Brave New World to Open New Works Staged Reading Series 10/13

Shannon Sindelar, producing artistic director of Brooklyn's acclaimed Brave New World Repertory Theatre (BNW),today announced the launch of New Works, a new initiative featuring staged readings of new plays by emerging Brooklyn playwrights. Four plays have been selected for staged readings during the season and the first one is Captain Mike, by Gary Winter.

New Works is designed to help the company deepen its commitment to Brooklyn artists, says Sindelar. "We'll be presenting the readings in diverse, environmentally-specific locations throughout Brooklyn. It's not often that readings are staged with this level of production-the potential of this series is pretty exciting because we're giving these projects enough support and freedom to try something, to explore new elements, but the pressure of a full production is not there at this point. Hopefully this will help us as a company to identify new collaborators we can perhaps pursue full productions with in the future."

Pulitzer Prize-winner David Lindsay-Abaire will serve as advisor to the playwrights involved in the program.

BNW's New Works program drew entries from more than 75 Brooklyn playwrights and of these, four were selected. The remaining three are: Tipoldemoder by Mark Sitko, to be directed by Sindelar;Honey Drop by Erin Courtney and #therevolution by Kristoffer Diaz.

Captain Mike is a comedy about the fine art of irresponsibility, as well as unintended consequences. Mike is owner/captain of a small charter boat on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Growing up is not part of the plan for Mike: his best friend Dr. Lenny is a street musician on the docks, and he and his ex-wife Eve are happily co-dependent and oblivious to the increasing danger signs of their daughter's erratic behavior. A seemingly minor incident at the docks triggers a series of events that tests the integrity of these relationships, and Mike's commitment to willful ignorance.

Gary Winter was a memberof now imploded OBIE Award winner 13P.

His plays include Cooler (The Chocolate Factory; defunkt theater); At Said (PS 122); Golem and Dead Reckoning (Cherry Lane Alternative); Ominous Bastard of Czsherpishnek (HERE); The Lake and Aeneas (The Flea); Jigsaw Nation (South Coast Rep). Readings/workshops at The New Group, The Long Wharf, Dixon Place, Jewish Play Project, Geva and EST.

I Love Neil LaBute was published in Shorter, Faster, Funnier: Comic Plays and Monologues (Vintage Books, summer 2011). See Dick and Jane Get Ready for School was published in 24 Gun Control Plays (No Passport Press, 2013). Gary helps organize Pataphysics, workshops for playwrights, at The Flea Theater. MFA-NYU.

Before settling in New York, Kristan Seemel was a freelance director on the West Coast for the better part of a decade. He is passionate about new American writing, directing premiers of The Electric Lighthouse by Ed Himes (The Flea), Mutt by Lava Alapai (Many Hats Collective) and The Verspiary by Matthew Zrebski (Stark Raving Theatre) as well as NW regional premieres of Carlos Murillo's Mimesophobia (Sand & Glass Productions) and The Long Christmas Ride Home by Paula Vogel (TheatreVertigo). Favorite revivals include The Threepenny Opera, The Duchess of Malfi (Brown/Trinity Rep), Hamlet (CoHo Productions) and Gertrude Stein's Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights (defunkt theatre-Portland Dramatic Critics Circle Award). In New York, Kristan has developed plays at Playwrights Horizons/Clubbed Thumb (Superlab), Target Margin and The Flea. He is also a proud member of the 2012/13 Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab and a Resident Director at The Flea where he is helming Mallery Avidon's Mary-Kate Olsen is in Love this fall. Kristan is a graduate oF Brown/Trinity Rep. www.kristanseemel.com

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