PTNJ's programming includes three mainstage productions, three new-play reading festivals and three semesters of classes available at the Creative Arts Academy there.
The Equity company's season will open Oct. 27-Nov. 13 with the new comedy, Sunrise at Monticello, by Guillermo Reyes.
"What would Thomas Jefferson think were he alive today and sharing an apartment with a Puerto Rican TV writer who struggles to be recognized and respected?" asks the announcement. The play is billed as a comedy "featuring lots of race and gender bending" from the author of Miss Consuelo and Southern Christmas.
The Good Girl Is Gone, a dark comedy from D.W. Gregory, author of Radium Girls and The Good Daughter , premieres Feb. 2-19, 2006. "Preparing for a difficult reunion, Lulu Bender has just checked into a run down motel. There, her mind traverses between the present and a difficult past. Can Lulu face and forgive her mother who ran out on the family years before?"
The final show of the season is a world premiere "poetic drama" from Russell Davis, Mahida's Extra Key to Heaven April 20-May 7, 2006. "Inside a small and quiet town, against the polarized tensions between the Middle East and the United States, a young American painter and an Iranian student form a bond that throws their families into turmoil. A haunting and profound new play from the author of The Song of Grendelyn. " "Being around as a professional theatre for 20 years is truly an accomplishment, surviving as a theatre for 20 years solely developing new works is especially rare," artistic director John Pietrowski said in a statement. "Playwrights Theatre wants to thank its patrons and supporters by bringing in new works by some favorite old friends from past seasons. Two of our writers, Russell Davis and Guillermo Reyes, have had a good deal of success recently, having been featured in the Humana Festival of New Plays in the past three years. And Dolores' [Gregory] work has been produced in major regional theatres in the past couple of years as well. We are pleased to be able to bring this level of talent and ability directly to our local audiences before the plays are seen anywhere else."
The mainstage series plays on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 PM, Sundays at 3 PM and select Thursdays at 3 PM and 5:30 PM.
Season subscriptions and single tickets are on sale now (single ticket discounts available for students, seniors and groups). For more information about new classes, the new play reading series or the new main stage season, visit www.ptnj.org or call (937)514-1787.
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The New Play Reading Festival will continue in three different sessions: Fall Series (Sept. 29-Oct. 1); Winter Series (Dec. 1-3); Spring Series (Jan. 5-7, 2006).
Patrons are invited to sit in with professional writers, actors and directors as they present a rehearsed reading of a brand new script and then participate in a post-show discussion. All three roundtable series occur Thursday through Saturday, with evening readings at 8 PM and a Saturday afternoon reading at 3 PM.
(The upcoming mainstage plays Sunrise at Monticello and Mahida's Extra Key to Heaven were first read at the 2004-2005 Roundtable reading series.)
Playwrights Theatre "is a community of professional playwrights, theatre artists, and arts educators that provides opportunities for writers to develop their works in a nurturing environment and connect with new audiences."
Its New Play Development Program is a five-step process through which playwrights, theatre artists, and audiences collaborate to bring selected texts from rough draft to finished production. The Education Programs "introduce students of all ages and backgrounds to the possibilities inherent in thinking and communicating creatively."
Playwrights Theatre's New Jersey Writers Project provides hands-on workshops led by professional writers-in-residence to students in schools and community centers throughout the state.
