KC Rep's New Works Festival Begins 4/23

Marissa Wolf, Kansas City Repertory Theatre's Director of New Works, today announced additional programing and dates for KC Rep's new play festival, Origin KC. Origin KC offers audiences a unique experience to engage with the process of creating theater, and gives emerging and established writers the resources to develop plays for future seasons at KC Rep and beyond.

Concluding KC Rep's historic and succesful 2015-16 season, Origin KC: New Works Festival will feature two WORLD PREMIERES, Fire in Dreamland and Lot's Wife presented in rotating repertory April 23 through May 22 at KC Rep's Copaken Stage. The festival will include Theater Industry Professionals Weekend May 13-15 with staged readings by acclaimed national playwrights Larissa FastHorse, Christina Anderson, and Michelle T. Johnson.

KC Rep Artistic Director Eric Rosen says, "Placing the playwright at the center of the theater has been a lifelong pursuit, and in my seven years at the Rep, Kansas City has become an influential center for the development of new plays - not just at the Rep, but across our theater community. Origin KC was launched to build on the Rep's success and secure our position as a truly great theater town for writers and audiences. Partnerships with major theaters across the country will deepen and expand the impact of the Rep's artists on the national field, while deepening our commitment to the people of our region."

"I'm thrilled to welcome Kansas City audiences into the creation process of resonant new plays and musicals," says Marissa Wolf. "We're committed to building long term relationships with playwrights, from the seed of an idea through to production, supporting the creation of a contemporary cannon of exciting new American plays."

Origin KC New Works Festival

Kicking off Kansas City Rep's final season slot in the downtown Copaken Stage, Origin KC: New Works Festival brings together artists and audiences in a month-long spree of world premiere productions running in rep, alongside staged readings, round table discussions, and celebratory parties.

Festival Premieres in Rotating Rep: Lot's Wife and Fire in Dreamland

Fire in Dreamland written by celebrated playwright Rinne Groff (Saved!, Compulsion) and directed by KC Rep's Director of New Works Marissa Wolf. Moments after you've settled into your seat, this coming-of-age story grabs you with such intensity that you can't look away. A world premiere from celebrated playwright Rinne Groff (Saved!, Compulsion), it's the story of a young woman named Kate who is seduced by the vision of a Dutch filmmaker obsessed with the tragic 1911 fire on Coney Island. As past and present converge in this haunted, battered landscape, Kate must find a way to rebuild her own life amidst the ruins.

The ensemble cast, drawn from across the country, includes Bree Elrod as Kate (KC Rep: Roof of the World, Shutter Island, Dark Feed), Brian Huther as Lance (Mixology), and Gabriel Marin as Jaap (Rapture, Blister, Burn, and Mother** With the Hat). Lot's Wife, written by KC Rep's Artistic Director Eric Rosen and directed by Joanie Schultz, tells the story of Adam Mace, a promising playwright with a troubling past, who has written his first new play since the tragic death of his wife and infant child. Set as a 1930s noir thriller, the script opens old wounds between ex-friends and lovers as actors are made to play themselves, and even the dead take the stage to tell their side of the story in an epic meta-theatrical murder mystery that is both heartbreaking and hilarious.

The ensemble cast includes Adam Poss as Tom/Thomas (The Least Among You, Openings: The Search for Harry), Vanessa Severo as Thalia (Trivial, KC Rep: Roof of the World, August: Osage County), and Rusty Sneary as Adam Mace/Andrew (KC Rep: Roof of the World, Carousel, A Christmas Carol).

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