Centenary Stage Company's 2014 Women Playwrights Series Closes 4/26

Audiences have the opportunity to enjoy two more new plays and a take free writing workshop as the 2014 Women Playwrights Series comes to a close at the Centenary Stage Company in the final week of April.

A free playwriting workshop will be offered on Saturday, Apr 26 from 10 AM - 2 PM, led by John Pietrowski, Artistic Director of the Playwrights Theatre of NJ. Advance reservations are required, and can be made through the CSC Box office. The class will be held in the Lackland Center .

On Sunday, Apr 27 at 2 PM, zany chaos erupts in a new play by Sherry Kramer entitled "How Water Behaves". A tiny white lie spins out of control in this delightful tale which blends String Theory, N.G.O.s, unemployment and family ties in an hilarious look at our contemporary world.

Hawaiian playwright Susan Soon He Stanton's "Cygnus" will be the final presentation in the 2014 series on Wednesday, Apr 30 at 7:30 pm, an ethereal tale about a mysterious guardian, a young woman in trouble, and the power of transformation.

Susan Soon He Stanton's plays have been produced or developed at Playwrights Horizons, Joe's Pub, The Lark Theatre, The Kennedy Center, Terra Nova, and Flea Theatre, among others. She is a member of MaYi Playwrights Lab and was a member of the Public Theatre's Emerging Writer's Group 2012-13, the SoHo Rep Writer-Director Lab 2011, and she was the 2011 Van Lier Fellow at the Lark Theatre. Her plays include SEEK, Takarazuka!!!, Cygnus, Furball, The Things are Against Us, The Underneath, and more. Stanton is a graduate of Yale with an MFA in playwriting.

Sherry Kramer's work has been seen at theaters across the country and abroad, including the Humana Festival, Yale Repertory Theatre, Soho Rep, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Second Stage (NY), and Woolly Mammoth. She is a recipient of NEA and McKnight Fellowships, the Weissberger Playwriting Award, and the Jane Chambers Playwriting Award. Some of her other plays include: The Master and Margarita, Things That Break, A Thing of Beauty, Napoleon's China , Partial Objects, The World at Absolute Zero, Nano and Nicki in Boca Raton, Ivanhoe, Arkansas, The Long Arms of Jupiter, and The Ruling Passion, among many others. She holds an MFA in Fiction from the Iowa Writers Workshop, and an MFA in Playwriting from the Iowa Playwrights Workshop. She was the first national member of New Dramatists, and teaches playwriting at Bennington College, and in the MFA programs of the Iowa Playwrights Workshop, where she was head of the workshop, and the Michener Center for Writers, University of Texas, Austin.

Now in its 22nd year, the Centenary Stage Company Women Playwrights Series (WPS) presents 3-4 new plays each year in rehearsed staged readings throughout the month of April. Led by Program Director Catherine Rust, the WPS is dedicated to providing a working forum for the unique and underserved voice of women writing for the theater today. The Series features the finalists in the Susan Glaspell contest, which offers the winner further development support worth $35,000 in a full production on the CSC professional Equity main-stage season, as well as a cash payment to the author. CSC subscribes to the national "50/50 in 20/20" movement, advocating that 50% of all the plays being produced on professional stages throughout the country be written by women by the year 2020.

Centenary Stage Company is an affiliate member of NNPN - the National New Play Network (based in Washington, D.C.), and participates in the "Extended Life" and "Rolling World Premiere" programs, designed to give playwrights larger exposure and sustained life throughout the country in their first year of production.

Admission to the "How Water Behaves" and "Cygnus" is by donation and reservations are requested. For reservations and information contact the Centenary Stage Company Box Office at 908-979-0900, or visit online at www.centenarystageco.org

The CSC Women Playwrights Series is made possible in part through the generous support of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation , the NJ State Council on the Arts, The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, Heath Village Retirement Community, and the many CSC members and sponsors.