Playwrights' 2012 Stories on 5 Stories Benefit, With Works by Jon Robin Baitz, Bruce Norris and More, Held Oct. 22

By Michael Gioia
22 Oct 2012

Christine Lahti
Christine Lahti
Photo by Aubrey Reuben

Playwrights Horizons' annual one-night-only Stories on 5 Stories benefit, featuring new works by eight artists, including seven of the theatre's alumni writers, is offered Oct. 22 in NYC.

The sold-out event begins at 8 PM with performances of new short plays, which explore "the notion of Poetic Justice," by Tony Award nominee Jon Robin Baitz (The Substance of Fire at PH), Obie Award winner Neal Bell (Spatter Pattern at PH), Jessica Goldberg (Refuge at PH), Obie Award winner Kirsten Greenidge (Milk Like Sugar at PH), Itamar Moses (Completeness at PH), Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winner Bruce Norris (Clybourne Park at PH), and a musical piece by Todd Almond (Melancholy Play at 13P) and Tony Award nominee Sarah Ruhl (Dead Man's Cell Phone at PH).

Each play is performed in a different, unconventional space throughout all five stories of Playwrights Horizons' home at 416 West 42nd Street. The evening benefits the company's developmental programs and productions.

The lineup of performers includes Christine Lahti (The Heidi Chronicles), Campbell Scott (Long Day's Journey Into Night), Zachary Booth (Me, Myself & I and Prayer for My Enemy at PH), Drama Desk Award winner Marylouise Burke (Fuddy Meers, Into the Woods), Kathleen McElfresh (Present Laughter), Karl Miller (Completeness at PH), Richard Thieriot (Clybourne Park), Quincy Tyler Bernstine (Ruined), Obie Award winner Eric Bogosian (Talk Radio), Robert Dorfman (The Wax at PH), Victor Williams (A Small Fire at PH, "The King of Queens"), Teresa Yenque ("Ed"), Mary Stout (Cather County at PH), Emily Walton (The Shaggs at PH), Tony nominee Maria Dizzia (The Drunken City at PH, In the Next Room), Marni Nixon (James Joyce's The Dead at PH) and Adam Rothenberg (The Retributionists at PH).

"Every year, the unusual journey through our back spaces and offices leads our guests to see some of our most cherished New York actors an arm's length away, as well as hear each writer's unique take on the same theme," said Playwrights artistic director Tim Sanford in an earlier statement. "By the end of the evening you have a true appreciation for the depth of imagination of these writers, the generosity and spiritedness of the actors, and the infectious love for theatre that animates the whole event."

A pre-show dinner, attended by some of the evening's writers as well as Playwrights senior staff and board members, is held at 6 PM at Chez Josephine; an after-party will follow the event at 9 PM.

For more information and tickets, call (212) 564-1235, ext. 3143 or visit PlaywrightsHorizons.org.