Circle X Theatre Co. Presents Newest Readings, 10/06-11/03

Circle X Theatre Co. celebrates the new work of Meredith Stiehm, Bill Lawrence, Tim Mason, Lee Blessing, Fielding Edlow, and Lina Patel with their newest reading series October 6th - November 3rd.

Proudly collaborating with some of the finest writers and directors in Los Angeles, Circle X Theatre Co. explores, rehearses and presents readings of six new plays as part of their dedication to new work and artistic innovation. All six plays in this series were developed in the Circle X Theatre Co.'s Writers Group and will premiere free to the public starting October 6th.

Conceived in 2009, the Circle X Theatre Co. Writers Group has championed myriad new works for the stage. Jen Kays, Literary Director, said "We create a safe place where writers can motivate each other to work on their first love: plays. We collaborate with actors who love the process of developing new work and gather writers who are looking for a creative home. This group of writers has been cultivating these stories together over the past couple of years. They are all immensely talented and are such a great support for each other. It's fantastic to celebrate that."

Focusing on imagination over budget, adrenaline over inertia, irreverence over convention and excellence over all, the 2014 reading series is free to the public thanks to the generous support of the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.

This year's series will feature
October 6, 2014 - Black Rose by Meredith Stiehm
October 13, 2014 - Second Slip by Bill Lawrence
October 20, 2014 - A Cappella by Tim Mason
October 27, 2014 - For The Loyal by Lee Blessing
November 3, 2014 - ICU by Fielding Edlow
November 10, 2014 - Untitled - by Lina Patel

Performances will be held on Monday evenings, October 6th - November 3rd at 8p.m. Atwater Village Theatre,
3269 Casitas Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90039.

Performances are free.
For additional information, please visit CircleXTheatre.org
or contact Camille Schenkkan at camille@CircleXTheatre.org.

October 6, 2014 - Black Rose by Meredith Stiehm
Seneca Loomis doesn't want her recently widowed Dad to get married. On his wedding eve, she does all she can to thwart his union with her mother's best friend.

October 13, 2014 - Second Slip by Bill Lawrence
A comic exploration of a helicopter parent in conflict with an old school teacher. At Holy Cross High School, getting a detention slip means picking up litter after school. Marissa likes it better when other people pick up the litter.

October 20, 2014 - A Cappella by Tim Mason
A group from the New York City Gay Men's Chorus gathers for a two-day retreat at a run-down Adirondack resort, just a few weeks after September 11. The adoptive parents among the men, and the wild, foul-mouthed single mother who owns the place, struggle with shared questions: how do you keep your children safe in a dangerous world, how do you protect them from themselves, and - despite all your love - from your own parenting?

October 27, 2014 - For The Loyal by Lee Blessing
Inspired by the Penn State/Jerry Sandusky scandals, For the Loyal takes place in a fictional Midwestern university athletic department. It follows a similar story as processed by the mind of a young woman whose husband has witnessed a heinous act.

November 3, 2014 - ICU by Fielding Edlow
An obnoxious, caustic, oblivious New York family has to deal with their dying son and a complete stranger who insists on making an "amend."

November 10, 2014 - Untitled - by Lina Patel
Four friends. An abusive husband. And a gun.

Biographies:
Meredith Stiehm Plays include: Mad City, Stoner and Spaz, Sweetface, Sophia Mars Is Ill, Between the White Curtains, Hallelujah Junction. She wrote the book and lyrics for the musicals Women In Love and Rules For Girls. Her play The Meeting was part of the Circle X Theatre Co. one-act play festival in 2011, and her 10-minute play Hunger was a finalist for the Heideman Award. Mad City was workshopped at the New Harmony Project in Indiana, and the La Mirada Theatre in Los Angeles. Meredith is a writer and an executive producer of Homeland (Showtime) for which she won an Emmy Award; creator and executive producer of Peabody Award-winning The Bridge (FX); and also the created the drama series Cold Case (CBS). She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. in English/Playwriting.

Bill Lawrence is a writer and actor from Los Angeles. His play This is Our Town has recently been workshopped by Circle X Theatre Co. His short play Buck Up Christmas was included in the 2012 Circle Xmas. He is also the author of the plays Feed My Sheep and The Marmot Speaks, which were produced at Creede Repertory Theatre. His play The Gatekeeper was produced in Colorado and Los Angeles (LunaPark). His bio­comedy The Fighting Jardiniers, was commissioned by and produced at St. Mary's College of Notre Dame, Indiana. His short stories have been published in Static Movement, Story Quarterly and the Creede Magazine. As an actor he performed for many years, primarily at the Pioneer Theatre Company (Salt Lake City) and at Creede Repertory Theatre, in Colorado. He was a founding member of the Foundry Theatre Works, in LA. His film and TV acting credits include, Hemingway, Scandals, The Witching of Ben Wagner, Close To Home and the role of Darrell in the award winning film, Andy Across the Water, which was written and directed by Circle X Theatre Co. artist, Leo Geter. Bill graduated with a BA in Theatre Studies from the University of Utah and received his MA in Humanities from Mt. St. Mary's College.

