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Rick Miramontez / Jon Dimond / Jaron Caldwell
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, PLEASE

New York, NY – (Robert LuPone, Bernard Telsey, William Cantler, Artistic Directors; Blake West, Executive Director) has announced the line-up for their Spring 2011 PlayLab play readings of new plays by three members of the company’s Playwrights’ Coalition: Alex Lewin, Ed Napier, and Anton Dudley to be held on April 18, April 25, and May 9, 2011. The Monday night series will offer a special opportunity to experience works in development by some of New York’s most exciting playwrights. As an added bonus, audience members will be invited to mingle with the artists at post-performance receptions to be held each night.

MCC Theater's commitment to new work extends beyond its Mainstage. Now in its tenth year, the Playwrights' Coalition is a diverse group of some of the most talented, exciting playwrights working today. The Coalition's programs give writers the resources and support to generate, develop and showcase new work. Through intensive work and roundtable readings, member playwrights develop dynamic and challenging new plays, and twice-a-year PlayLab readings put these plays in front of an audience, providing a showcase and celebration of the writers' work. Plays developed through the Playwrights' Coalition have gone on to production at MCC and other notable theaters in the U.S. and abroad.

All readings will take place at the Baruch Performing Arts Center (South side of 25th St. between Lexington and Third Avenue) at 7:00 p.m. The series is offered free of charge, but reservations are recommended. Reservations can be made by phoning 212-727-7722 ext. 244 or by visiting www.mcctheater.org.

2011 Spring PlayLab Readings

April 18, 2011
Alexandria
Written by Alex Lewin
Directed by Shana Gold

Egypt, summer of 2005. The Quasim family has operated a small café for three generations. But when a huge American coffee franchise makes them an offer they can’t refuse, the family is suddenly caught between a familiar past and an unknown future, as the anti-Mubarak movement gathers steam, casting suspicions everywhere.

April 25, 2011
The Writing On The Wall
Written and Directed by Ed Napier

It’s said that Hollywood is the only place where your friends don’t stab you in the back… they stab you in the face. And that’s just what happens to TV writer Nelson when his latest work gets tangled up in a power struggle between his boss and the star of the show. A dark comedy about trying to hold on to friendship, loyalty, and honor.

May 9, 2011
Terms of Encampment
Written and Directed by Anton Dudley

When a retired octogenarian crime-fighter despairs and threatens to take his own life, his alarmed grandson takes action to show him his life has meaning. In opening Grandpa’s mind, however, he simultaneously opens a Pandora’s Box of trouble, one that may take a super-hero to close.

MCC’s world premiere production of Sharr White’s The Other Place, directed by Tony Award winner Joe Mantello, has been extended through May 1, 2011. Tickets are $65 and are available by visiting www.mcctheater.org or by contacting Ticket Central directly at www.ticketcentral.com or calling 212-279-4200.

MCC Theater is currently celebrating its 25th anniversary season as one of New York City's leading Off Broadway theater companies, committed to presenting New York and world premieres each season. When MCC Theater was founded in 1986, its mission was simple: to bring new theatrical voices to theater-going audiences. MCC Theater continues to accomplish this yearly through three programmatic areas: its mainstage works; its Playwrights’ Coalition, which actively seeks and develops new and emerging writers; and its Education & Outreach Programs, including the Youth Company, which allow more than 1,200 students yearly to experience theater, increase literacy and discover their own voices through the creation of original theater pieces. Notable MCC Theater highlights include: the 2008 Tony Award-nominated reasons to be pretty by Neil LaBute, last season’s The Pride, Fifty Words, the 2004 Tony-winning production of Bryony Lavery’s Frozen; Neil LaBute’s Fat Pig; Rebecca Gilman’s The Glory of Living; Marsha Norman’s Trudy Blue; Margaret Edson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Wit; Tim Blake Nelson’s The Grey Zone and Alan Bowne’s Beirut. Over the years, the dedication to the work of new and emerging artists has earned MCC Theater a variety of awards.

