The Clifford Odets Ensemble Play Commission is an annual playwriting commission that encourages early-career playwrights to write plays for large ensembles of emerging actors. Through the commission, The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute and The Lee Strasberg Creative Center partners emerging playwrights, directors and Method trained actors and encourages "the synergy of great acting with the development of new works. This commission will provide an incubating space for the development of true ensemble plays in New York City and develop the next generation of collaborating artists."

Walt Odets, son of the late Clifford Odets, and Anna Strasberg, Lee Strasberg's widow, will attend the Dec. 5 gala performance, which will be followed by a reception at 9 PM.

Directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch (Harper Reagan and Blue Bird at Atlantic Theatre Company), Love Lab will feature Strasberg students Guillermo Arribas, Davis Cannada, Victor Cervantes, Addie Doyle, Josh Greenwald, Annalee Hurst, Hanna Lee, Jessica Sharples, Olivia Songer, Noam Tomaschoff and Michael Turner.

Here's how Love Lab is described: "Meet neuropsychiatrist Dr. Stone, leading expert on the science of love. When three young couples embark on a retreat to his world-renowned physiology lab, the fracture lines in each relationship slowly oxidize with every test. Love Lab, a new dark comedy by Lila Feinberg, explores the desperate measures we take to choose our life partner, in an age when everlasting love is an unpromising statistic."

Playwright Feinberg's thesis play Vertebrae won the Araca Group's 2012 National Graduate Playwriting Award and had a workshop production at New York Theatre Workshop and a reading at Ars Nova. Her commissioned play Night Float was paired with Craig Lucas' The Catherine Wheel for its premiere at Playwrights Horizon. The Marilyn Monroe Theatre is located at 115 East 15th Street (at Lee Strasberg Way). For tickets, email [email protected] or call (212) 533-5500. For more information, visit Strasberg.com