StageFARM artistic director Alex Kilgore and Evan Cabnet direct the series of commissioned plays by Adam Rapp, Gina Gionfriddo, Judith Thompson, Elizabeth Meriwether and Mark Schultz. Spin officially opens Oct. 11 and continues through Nov. 8 at the Cherry Lane Theatre.
Set to inhabit the short works are Patch Darragh (Crimes of the Heart), Rebecca Henderson (Vengeance), Jesse Hooker (Some Men), David Ross (Vengeance) and Dreama Walker ("Gossip Girl").
"As with last year's 'Vengeance,' we're interested in using five great playwrights as a barometer for what's happening now. 'Spin' is this year's zeitgeist, it's the victory of style over substance. Presentation increasingly obscures content in American discourse and decision-making. The media, industry, politics, the establishment and the arts have conspired to bring us not their constituent parts, but a presentation of what they would like us to think they are. 'Spin' is the icing under which the cake of our country now lumbers. Everyone's running around spun out, high on icing," stageFARM artistic director Alex Kilgore said in a statement.
The plays featured in Spin follow:
"On a reality show called 'America's Got Tragedy,' a dead soldier competes with the pop starlet whose train wreck life upstaged his war."
"After 90 days in rehab a fledgling groom learns that sobriety and dishonesty aren't mutually exclusive."
"A Canadian CSIS agent learns that torturing a Gitmo detainee may cost him the love of his life."
"On the set of a film that turns news headlines into fetish fantasies, a veteran porn actor coaches his scene-mate into making the ultimate sacrifice for art."
"In an undisclosed cabin somewhere in the mountains of America, a TV stunt journalist and her trusted cameraman attempt to scoop the sound of The Rapture from a legendary experimental rock musician." Show times are Tuesday-Saturday evenings at 8 PM. Tickets, priced $37.50, are available by visiting Telecharge.com.
The Cherry Lane Theatre is located in Manhattan at 38 Commerce Street, between Barrow and Bedford Streets.
