Mind the Gap Theatre Presents UNDER THE BLUE SKY

Mind The Gap Theatre will present the New York Premiere of David Eldridge's award winning play UNDER THE BLUE SKY (2001 Time Out Live Award for Best New Play in the West End; 2009 Theatregoers Choice Award for Best New Play), May 19-June 5 at The Kraine Theater (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Ave and Bowery). The production will be directed by Mind The Gap's Artistic Director, Paula D'Alessandris (The Cleric at 59E59; In The Pipeline at Manhattan Theatre Source) and will feature Richard Hollis*, Elizabeth Jasicki* (When Harry Met Sally in the West End; Abigail's Party at The New Group), Sarah Manton* (Dirty Dancing in the West End; The Coast of Utopia at the National Theatre in London), Christine Rendel*, Jonathan Tindle* (NYIT Award Nomination for Maud: The Madness; Helen Hayes Award nomination for Bed Among the Lentils), and StuArt Williams.

*Appearing courtesy of the Actors' Equity Association.

UNDER THE BLUE SKY is a darkly comic play about the tangled love lives of three seemly-unconnected couples, and what they each learn about the nature of love and friendship. Previously produced at the Royal Court Theater and the West End in London, The Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles, and the Williamstown Theatre Festival, Mind The Gap's production will mark the plays New York premiere.

" One of the best and most beautifully constructed plays to have emerged since the millennium." Paul Taylor, The Independent

"The bombs Eldridge drops in his triptych of interlinked relationships are of the more domestic kind... detonated with emotional precision and power -- and humor."
David Benedict, Variety

"Writer David Eldrige really shows what he's made of, poetically knitting themes of love unspoken and broken." Robert Gore-Langton, Daily Mail

The production, presented by Mind The Gap Theatre will play a three-week engagement at The Kraine Theater (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Ave and Bowery), May 19-June 5; Thursday through Saturday at 8pm with an additional performance Sunday, June 5 at 3pm. Tickets ($18/$15 students) may be purchased online at www.theatermania.com or by calling 1-866-811-4111.

David Eldridge (Playwright) is an award winning British playwrights, who's plays have previously been produced mainly in London. Theatre credits include: The Knot of the Heart (Almeida), Festen (Almeida, Lyric West End & Broadway); The Stock Da'wa, Falling (Hampstead); The Lady from the Sea (Royal Exchange, Manchester); A Thousand Stars Explode in the Sky (with Robert Holman & Simon Stephens, Lyric Hammersmith); Babylone (Belgrade Coventry); John Gabriel Borkman, The Wild Duck, Summer Begins (Donmar Warehouse); Market Boy (Olivier Theatre, National); Incomplete and Random Acts of Kindness, Under the Blue Sky (Royal Court & West End); MAD, Serving it Up (Bush); A Week With Tony, Fighting for Breath (Finborough); Thanks Mum (The Red Room); Dirty (Theatre Royal Stratford East); Cabbage for, Tea, Tea, Tea! (Platform 4 Exeter). Television credits include: Killers, Our Hidden Lives (BBC). Short Film credits include: The Nugget Run (Zig Zag Productions). Radio credits include: Michael and Me: Stratford, Ilford, Romford and all Stations to Shenfield; Festen; The Picture Man; Like Minded People; The Secret Grief (BBC). Under the Blue Sky won the Time Out Live Award 2001 for Best New Play in the West End and the 2009 Theatregoers Choice Award for Best New Play. David's play Festen also won the 2005 Theatregoers Choice Award for Best New Play.

Paula D'Alessandris (Director) is the Artistic Director and Founder of Mind The Gap Theatre (MTG). Favorite directing credits with Mind The Gap include the world premiere of The Cleric at 59E59 Theaters; Gary Owen's In The Pipeline; Workshops of: David Eldridge's Summer Begins and Under The Blue Sky; Dan Remmes' What Doesn't Kill Us; her stage adaptation of Gary Oldman's Nil By Mouth, and many others. She directed three consecutive winners at the Samuel French Festival (all of which have been published) and many pieces in MTG's popular BritBits series of short plays by, for or about the British. Favorite credits elsewhere include Walter Vs. The Water Authority at 59E59; her multiple-award-winning productions at the Pittsburgh New Works Festival of the outrageous comedies Stampede! and The Butter Bin; critical and commercial successes Love! Valour! Compassion! (in its Pittsburgh premiere), 'Night Mother, Extremities, Drinking in America, The Dumbwaiter; Locating The Plant (Irish Arts Center , NYC). Other work includes the audiobook Pilgrimage to the Rebirth.

MIND THE GAP THEATRE is New York's premiere Anglo-American theatre company dedicated to producing new British plays and creating an exchange of works between the US and UK.