Timothy Mason: Musical, Dr. Seuss' HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS!, on Broadway and on tour. Others: Circle Rep, Actors Theatre of Louisville, South Coast Rep, Seattle Rep, Victory Gardens, Jungle Theatre, Guthrie Theatre Lab, American Conservatory Theatre, Royal National Theatre, London. Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays Award, W. Alton Jones Foundation Award, Berilla Kerr Award, National Endowment for the Arts Award, National Society of Arts and Letters Award. Kids' novel, THE LAST SYNAPSID, Random House.

Lee Blessing has had two theatres devote full seasons to his work: New York's Signature Theatre and Profile Theatre in Portland, Oregon. In its original run on Broadway and in London's West End, A Walk in the Woods was nominated for Tony and Olivier Awards and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Among numerous other honors, Blessing's plays have twice won the Steinberg/American Theatre Critics' Association Award. Notable premieres: For the Loyal, Illusion Theater, Minneapolis (scheduled for Spring, 2015), A View of the Mountains, New Jersey Repertory Company; A User's Guide to Hell, Featuring Bernard Madoff, Project Y Theatre, NYC; Courting Harry, History Theatre, St. Paul; When We Go upon the Sea, 59E59th St. in New York and InterAct Theatre, Philadelphia; Great Falls, Actors Theatre of Louisville's Humana Festival and Ensemble Theatre in Sydney, Australia. Blessing also contributed Seven Joys and Wood for the Fire to play cycles commissioned by London's Tricycle Theatre. In early 2015 Geva Theatre in Rochester N.Y. will revive Blessing's play A Body of Water, world-premiered at the Tyrone Guthrie Theater in 2005. For a dozen years Blessing headed the graduate playwriting program at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University. He is married to playwright and TV writer-producer Melanie Marnich with whom he lives in Los Angeles.

Fielding Edlow, a native New Yorker, has had her plays developed/produced with Naked Angels, NY Stage & Film, PSNBC, Circle X Theatre Co., NY & LA Fringe Festival and Comedy Central Stage. Her solo show, Coke-Free J.A.P., was performed in the NYC Fringe Festival (Backstage's "Best of Fringe award") and then had a four-month, sold-out run in LA at the McCadden Theatre. Her full-length play, The Something-Nothing was produced at the Lounge Theatre with the Mineral Theatre Co. Her play, Admissions was workshopped at NY Stage & Film, Naked Angels, and was a semi-finalist in the 2011 O'Neill Conference. Her one-act Rum Pah Pah Pah was a finalist in the National Ten-Minute Play Contest at Actors Theatre of Louisville. She has performed her short stories with 'Sit N Spin', 'Show n Tell' and 'Afterbirth' and frequently does stand-up. She's currently developing a comedy series for Showtime and is a member of the Circle X Theatre Co. and EST/LA playwriting groups.

Lina Patel, Her work has been presented/developed at the Sewanee Writer's Conference, where she was a Walter E. Dakin Fellow; The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, New Harmony Project, TheNew Group, Center Theater Group, The Lark, East West Players, Circle X Theatre Co. Lina's play The Ragged Claws was nominated for Cherry Lane Theatre's 2014 Mentor Project by David Henry Hwang. Productions include, That Could Be You, commissioned by Silk Road Rising; Sweet Life, at Circle X Theatre Co. and the Samuel French OOB Festival; and Belief, commissioned by Chalk Repertory at the Page Science Museum. Lina is working on a commission for a new play from Yale Repertory Theatre. She is also working on a short play commission for Chalk Repertory Theatre to be produced in October 2014 in Los Angeles. Lina is currently a staff writer for Warner Brother's The 100. Lina is also a critically acclaimed actor and voice-over artist.

Circle X Theatre Co. is a not-for-profit ensemble of artists dedicated to highly provocative, boldly theatrical productions of new and rarely-seen plays and the development of new works for the stage. We believe in imagination over budget, adrenaline over inertia, irreverence over convention and excellence over all.

Founded in 1996, innovation and the idea of "imagination over budget" is a guiding principle of our work. We strive to make it the core of every element of production, from our selection of thought-provoking, highly theatrical plays to design, performance and direction to administration and marketing, creating the unique aesthetic for which Circle X is known. Today, through our Writers Group and new play development work, we support Los Angeles-based theatre artists interested in taking new plays from inception to production, and launching them onto a life beyond our stages. circlextheatre.org