Julie Halston and Patrick Kerr Lead Wild Root's THE BEAST IN MY PANTS Industry Readings Today

The Wild Root Company, a New York City-based production endeavor committed to the development of new work from emerging playwrights and screenwriters, will present two industry readings of rising playwright Jonathan Kravetz's hysterical farce The Beast in My Pants. The readings will be held today, April 17, 2014 at 3:00 and 8:00 pm at The Creative Center at Manhattan Theatre Club. Jessi D. Hill (Associate Artistic Director of terraNOVA Collective) will direct. Sean Hudock will produce the readings.

The Beast in My Pants cast will feature Off Broadway Alliance "Legend of Off Broadway" winner and three time Drama Desk nominee Julie Halston (Charles Busch's The Tribute Artist, The Divine Sister; Broadway's Twentieth Century, Anything Goes, TV's "Sex and the City") Patrick Kerr (Stage Kiss at Playwrights Horizons, Broadway's The Ritz, TV's "Frasier"), Helen Hayes-nominee Chris Dinolfo (The Normal Heart at Arena Stage), Jay Leibowitz (The Acting Company), Jennifer Diaz and Elaine Stenson. Casting is by Darragh Garvey.

Hailed as a "sexy, erudite farce" by CriticalRant.com, The Beast in My Pants is an exhilarating new comedy that follows the romantic vicissitudes of six outrageous characters: Marlon, an innocent flasher, who loves Pam; she loves the arrogant psychotherapist Adam Applebaum, because she can only love a genius. Applebaum loves Steve, the cop, who wants to win his wife's affections. But Flame, Steve's wife, can only love men who don't respect her. Marlon's mother, the homicidal Mrs. Rivington tries to protect her son from the world. The Beast rules all.

Kravetz's other works include Prayer (Nouveau 47), Better Lucky Than Smart (Manhattan Theatre Source), and Insomnia, a 2013 semi-finalist for the Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference. He is a founding member of the Writers Forum at Manhattan Theatre Source.

The Creative Center at Manhattan Theater Club is located at 311 West 43rd Street in Manhattan. A handful of seats remain for the free readings. Industry folk who wish to attend may contact wildrootcompany@gmail.com or visit www.WildRoot.org for reservations.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride