Theater for the New City Presents QUARTET, Previews June 2

Theater for the New City (155 First Ave. at 10th St.) will present QUARTET -- four gay-themed one act plays written by Mario Fratti -- with previews beginning June 2 prior to an official press opening June 5. Stephan Morrow will direct.

QUARTET is comprised of the following plays:

ACTORS, a loving father has a secret
A.I.D.S., a doctor bribes a dying man's lover
DINA AND ALBA, about two women who love one another and an older lover who reappears
PIGGY BANK, a prostitute charms and dupes her clients

QUARTET follows Theater for the New City's production last fall of Mr. Fratti's TRIO, three short plays about sex, religion and politics. TRIO was directed by Stephan Morrow. Casting TBA.

Mario Fratti was born in Italy but has been living in New York since 1963. He is a drama critic and a playwright. He had a long run on Broadway with the musical NINE (adaptation of his play SIX PASSIONATE WOMEN, life of Fellini, film "8 1/2"). Most of his full-length plays (CAGE, VICTIM, E. DUSE, WHITE WIDOW, CHE GUEVARA, PINOCHET CHILE '73, REFRIGERATORS, BIRTHDAY, ACADEMY, SISTER, TERRORIST, LOVERS, IRAQ) have been performed in 19 languages. In New York, becoming aware of a m;yriad of very interesting theatrical situations, he fell in love with the one-act genre. "28 Unpredictable Plays" by Mario Fratti have been published by The New York Theatre Experience. (www.nyte.org)

Stephan Morrow is an actor and director who has labored in the trenches of non-commercial theater in New York and Los Angeles for over 25 years. He had a long collaboration with Norman Mailer performing in his play STRAWHEAD: A MEMORY PLAY OF MARILYN at The Actor's Studio and his film "Tough Guys Don't Dance." More recently he co-directed and acted in Mailer's "The Deer Park." He directed a production of INCIDENT AT VICHY at the request of Arthur Miller. Mr. Morrow is Artistic Director and founder of The Great American Play Series. He directed Mr. Fratti's TRIO last fall.

Scheduled through June 19, QUARTET will perform Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. Tickets are $15. Seniors and students at $10. Reservations at 212 254 1109. www.theaterforthenewcity.net.

In addition to TRIO last fall, Theater for the New City previously presented Mr. Fratti's plays THE ONLY GOOD INDIAN and CHILE-73.

Theater for the New City (TNC) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning community cultural center known for its high artistic standards and widespread community service. One of New York's most prolific theatrical organizations, TNC produces 30-40 premieres of new American plays per year, at least 10 of which are by emerging and young playwrights. Many influential theater artists of the last quarter century have found TNC's Resident Theater Program instrumental to their careers, among them: Sam Shepard, Moises Kaufman, Richard Foreman, Charles Busch (THE DIVINE SISTER), Maria Irene Fornes, Miguel Pi?ero and Academy Award-winners Tim Robbins and Adrien Brody. TNC also presents plays by multi-ethnic/multi-disciplinary theater companies who have no permanent home. Among the well-known companies that have been presented by TNC are Mabou Mines, The Living Theater, Bread and Puppet Theater, the San Francisco Mime Troupe and Cobu. TNC also produced the Yangtze Repertory Company's 1997 production of BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH, which was the only play ever produced in America by Gao Xingjian before he won the 2000 Nobel Prize for Literature. TNC seeks to develop theater audiences and inspire future theater artists from the often-overlooked low-income minority communities of New York City by producing minority writers from around the world and by bringing the community into theater and theater into the community through its many free festivals. TNC productions have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and over 40 OBIE Awards for excellence in every theatrical discipline. TNC is also the only Theatrical Organization to have won the Mayor's Stop the Violence Award. Samuel French has published Mark Morillo's ANGRY YOUNG WOMEN IN LOW-RISE JEANS WITH HIGH-CLASS ISSUES and ALL ABOUT THE MARRIAGE HEARSE, which each had runs at Theater for the New City. A scene from Crystal Field's new play LET IT GO is published in Applause Book's "The Best Women's Monologues for 21st Century."

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/WM Photos