First Draft Presents EVERYTHING LIVES IN A CLOUD Reading Tonight

First Draft at Charter Theater – a nonprofit organization devoted to developing theater audiences alongside new plays; supporting DC-based artists; and partnering with theaters looking to produce new work – presents two readings this month of the new play, "everything lives in a cloud," by DC-based playwright and Charter Associate Artistic Director, Chris Stezin. The second April reading will take place at 7:30 p.m. tonight, April 24th at the Arts Club of Washington. The popular First Draft series combines the reading of a play with a guided, post-show audience discussion.

The play "everything live in a cloud" is a story of people who find themselves adrift – and their lives colliding in startling ways.  The play will be presented under First Draft's "Second Look" Series, created for playwrights who are still developing scripts that previously premiered in the regular reading series.

"Chris Stezin's play articulates those moments in life where the seemingly mundane intersects with the profound and life-altering, " said First Draft Artist Director, Leslie A. Kobylinski.  "His ability to engage an audience in parables of 'what's it all about?' is exceptional."

Chris Stezin is a writer and actor who lives in Northern Virginia. His plays have been produced at Charter Theater (Hoboken Station, what dogs do, Monkeyboy, Sleeping and Waking, this perfect world), Washington Shakespeare Company, and Project Y, as well as at his alma mater, Clemson University (Fallen To Earth). This Perfect World, a full-length one-act was chosen as one of six new plays to premier at '08 Source Festival in Washington, DC. He has received commissions from the National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts, the University of Minnesota and the Guthrie Theater. His plays have had developmental readings and/or workshops at Charter Theatre, Woolly Mammoth, Keegan Theatre, Actor's Theatre of Washington, Signature Theater and Washington Shakespeare Company, as well as at the Shenandoah International Playwright's Retreat (where he was an artist in residence on nine occasions) and the Earl Hamner Jr. Theater Playwrights Conference.  An indie film version of Sleeping and Waking, for which Mr. Stezin adapted his stage play, was produced in 2008. Mr. Stezin has twice been nominated for the Helen Hayes/Charles MacArthur Award for outstanding new play in Washington, D.C. (for Hoboken Station in 2000 and what dogs do in 2003). The Washington Post has called Stezin's work "engrossing," "compelling," and "ridiculously funny." He is the associate artistic director of (the currently hibernating) Charter Theater and has appeared onstage at Charter, Keegan Theatre (where he is an artistic associate), Olney Theatre, the Folger, Theater J, Washington Stage Guild, Washington Shakespeare Company, American Century, and a number of other D.C. area theaters. He is head of the writing department at WILL Interactive (Potomac, MD), where many of his screenplays have been produced.

First Draft at Charter Theater is supported in part by the Arlington Cultural Affairs Division of Arlington Economic Development and the Arlington Commission for the Arts. The First Draft Reading Series is also made possible in part by the warmth and generosity of the Drama Committee of the Arts Club of Washington, and The Share Fund of The Community Foundation for the National Capital Region. 

The organization's mission is to develop audiences alongside new plays, and support DC-based artists and theaters looking to produce new work.  For more information, visit First Draft online at www.firstdraft.org.

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