Four Productions Of Three NNPN Rolling World Premieres Open In The Next Week

National New Play Network, the country's alliance of nonprofit theaters that collaborate in innovative ways to develop, produce, and extend the life of new plays, announces the continuation of three Rolling World Premieres: Apples in Winter by Jennifer Fawcett at Indianapolis's Phoenix Theatre (January 11-27, 2019), Red Bike by Caridad Svich at Know Theatre of Cincinnati (January 11-February 2, 2019), and Gabriel Jason Dean's Heartland at New Repertory Theatre (Watertown: January12-February 9, 2019) and the VORTEX (Austin: January 17-February 9, 2019).

An NNPN Rolling World Premiere (RWP) models a process for developing and producing new plays that results in stronger work and the momentum needed for a play to join the repertoire of frequently produced new American works. Each Rolling World Premiere connects three or more NNPN Member Theaters that choose to mount the same new play within a 12-month period, allowing the playwright to develop the work with a new creative team in each theater's community. To date, NNPN has championed RWPs with over one million dollars in financial support. Alumni plays have received hundreds of subsequent productions, recognition in markets across the world, been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, won Steinberg/ATCA, Stavis, PEN and Blackburn awards, and been adapted into feature films.

ABOUT APPLES IN WINTER
Twenty-two years ago, Miriam's son, Robert, committed a horrible crime while in the grips of withdrawal. It was violent and terrifying and resulted in the deaths of two teenagers who did not deserve to die in such a violent and terrifying way. Robert was caught, tried, and convicted of first-degree murder and has been sitting on death row ever since. In seven hours the state will execute him. As is the tradition, Robert is granted a last meal. His request: a slice of his mother's apple pie.

This is a play about monsters and the mothers of monsters.
And about how we care for each other.
And about how to make a really good apple pie.

Jennifer is a founder and Co-Artistic Director of Working Group Theatre. She is the winner of the NEFA National Theatre Project Award (with Working Group Theatre) for her two-play project, Out of Bounds, the National Science Playwriting Award (KC/ACTF) for Atlas of Mud, and she was nominated for the ATCA/Steinberg New Play Award for her play Birth Witches. Her work has been developed and produced by Berkeley Repertory Theatre's Ground Floor, the Lark (New York), the Source Festival (Washington, DC), Palm Beach Dramaworks (West Palm Beach), Hancher Auditorium (University of Iowa), Riverside Theatre (Iowa City), Available Light Theatre (Columbus), Tennessee Women's Theatre Project (Nashville), and Halcyon Theatre (Chicago), among others. A graduate of the University of Iowa MFA Playwrights Workshop, she was the NNPN Playwright-In-Residence at Curious Theatre Company (Denver). Apples in Winter won the 2015 NNPN Smith Prize for Political Theatre, the 2017 Susan Glaspell Award from Centenary State, and was developed at the Banff Playwrights Colony in Canada.

Phoenix Theatre is a professional contemporary theatre in Indianapolis, focused on presenting new works, and has presented productions to challenge and entertain the Indianapolis community for 35 years. The Phoenix strives to expand the community's exposure to diverse topics and start conversations that lead to positive change; produce vital, engaging plays that deepen and expand our views of a shared humanity; and stimulate conversation and promote diversity via intimate, engaged, and wide-ranging theatre. Additionally, the Phoenix aims to move the political bent of the community from the right to the center via theatre, and create intimate theatre so powerful and engaging it sparks and leads Indiana's cultural conversation. In 2016, the Phoenix announced its Capital Campaign, "Phoenix Rising," to raise $11.1 million to build a new home and state-of-the-art Cultural Centre in downtown Indianapolis, opening May 2018. The new building will be home not only to Phoenix but to other local guest theatre companies. phoenixtheatre.org

ABOUT RED BIKE
What kind of future will you have living in these here United States? Remember when you were eleven years old and you had a bike, one that made you dream about a world bigger than the one in which you live?

This is that memory. Except it is now.

ABOUT Caridad Svich
Caridad Svich received a 2012 OBIE Award for Lifetime Achievement in the theatre, a 2017-18 Visiting Fellow at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, a 2012 Edgerton Foundation New Play Award, a 2018 Tanne Foundation Award, NNPN Rolling World Premiere for Guapa, and the 2011 American Theatre Critics Association Primus Prize for her play The House of the Spirits, based Isabel Allende's novel. She has been short-listed for the PEN Award in Drama four times. Key works in her repertoire include 12 Ophelias, Iphigenia Crash Land Falls on the Neon Shell That Was Once Her Heart, Fugitive Pieces, Alchemy of Desire/Dead-Man's Blues, The Way of Water, and Red Bike (currently receiving an NNPN Rolling World Premiere 2018-2019). She has also adapted for the stage novels by Mario Vargas Llosa, Julia Alvarez and Jose Leon Sanchez, and has radically reconfigured works from Wedekind, Euripides, Sophocles, and Shakespeare. As a theatrical translator she has translated nearly all the plays of Federico Garcia Lorca, and works by Lope De Vega, Calderon de la Barca, and contemporary works from Spain, Mexico and Cuba. She has also edited several books on theatre and performance, among them Fifty Playwrights on Their Craft (Methuen Drama, 2017) and Audience Revolution (TCG, 2016). She is published by Intellect Books, Seagull Books, Broadway Play Publishing, Manchester University Press, Smith & Kraus and Playscripts. She is alumna playwright of New Dramatists, contributing editor of Contemporary Theatre Review, drama editor of Asymptote literary translation journal, contributing editor of TheatreForum and an affiliated artist of EST, Lark and New Georges, and is founder of NoPassport theatre alliance and press. She is currently under commission from American Conservatory Theatre, Cleveland Opera Theatre and Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and teaches playwriting at Rutgers University-New Brunswick and Primary Stages Einhorn School of the Arts. caridadsvich.com

