comfort the mourners who walk among them. Driven almost completely by Wittenmyer's eclectic rock score, SECTION 60 is at once a song cycle of protest and a requiem for heroes.

Waldo John Wittenmyer is an Austin, Texas-based rock musician and leader of the band The Naturals. This is first work for the theatre.

Todd Olson is Producing Artistic Director at American Stage and creator of MY WAY, I LEFT MY HEART, and CASA BLUE, THE LAST MOMENTS IN THE LIFE OF FRIDA KAHLO.

Tickets prices are Pay-What-You-Can at the door.

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.

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