National New Play Network Announces 36th Rolling World Premiere: RANCHO MIRAGE by Steven Dietz

The NATIONAL NEW PLAY NETWORK (NNPN), the country's alliance of non-profit theaters that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays, announces its 36th Rolling World Premiere: Steven Dietz's Rancho Mirage will receive four productions through the Network's Continued Life of New Plays Fund in the 2013/14 season. Rancho Mirage will begin its Rolling World Premiere at Olney Theatre Center (Olney, MD, September 26 - October 20, 2013), followed by performances at New Repertory Theatre (Watertown, MA, October 13 - November 3, 2013), Phoenix Theatre (Indianapolis, IN, October 24 - November 24, 2013), and Curious Theatre Company (Denver, CO, October 31 - December 7, 2013).

ABOUT THE PLAY
From one of America's most widely-produced playwrights (and a Rolling World Premiere alumnus for Yankee Tavern) comes a bitingly funny black comedy about what happens when the fictions that hold our lives together are exposed. In Dietz's sharp and surprising sojourn into the psyche of 2012 America -- where affluence is perhaps our greatest mirage - three couples, long-time friends, find themselves at a dinner party where everyone finally decides to tell the truth. What remains between us when our youth, our dreams, and our last bottle of wine is gone?

ABOUT Steven Dietz
Steven Dietz's thirty-plus plays have been seen at over one hundred regional theatres in the United States, as well as Off-Broadway and internationally. Mr. Dietz received the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays Award for both his Off-Broadway drama, Fiction, and his play for young audiences, Still Life with Iris. A two-time finalist for the Steinberg New Play Award (Becky's New Car, Last of the Boys), Mr. Dietz has also received the Edgar Award for Best Mystery Play for Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure; the PEN USA West Award in Drama for Lonely Planet; and an NNPN Continued Life of New Plays Fund for his conspiracy thriller, Yankee Tavern. Mr. Dietz and his family divide their time between Seattle and Austin, where he teaches playwriting and directing at the University of Texas.

ABOUT THE CONTINUED LIFE OF NEW PLAYS FUND
NNPN's flagship program, the Continued Life of New Plays Fund supports three or more theaters which choose to mount the same new play within a twelve-month period. The result is a Rolling World Premiere through which the playwright develops a new work with multiple creative teams, for multiple communities of patrons, ensuring the resulting play is of the highest possible quality. And with a minimum of three productions in a single year, the play attains the momentum it needs to join the repertoire of frequently-produced new American works. NNPN provides grants of $7,000 to the first three participating theaters in each Rolling World Premiere; to date, NNPN has championed the continued life of 35 new plays in over 100 productions, with over a quarter-million dollars in grants.

ABOUT OLNEY THEATRE CENTER
Olney Theatre Center, celebrating its 75th Anniversary in 2013, is an award-winning, nonprofit, Equity theatre. Located just north of Washington, D.C. in arts-rich Montgomery County, Maryland, Olney Theatre Center offers a diverse array of professional productions year-round. Olney Theatre Center is situated on 14 acres in the heart of the beautiful Washington-Baltimore-Frederick "triangle," within easy access of all three cities. Olney Theatre Center is home to the National Players, America's longest-running touring company and led by Artistic Director Jason Loewith and Managing Director Amy Marshall. For more information please visit www.olneytheatre.org.

ABOUT New Repertory Theatre
Now in its third decade, New Rep has established itself as one of Boston's premiere theatre companies. Celebrated for electrifying, compelling, and poignant productions, New Rep plays reflect our world and community and regularly explore ideas that have vital resonance in our lives--here and now. New Rep shows are provocative, intelligent, and entertaining.

ABOUT The Phoenix Theatre
The Phoenix Theatre is Indiana's only professional Contemporary Theatre, and has presented productions to challenge and entertain the Indianapolis community for 29 years. An Equity house, the Theatre presents the Midwest and Indiana premieres of many popular Broadway and Off-Broadway plays, and has presented more than 83 world premieres in its quarter century. The Phoenix Theatre is a member of the League of Indianapolis Theatres and is supported by the Indiana Arts Commission, the Arts Council of Indianapolis, and the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as local corporate and foundation funders and more than 400 individual donors.

ABOUT CURIOUS THEATRE COMPANY
Curious Theatre Company was founded by a group of artists who met 16 years ago while mounting Tony Kushner's Angels in America (produced by Hunger Artists) in the 19th-century church the theatre still calls home, a few blocks south of the Denver Art Museum and State Capitol. Known for bringing provocative new shows to Denver, Curious has received many awards over the years, including the 2011 Denver Post Ovation Award for Best Year by a Theatre Company, 5280 Magazine 2011 Top of the Town Editor's Choice for Best Theatre Company, and Westword's Reader's Choice for Best Theatre in 2012. Under the artistic leadership of Producing Artistic Director Chip Walton, Curious produces up to five mainstage shows per season, the award-winning Curious New Voices education program, the fun and innovative Denver Stories (honoring area luminaries) and myriad of events and interactions that extend and enrich the experience of our audiences.

ABOUT NNPN
The National New Play Network (NNPN) is the country's alliance of non-profit professional theaters that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays. Since its founding in 1998, NNPN has commissioned almost two dozen playwrights, provided nineteen MFA graduates with paid residencies, and supported nearly 150 productions nationwide through its innovative Continued Life of New Plays Fund, which creates "Rolling World Premieres" of new plays. Hundreds of artists have gained employment through these efforts in the dozens of regions of the country where NNPN member theaters are located. NNPN receives substantial support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, the Shubert Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. The Network is comprised of a relatively small group of Core Members, who pioneer and implement collaborative new play strategies, and a growing group of Associate Members, who disseminate the Network's programs and strategies nationwide.

NNPN's Core Member theaters are: Actor's Express Theatre (Atlanta), Actor's Theatre of Charlotte (Charlotte, NC), Borderlands Theater (Tucson), Curious Theatre Company (Denver), Florida Studio Theatre (Sarasota), Fountain Theatre (LA), Horizon Theatre Company (Atlanta), InterAct Theatre Company (Philadelphia), Kitchen Dog Theater (Dallas), Magic Theatre (San Francisco), Marin Theatre Company (Mill Valley, CA), Mixed Blood Theatre Company (Minneapolis), New Jersey Repertory Company (Long Branch), New Repertory Theatre (Watertown, MA), New Theatre (Coral Gables, FL), Orlando Shakespeare Theater (Orlando), Performance Network Theatre (Ann Arbor, MI), Phoenix Theatre (Indianapolis), Playwright's Theatre of New Jersey (Madison), Prop Thtr Group (Chicago), Riverside Theatre (Iowa City, IA), Salt Lake Acting Company (Salt Lake City), San Diego REPertory Theatre (San Diego), Southern Rep (New Orleans), Unicorn Theatre (Kansas City, MO), and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company (Washington, DC).

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