ABOUT KNOW THEATRE
The Know showcases unexpected voices, new works, and plays that embrace the inherent theatricality of the live experience. Know Theatre seeks to be a place where artists and audiences feel welcome to take artistic risks, creating work that is cutting edge and accessible. knowtheatre.com

ABOUT HEARTLAND
Dr. Harold Banks, an aging professor of Literature and Afghan Studies in Nebraska, is reeling after his adopted daughter Getee is killed by the Taliban while teaching children outside Kabul. When Afghan refugee Nazrullah arrives at his door with an incredible story and carrying Getee's prized books, the two men form an unlikely bond. Each is searching for his own brand of forgiveness, but as their friendship develops Naz accidentally exposes an unexpected source of Dr. Banks' guilt. How might a CIA propaganda operation over 30 years ago have contributed to Getee's death? Inspired by true events, Heartland is a story of healing, connection, and the devastating unintentional consequences of our actions. ABOUT Gabriel Jason Dean
Gabriel Jason Dean is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter whose critically-acclaimed plays include In Bloom (Kennedy Center Paula Vogel Award, Laurents / Hatcher Award Finalist, Princess Grace Award Runner-Up); Qualities of Starlight (Broadway Blacklist, Kesselring Nomination, Essential Theatre New Play Prize, B. Iden Payne Awards for Outstanding Comedy & Best Original Script); Terminus (James Tait Black Prize Finalist, B. Iden Payne Awards for Outstanding Drama & Best Original Script, Austin Critic's Table Award Best Production), Heartland (National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere, InterAct 20/20 Commission), The Transition of Doodle Peque o (American Alliance for Theatre & Education Distinguished Play Award, Kennedy Center TYA Award, New England Theatre Conference Aurand Harris Award); and others. He has written book and lyrics for the musicals Mario & The Comet and Our New Town. His plays have been produced or developed throughout at places such as New York Theatre Workshop, Manhattan Theatre Club, McCarter Theatre, Araca Group, The Lark, The Flea, The Civilians, Oregon Shakespeare, The Kennedy Center, The Amoralists, Geva Theatre Center, PlayPenn, Interact, The Playwrights' Center, Davenport Theatrical, Stage Left, The VORTEX, Theatre [502], Aurora Theatre, Seattle Children's Theatre, Dallas Children's Theatre, People's Light and Theatre, Dad's Garage Theatre, Actor's Express, Horizon Theatre, Source Festival, Essential Theatre, and the Illinois Shakespeare Festival. Gabriel received the Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University, Dramatist's Guild Fellowship, and the Sallie B. Goodman / McCarter Theatre Fellowship. His scripts are published through Samuel French, Dramatic Publishing and Playscripts. He is on faculty for Spalding University's Brief-Residency MFA Program, is a Visiting Writer in Residence at Muhlenberg College, an alum of The Civilians R&D Group, an Affiliated Writer at The Playwrights' Center, an Associate Artist with Monk Parrots and a Usual Suspect at New York Theatre Workshop. Current commissions with Geva Theatre and The Amoralists. MFA: UT-Austin Michener Center for Writers. He grew up in Chatsworth, GA, a mill town in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. He currently lives in Brooklyn, NY. gabrieljasondean.com

ABOUT New Repertory Theatre
New Repertory Theatre is the award-winning, professional theatre company in residence at the Mosesian Center for the Arts in Watertown, MA. For over 30 years, New Rep has been a leader of self-produced theatre in greater Boston, producing contemporary and classic dramas, comedies, and musicals in both the 340-seat MainStage Theater and the 90-seat BlackBox Theater. Annually, New Rep serves over 40,000 patrons, including 2,000 season subscribers. In addition to its mainstage productions, New Rep produces Next Voices, a program dedicated to developing new plays with playwrights through staged readings and world premiere production. Under its Lifelong Enrichment Arts Programs (LEAP), New Rep also produces its Classic Repertory Company, Page To Stage, Insider Experiences, and Spotlight Symposium Series. newrep.org

ABOUT THE VORTEX
We conjure and navigate the storm of imagination with urgent, unashamed art that dares to dream the world in which we want to live. This magic emanates from our cultural harbor, embraces diverse communities, breaks down barriers, and opens channels for vital exchange. The VORTEX creates and presents new, innovative performances world premiere plays, operas, musicals, ritual theatre, and devised collaborations. The VORTEX transgresses conventional theatrical forms with multidisciplinary performances from diverse traditions. Music, film, dance, opera, aerial arts, puppetry, and performance art contribute to our vibrant theatre. We are an artist-owned and operated theater and have produced over 350 productions. We are proud to have always engaged in non-traditional casting. The VORTEX has presented work by dozens of famous cutting-edge artists and is internationally renowned as a haven for alternative performance. Our work has received more than 100 major awards and hundreds of nominations for artistic excellence in production, design, acting, performance, directing, playwriting, choreography, and musical composition. vortexrep.org

ABOUT NNPN
National New Play Network is the country's alliance of nonprofit theaters that collaborate in innovative ways to develop, produce, and extend the 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 online information sessions, Collaboration, Festival, and Travel banks - have helped cement the Network's position as a vital force in the new play landscape. 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 23,000 new plays by living writers. NNPN's 32 Core and 88 Associate Members - along with the nearly 300 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 Copyright 2019 National New Play Network, All rights reserved.

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