Following three sold-out weeks at the Boston Playwrights' Theatre this summer, John Kuntz's new play, Jump Rope will receive a reading at the Public Theatre's Newman space, Oct. 14 and 21 in New York City.

Jump Rope is billed a "a killer love story" centers on an established (for 13 years) gay couple and a down-on-his-luck single guy amid news reports of a string of murders victimizing gay men.

Boston castmates Brooks Ashmanskas (Little Me, How to Succeed...) Ben Evett and Bill Mootos star in the reading. Matt August, who has served as assistant director on The Invention of Love and associate director for The Full Monty national tour and the upcoming Broadway show Imaginary Friends, directs as he did in Boston.

Kuntz has penned four one-person shows including Freaks!, Party Poopers, Actorz with a Z and Starfuckers, which won the 2002 NY Fringe Festival award for Best Solo Show. Other plays include After School Special, Emerald City, Sing Me to Sleep and Miss Price.

The reading is being produced by Caralyn Spector (of Jordan Roth Productions) and Justin Waldman (Assistant to Huntington Theatre Artistic Director Nicholas Martin). — by Ernio Hernandez