HOUSE OF CARDS' Reg E. Cathey to Lead WHAT WOMEN DO (AND MEN TOO) NYC Reading Next Week

Popular television star Reg E. Cathey will lead the reading of William Youmans', grandnephew of acclaimed composer and producer Vincent Youmans, Off-Broadway bound production of WHAT WOMEN DO (and men too). This new play, directed by Don Stephenson, is a battle-of-the-sexes farce set in New York City.

The reading takes place on Thursday and Friday, February 26th and 27th, 2015 at 3PM at 150 Studios on West 46th Street in NYC and is open to the public by reservation only. For tickets, contact anewplayrsvp@gmail.com. Twenty lucky people will get to attend this reading.

Reg E. Cathey's recent role as Freddy Hayes in the Netflix original series House of Cards, earned him an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series. The third season premieres February 27th. He has starred in numerous popular television shows including The Wire, The Divide, Oz, and Law and Order. His film experience includes roles in American Psycho, and the upcoming Fantastic Four reboot. He also played the roll of Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding in a theatrical production of The Shawshank Redemption in London.

WHAT WOMEN DO (and men, too) is a madcap farce, set in contemporary New York City, in which two young men engage in a screwball game of seduction, each testing the fidelity of the other's fiancée. Explosions ensue, with verbal pyrotechnics, door slamming, and identities gone mad. The unexpected consequences prove that men and women are equal in the game of love - equally bad!

Reg E. Cathay leads the cast, which also includes Tina Benko (Titania in Julie Taymor's A Midsummer Night's Dream), Danaya Esperanza ("Elementary," CBS-TV), David Josefsburg, Nick Mennell, and Ashley Austin Morris. Daniel Neiden is the producer.

William Youmans (Playwright) is a long-time performer in the New York theatre scene and also studied playwriting with Austin Pendleton and Joanna Adler. His play Misperceptions was produced by Jon Jory at Actor's Theatre of Louisville, and at N.Y. Stage and Film. His musical, I Want To Be Happy, based on the life of his Great Uncle, Tea for Two composer Vincent Youmans was directed by Ted Sperling at Don't Tell Mama. Two other plays, Victoria's Secret and Closure were produced at T. Schreiber Studios in New York; as well as Fine Young Cannibals at NYU. His play, The Whittler, won third place in a national young playwright's competition, sponsored in part by Northlight Theater in Chicago.Youmans also appeared in the original Broadway casts of Wicked, The Little Foxes (Elizabeth Taylor revival), The Farnsworth Invention, La Boheme, Big River, Titanic, Pirate Queen, Finian's Rainbow (recent revival), Hands on a Hardbody, as well as in Billy Elliot, working with Des Macanuff, Doug Wright, Joe Mantello, Aaron Sorkin, Neil Pepe, Elizabeth Taylor, Lillian Hellman, Baz Luhrmann, Stephen Daldry, and many others. Youmans also worked on original Off-Broadway productions with Tony Kushner, Stephen Sondheim, Michael Greif, Julie Taymor, Kirsten Childs, Tina Landau, Michael John La Chiusa, Chen Szhi-jen, Leigh Silverman, David Greenspan, and others.

Don Stephenson (Director) has directed Titanic at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall The MUNY Opera, and The Hangar Theatre, Of Mice and Manhattan for the Millenium Stage at the Kennedy Center,and most recently, Vanya, Sonya, Masha, And Spike and Lend Me a Tenor at Paper Mill Playhouse. He also directed Deathtrap, Noises Off, and The 39 Steps at the Flat Rock Playhouse, and The Great Unknown for The New York Theatre Festival, the critically acclaimed productions of Oleanna, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and the hit musical comedy Doctors and Diseases at the historic Barter Theatre, Noises Off at Pittsburgh Public Theatre, And the World Goes Round at Bucks County, and The Cottage at Theatre Aspen. Other New York directing credits include Buck Simple (Garrick Gaities), When Pigs Fly ( Kaufman Theatre), Golden Voices (Symphony Space), Old Flames (Theatre Studio Inc.) and the workshop production of My Time of Day; The Letters , Lyrics , and Music of Frank Loesser, and Sleeping Beauty at The American Stage Festival. He will direct the upcoming production of Guys and Dolls at Goodspeed Opera House and Buyer and Cellar at Pittsburgh Public Theatre. As a performer, he played the D'ysquith family in the Tony Award winning A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder and starred as Leo Bloom in the Tony Award winning Broadway production of The Producers. He also performed in Rock of Ages, Private Lives, Dracula, Titanic, Parade, By Jeeves, The Bandwagon, Pardon My English and Wonderful Town.