The Kitchen, a new play by Charlie Schulman, receives a reading at Manhattan's Neighborhood Playhouse, Feb. 28. The staging, presented by producer Patricia Watt for The Manhattan Drama Collective, will be directed by Eleanore Reissa (Those Were The Days), who is also featured in the cast.

According to a production spokesperson, The Kitchen spans 80 years in one uninterrupted scene and was inspired by Thornton Wilder's The Long Christmas Dinner.

Other cast-members include Marilyn Sokol (Shlemiel the First), Larry Block, Rachel Botchen, Danny Burstein, Adam Heller and Joe Urla.

For tickets ($10 suggested donation) and information on The Kitchen at the Neighborhood Playhouse, 340 East 54th Street, call (212) 595-0924.

On Feb. 29, Chris Smith will direct a reading of Jenny Lyn Bader's screwball comedy, The Omega Traveller, also at the Neighborhood Playhouse. Keith Reddin and Donna Mitchell, who played Ron Rifkin's wife in the film "The Boiler Room," co-star. The Manhattan Drama Collective is a not-for-profit group started by Watt and playwright Joe Pintauro. "Right now we're just doing readings of new works," Watt told Playbill On-Line, "but we eventually hope to do productions. Also, in the Hamptons we do readings of East End writers for the Historical Society."

-- By David Lefkowitz