Sean Christopher Lewis's DOGS OF RWANDA Gets NNPN Rolling Premiere This Season

National New Play Network, the country's alliance of nonprofit theaters that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays, announces Dogs of Rwanda by Sean Christopher Lewis as its 63rd Rolling World Premiere.

The play will receive four productions, kicking off at NNPN Core Member 16th Street Theater (Berwyn, IL, October 21-November 19, 2016), and followed by Phoenix Theatre (Indianapolis, IN, January 6-15, 2017), InterAct Theatre Company (Philadelphia, PA, June 3-18, 2017), and finishing up at Associate Member Out of Hand Theater (Atlanta, GA, September 29-November 19, 2017).

NNPN provides production support to the playwright and the partnering theaters, including assistance with the creation and the contracting of the premiere agreement, collaborative interactions between the theaters, and funds for the playwright's residency in each city to further develop the play.

This Rolling World Premiere is comprised of adventurous programming at each of the partner theaters. In the 16th Street Theater production, Mr. Lewis will perform Dogs of Rwanda with another of his works, Killadelphia. Phoenix Theatre and InterAct Theatre company are also presenting a "double feature" of sorts, scheduling their performances around their respective NNPN Rolling World Premiere productions of Will Sniders' How to Use a Knife. Out of Hand Theater's production of Dogs of Rwanda will be performed for the public in at least 14 private homes, at least 2 religious institutions, and over at least 1 weekend in a 99-seat theater in an underserved part of the Atlanta metro area.

1994. At 16 years of age, David found himself in Uganda as a church missionary. When he follows the girl of his dreams into the woods to help a Rwandan boy they've stumbled upon he enters a world from which he will never fully be able to escape. On the 20th anniversary of the genocide, he witnessed firsthand a book David wrote regarding his experiences that Spring arrives with a note from the Rwandan boy he once tried to save. "You didn't tell them everything," it says. "You didn't tell them everything." A dinner party story for the ages

Sean Christopher Lewis is an award-winning multimedia artist working in radio (This American Life) film (the award-winning These Hopeless Savages) comic books (Image Comics' Saints), and theater. As Artistic Director of Working Group Theatre, he has created and toured work across the United States, East Africa, Europe, and Canada winning the NEFA National Theatre Project Award, the National Performance Network Creation Fund Award, Rick Graf Human Rights Award, and been lauded in the NY Times and Huffington Post.

His plays and solo performances including Kiladelphia, Just Kids, Militant Language, and The Aperture have won the NNPN Smith Prize, the Kennedy Center's Rosa Parks Award, the William Inge Fellowship, the Barrymore Award, and have been produced at Baltimore Centerstage, Interact Theatre, Southern Rep, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Salt Lake Acting Company, Riverside Theatre, Actors Summit, Know Theatre, Sandglass Theatre, Hancher Auditorium, Redfern Performing Arts Center, and many more. He has participated in the NNPN MFA Playwrights Workshop at the Kennedy Center, and received an NNPN Rolling World Premiere for his play Manning Up. As an actor, he has worked Off Broadway, in film, and television. He continues to run Working Group and serves as the Artistic Director of NNPN Member Theater, Riverside Theatre in Iowa City, Iowa.

His play Black and Blue, about police brutality, recently premiered at Riverside Theatre and his comic book work continues this January with The Few from Image Comics.

Created to be a theater for people NOT going to the theater, 16th Street was founded in 2007 to serve and give voice to ALL in Berwyn's community: not just for some in our community, but for all. Dedicated to artistic excellence, professionalism (paying artists a decent wage), diversity, and affordability, 16th Street exists to encourage debate, discussion, and compassion amongst our community through the medium of intimate and diverse theater with the playwright as its central focus. 16th Street is a place where audiences are invited to experience not only their own stories but to experience their neighbors' stories and stories of "the other."

The Phoenix Theatre is Indiana's only professional Contemporary Theatre, and has presented productions to challenge and entertain the Indianapolis community for over 32 years. The Phoenix strives to expand the community's exposure to diverse topics and start conversations that lead to positive change; produce vital, engaging plays that deepen and expand our views of a shared humanity; and stimulate conversation and promote diversity via intimate, engaged, and wide-ranging theater. Additionally, the Phoenix aims to move the political bent of the community from the right to the center via theater, and create intimate theatre so powerful and engaging it sparks and leads Indiana's cultural conversation.

Founded in 1988, InterAct is dedicated to presenting new and contemporary plays that explore the political, social and cultural issues of our time. The company produces four plays annually, and is actively involved in the development of new plays, workshops, and playwright support, as well as cultivating prize-winning writers, championing world premiere work, and creating community partnerships.

Out of Hand Theater makes shows, games and public art, for venues including parks, homes, businesses and theaters. Through annual free public arts events and original works, we embrace new audiences, celebrate community, and create moments of mass intimacy. We collaborate with scientists, artists, businesses, schools and civic organizations to create events reflecting their work, we train others to unlock their creativity and to innovate, and we bring free public art to thousands of people every year.

National New Play Network (NNPN) is the country's alliance of non-profit professional theaters dedicated to the development, production, and continued life of new plays. Since its founding in 1998, NNPN has supported more than 200 productions nationwide through its innovative National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere program, which provides playwright and production support for new works at its Member theaters. Additional programs - its annual National Conference, National Showcase of New Plays, and MFA Playwrights Workshop; the NNPN Annual and Smith Prize commissions; its residencies for playwrights, producers, and directors; and the organization's member accessed Collaboration, Festival, and Travel banks and online information sessions - have helped cement the Network's position as a vital force in the new play landscape. NNPN also strives to pioneer, implement, and disseminate ideas and programs that revolutionize the way theaters collaborate to support new plays and playwrights. Its most recent project, the New Play Exchange, is changing the way playwrights share their work and others discover it by providing immediate access to information on more than 9,500 new plays by living writers. NNPN's 30 Core and more than 75 Associate Members - along with the more than 150 affiliated artists who are its alumni, the thousands of artists and artisans employed annually by its member theaters, and the hundreds of thousands of audience members who see its supported works each year - are creating the new American theater. nnpn.org

Dogs of Rwanda show art courtesy of 16th Street Theater