The reading cast will include Xanthe Elbrick (Beebo Brinker Chronicles, Coram Boy), Maggie Lacey (Dividing the Estate, Inherit the Wind), Kevin O'Donnell (Geometry of Fire, The Hairy Ape) and Michael Stuhlbarg (The Voysey Inheritance, The Pillowman).
According to Iris Rep, "In Without You, all Simon ever really wanted was to have someone to love…but you should really be careful what you wish for. Without You is a darkly comic exploration into what happens when people from very different worlds collide. It looks at the wonder and chaos of love and asks what price we are willing to pay for the comfort of not being left alone."
Ursula Rani Sarma (playwright) is an award-winning writer and director of Irish and Indian descent. She grew up in Co Clare has been writing predominantly for theatre since graduating from University College Cork in 1999. Ursula co-founded Djinn Productions later that year and has directed several award- winning productions as artistic director of the company, the most recent being her production of The Magic Tree in June-September 2008 (Cork/Edinburgh/Limerick/Dublin). She has been Writer in Residence for The National Theatre London, Paines Plough Theatre Company London, Galway Local Authorities and the Cross Border Centre project which united artists from the North and South of Ireland. Her plays include Blue, …touched…, Gift, Orpheus Road, The Spider Men, When the War Came, The Exchange, The Dark Things, The Magic Tree and more.
Sarma's work received its U.S. premiere when Origin Theatre Company staged her short play The Parting Glass at New York's 59E59 Theaters as part of their End of Lines Project.
She was selected to take part in the 2006 and 2008 New Playwriting Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center where her plays, The Exchange and Without You, were developed. *
Kara Manning, Irish Rep's literary manager, hopes that the reading series will "give playwrights, both emerging and more established, the invaluable opportunity to develop their new work in a supportive, safe environment and will also introduce some Irish playwrights, especially those who might not yet have the New York recognition they merit, to an American audience."
The Irish Repertory Theatre's 2007 production of Stuart Carolan's Defender of the Faith was an alumnus of the 2006 New Works Reading Series.
The Irish Repertory Theatre is at 132 W. 22nd Street.
Reading series tickets are free, and the event is open to the public, but a reservation is required at (212) 727-2737.
For more information, visit irishrep.org.