About the Authors

Alex Lewin’s plays have been developed at Arena Stage, Geva Theatre Center, MCC, The New Group, Ensemble Studio Theatre, the O’Neill Playwrights Conference, the Lark, Emigrant Theatre (Minneapolis), Bailiwick Rep (Chicago), and New York Theatre Workshop, where he is an Artistic Associate. He is the recipient of the Ted & Adele Shank Professional Playwriting Fellowship, and a commission from Ensemble Studio Theatre and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and he’s been a finalist for the L. Arnold Weissberger Award. Alex has held residencies at EST’s Lexington Center for the Arts, the O’Neill Playwrights Conference, the Chautauqua Theatre Company, and New York Theatre Workshop’s summer development program at Dartmouth College. Alex holds an MFA in Playwriting from the University of California at San Diego. He is 2009–10 Playwrights Realm writing fellow, and a member of the 09–10 Interstate 73 writers group, the MCC Playwrights’ Coalition, and the Dramatists Guild. He lives in Manhattan with his cat, Charlie Chaplin.

Edward Napier's first play produced in New York, Junior Prom, was directed by the late Herbert Berghof at the H.B. Playwright's Foundation. Off-Broadway credits include 'Til the Rapture Comes at the W.P.A., speeches of which appear in both The Best Men's and The Best Women's Stage Monologues of 1998 published by Smith and Krauss and The English Teachers, produced at MCC and published by Dramatists Play Service. Before working Off-Broadway, Ed worked extensively Off-Off-Broadway at the West Bank Café, Trocadero Café, the Ensemble Studio Theatre, Theatre Nada, Alice's Fourth Floor, P.S. 122, the Salon, and the Workhouse Theatre, where he was Playwright in Residence. He graduated from Columbia University cum laude with a concentration in Literature/Writing and was the recipient of the Writing Program Award (departmental prize). He received a Berrilla Kerr Award for Playwriting in 1996 and has been a Columbia Senior Writing Fellow for the past four years. For the past three years, Ed has been on the staff at MCC Theater as a Teaching Artist in the New York City public schools and serves on the faculty of the Columbia University High School Summer Program as a creative writing and performance instructor. Ed is also a member of the Playwright's Unit at H.B. Studio. He recently finished his first screenplay, The Lord in Kenova.

Anton Dudley's Off-Broadway productions include Substitution (Playwrights Realm@Soho Playhouse), Getting Home (Secondstage Theatre Uptown), and Slag Heap (Cherry Lane Theatre). Other productions include Honor and the River (Walnut Street Theatre, Luna Stage, NYS&F, SPF), Cold Hard Cash (Williamstown Theatre Festival), Letters to the End of the World (At Hand Theatre Co@Theatre Row), Circumvention (Keen Company), BOB, Moving On, and Substitution (New York Stage & Film), Davy & Stu (Ensemble Studio Theatre Marathon, Directors Company, Bread & Water Theatre); Pleaching the Coffin Sisters (Ensemble Studio Theatre, Momentum Productions in TX, New Works/New Haven), Flight of Kings (Baryshnikov Arts Center@37Arts), The Lake’s End (Adirondack Theatre Festival), January 1, 2000 (Lincoln Center Theater@HERE), Antarctica (Cleveland Public Theatre, Vital Theatre), edWARd2 (FringeNYC), Slag Heap (Theatre Pro Rata in MN), and Spamlet (Cherry Red Productions in DC). His plays Honor and the River and Circumvention are published by Playscripts, Inc. Anton's work appears as well in PLAY A Journal of Plays Vol. II (Paper Theatre), Monologues for Men by Men, Vols. I+II (Heinemann Press), New American Short Plays 2005 (Backstage Books) edited by Craig Lucas, The Theatre Audition Book II (Meriwether Publishing), and Actors Choice: Monologues for Teens (Playscripts, Inc.). Anton is a fellowship recipient of Manhattan Theatre Club, the Dramatists Guild of America, Cherry Lane Mentor Project, New York Theatre Workshop, the Playwrights Center of San Francisco, First Look Theatre Company, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and Quebec's Centre des Auteurs Dramatiques which translated his play Substitution into French. The award-winning short film of Davy & Stu is distributed by Strand Releasing on Boys Life 6, and was an Official Selection of 60 International Film Festivals on 5 continents. An Assistant Professor at Adelphi University, Anton is a member of NYTW's Usual Suspects, MCC's Playwrights' Coalition, a three-time alumnus of Arthur Kopit's Playwrights Workshop at the Lark Play Development Center and was the Lark's Playwright-in-Residence for 2007. He is currently developing the books to three musicals: Tina Girlstar (lyrics by Charlie Sohne, music by Brian Feinstein) with Olympus Theatricals, LLC; Kissing the Underworld (commissioned by the Cherry Lane Theatre), and The Re-hydration of Edith Pilaf (lyrics by Charlie Sohne, music by Keith Gordon).

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