Daniel Talbott's slipping Named Finalist In 2011 Lambda Literary Awards

Playwright and artistic director of Rising Phoenix Rep Daniel Talbott has been named a finalist in the drama category for the 2011 Lambda Literary Awards, which were announced March 16th. Slipping is published by Dramatists Play Service and joins four remarkable plays in the category: The Brother/Sister Plays by Tarell Alvin McCraney (Theatre Communications Group), Lydia by Octavio Solis (Samuel French), Oedipus at Palm Springs: A Five Lesbian Brothers Play by Maureen Angelos, Dominique Dibbell, Peg Healey, & Lisa Kron (Samuel French), and With Bated Breath by Bryden MacDonald (Talonbooks).

Slipping premiered in Chicago at The Side Project directed by Adam Webster in a production that also traveled to the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival. It was then produced at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater in New York with Piece by Piece Productions directed by Kirsten Kelly and featuring Seth Numrich, MacLeod Andrews, Meg Gibson and Adam Driver (named one of the top 10 plays of 2009 by The Advocate), and has since been presented at Buffalo United Artists directed by Chris Kelly.

Lea DeLaria will host the 23rd Annual Lambda Awards on Thursday, May 26th in New York City at the School of Visual Arts. For tickets and more info please visit http://www.lambdaliterary.org/awards/. The event will honor, in addition to the finest LGBT writing, two major figures in the LGBT literary community: Val McDermid and Edward Albee, who will receive the 2011 Pioneer Awards.

Daniel Talbott's most recent work as an actor includes the Theatre for One project in Times Square and around NYC, The Merry Wives of Windsor (Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis), Master Builder (Irish Rep), Rocket City (Alabama Shakespeare Festival), Tartuffe (McCarter Theatre/Yale Rep), Marat/Sade (Classical Theatre of Harlem) and the feature films Pretty Bird and Dreaming American, and "The Big C" on Showtime. Recent directing work includes Keep Your Baggage With You (at all times) (Theater for the New City). His play Slipping was produced at Rattlestick with Piece by Piece Productions (named one of the top 10 plays of 2009 by The Advocate), premiered in Chicago at The Side Project, was part of the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival, and was published this year by Dramatists Play Service. He received a 2007 New York Innovative Theatre Award for directing, a Drama-Logue Award, two Dean Goodman Choice Awards and a Judy Award for acting, and was also named one of the 15 People of the Year 2006 by nytheatre.com. He is a member of MCC Theater's Playwrights' Coalition, of last year's 24Seven Lab, and of TOSOS. He is a graduate of Juilliard and of Solano College Theatre's ATP, and teaches at the Primary Stages Einhorn School of Performing Arts (ESPA). He is one of the literary managers of Rattlestick Playwrights Theater and the artistic director of Rising Phoenix Rep (recipient of the 2007 NYIT Caffe Cino Fellowship Award).

Founded in 1999 by Artistic Director Daniel Talbott, Rising Phoenix Repertory began by producing an ongoing reading series of new plays and has continued to add workshops, festivals, and highly praised productions of new plays. Recent productions include the Cino Nights series of new plays at the seventh Street Small Stage running through March 2012; the acclaimed, sold-out Off-Broadway runs of Slipping, produced with Piece by Piece Productions and Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, and Too Much Memory (also with Piece by Piece Productions) which transferred to the New York Theatre Workshop's Fourth Street Theatre after winning the FringeNYC award for Outstanding Play in 2008. Other recent productions include Ceremony, Afterclap, Birthday and Don't Pet the Zookeeper (Seventh Street Small Stage); 365 Days/365 Plays (Jimmy's No. 43 and The Public Theater); What Happened When (HERE Arts Center); Fall Forward (part of the Sitelines/River to River festival produced by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council); The Telling Trilogy (including The Ride, 2006 NYIT Award Nominee - Outstanding Original Short Script- Crystal Skillman), Rules of the Universe (Winner, 2007 NYIT Awards for Outstanding Original Short Script - Daniel Reitz and Director - Daniel Talbott), and Three Sisters (both at the Seventh Street Small Stage); Gift by Mark Schultz and Ponies by Mike Batistick (FringeNYC).