Salt Pillar Productions Presents Reading of ADVENT by Montgomery Sutton

Salt Pillar Productions announces a public staged reading of Advent by Montgomery Sutton, directed by Emily Lyon. The cast features Dan Beaulieu, Laura Piccoli, and Montgomery Sutton. The one night only event will be held at 8pm on February 26, 2017 at Shetler Studios (244 w 54th St., 12th Floor). Tickets are free but limited and may be reserved in advance by sending an email to saltpillarproductions@gmail.com.

In Advent, two brothers trapped in the walk-in freezer of a rural superstore survive a supernatural cataclysm. One is tormented with anxiety and a rigid fixation on the arbitrary new rules of their world, while the other pushes further into the outside world fighting for a chance to rebuild. When a young woman collapses at their doorstep, loyalties from the old world begin to unravel as ambition, faith, and lust reignite repressed tragedies and threaten to shatter the fragile foundations of their new society.

Doors open for a pre-show reception at 7:15pm, and the reading is followed by a brief talkback.

Emily Lyon (director) is a Brooklyn-based director. New York Credits include: The Summoning (Hudson Guild Theatre), Sword and the Stone/The Tempest tour (Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival), Women of Williams County (MITF: Best Ensemble), Tennessee Williams' Interior: Panic (FringeNYC), Max Frisch's The Arsonists (DCTV Firehouse), "Pick Your Poison" (Pearl Theatre), Some of the Side Effects (United Solo: Best Premiere), #serials@The Flea, As You Like It (Geva Theatre Directing Fellow). Assisted: Rebecca Taichman (Old Globe), Michael Greif (Shakespeare in the Park), Rachel Chavkin (Yale Rep), Royal Shakespeare Company residency. Dramaturgy: NYTimes' Critics Pick - BEDLAM's Sense & Sensibility. Drama League Directing Fellow. SDC Associate. EmilyALyon.com

Montgomery Sutton (playwright, actor) has had plays developed, presented, or produced with the Kitchen Dog Theatre, Metropolitan Playhouse, The Aviary, and EBE Ensemble; Your Colonel enjoyed a sold-out run in the Metropolitan Playhouse's 2013 Founders Festival; Advent was a semi-finalist for the Eugene O'Neil National Playwrights Conference and received developmental readings with Kitchen Dog Theatre and The Aviary. Acting credits include Shakespeare's Globe in London, Off-Broadway with New York Classical Theatre, and with Cape Fear Regional Theatre, Florida Studio Theatre, Trinity Shakespeare Festival, Second Thought Theatre, Passion in Practice, Undermain Theatre, Theatre Three, Metropolitan Playhouse, Casa Manana, American Bard Theatre and in films including Trouble with Women (Rising Star Award, CIFF, 2014), Brute, Day 90, and Animals. BFA, NYU Tisch (Atlantic Theater Company); 2015 International Actors Fellowship (Shakespeare's Globe). Recognitions: D Magazine (Best Performances 2014, Booth); DFW Critics Forum Award (actor, Gruesome Playground Injuries); New York Innovative Theater Award nominee (actor, King Lear); Critical Rant & Rave (Best Actor 2015, Trinity Shakespeare Festival rep season). montgomerysutton.com

Dan Beaulieu (actor) is the co-founder and Artistic Director of Seven Stages Shakespeare Company in Portsmouth, NH. Previously Dan has worked with Passion in Practice, Actor's Shakespeare Project, Advice to the Players and Shakespeare Now in roles including Petruchio, Richard III, Hamlet, Cassius, Romeo, Lysander/Flute, Malcolm, Jaques, Friar Laurence, Benvolio, Mercutio, Chiron, Orsino, Ferdinand and Guildenstern. He has toured productions of Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth, Midsummer Night's Dream & Julius Caesar multiple times, presenting Shakespeare's work to over forty thousand students. Dan studied at the University of New Hampshire, Regents College in London and with Anna Smulowitz Acting Studio and is trained in LeCoq clowning and Lessac Voice & Movement. Dan has directed the American premiere of Being Shakespeare (a one man play written by Jonathan Bate), King Lear, Romeo & Juliet: The Remix, Much Ado About Nothing, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead. When not in classrooms advocating for the importance and immediacy of Shakespeare to contemporary audiences, he can be found doing high schoolers' homework for them as co-host of No Holds Bard (the Shakespeare Podcast Shakespeare Would Have Listened To*).

Laura Piccoli (actor) received her BFA from NYU Tisch. She trained at the Stella Adler Studio in New York, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, and Pig Iron Theatre in Philadelphia. New York credits include: Unhealthy (Battalion Theater Co.), Three Sisters (Harold Clurman Lab.), Othello (Kinetic Theater Ensemble). TV/film: Law and Order: SVU, Samantha Moonley's Greatest Feeling (Centerpiece Audience Award, NFFTY 2016), Skye, Day 90, Winter Rye (Official Selection, PBS Shorts Showcase 2015), Give Me a Sign. Upcoming: Tape (Shetler Studios, 3/30-4/9). lauracpiccoli.com

IN BRIEF:

Advent
by Montgomery Sutton
Sunday, February 26th, 2017
at Shetler Studios, located at 244 w 54th St. between 8th Avenue and Broadway

RSVP required, seats limited. Please email saltpillarproductions@gmail.com

Running-time is 2hr 10 minutes with an intermission.