Caissie Levy, Lucy DeVito & More Set for PLAYWRIGHTS FOR A CAUSE 2015, 6/14

Major casting has have been announced for the 2015 Planet Connections Theatre Festivity's Playwrights For A Cause, set to take place at 7:30pm on Sunday, June 14, 2015 at the Sheen Center, located at 18 Bleecker Street. The evening, which will benefit the non-profit National Coalition Against Censorship, will showcase world premiere one-act plays by four acclaimed playwrights: Israel Horovitz's Breaking Phillip Glass and Erik Ehn's Her Speech, both directed by Planet Connections Theatre Festivity founder and PFAC Producing Artistic Curator Glory Kadigan; Halley Feiffer's A Play About New Mexico, directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch; and Neil LaBute's Mohammed Gets a Boner, directed by Marco Calvani.

This year's performers include Lucy DeVito (TV: Girls, Deadbeat, Alpha House); Caissie Levy (Fantine in the current revival of LES MISERABLES on Broadway); Arian Moayed (Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo - Tony and Drama League nominations, Theater World Award); Imran Sheikh (Hit and Match - Planet Connections Award Nominee -Outstanding Actor; Price for Freedom); Sharon Washington (The Scottsboro Boys on Broadway), John William Watkins (Punchdrunk's Sleep No More) and Frederick Weller (TV: In Plain Sight).

""I'm thrilled to be working with Planet Connections and Playwrights For A Cause for the 2nd year in a row," said Caissie Levy. "As a longtime fan of Israel Horovitz' work, I'm honored to be joining him again this year to help bring his incredibly thought-provoking new play to life."

The performances will be followed by a talkback with NCAC and all four playwrights. Speakers include this season's Planet Connections playwrights Cecilia Copeland, Kaela Mei-Shing Garvin, Michael Hagins, and Mark Jason Williams, regarding their work as artists and the importance of art as a tool for social justice. The event will be emceed by Planet Connections Literary Manager David Stallings and Planet Connections Music Festival Director Candice Fortin. The event concludes with an Opening Night Party which will also celebrate the 2015 Planet Connections Theatre Festivity, which begins June 15.

As previously announced, the Playwrights For A Cause creative team this year includes: Robin Carus (Casting Director), Aaron Gonzalez (Media/Video Design), Rachel Jacquin (Assistant Stage Manager & Rehearsal Stage Manager for A Play About New Mexico and Breaking Philip Glass), Jenna R. Lazar (Production Stage Manager), Dee Dee Katchen (Assistant Producer), Cheryl McCarron (Costume Design), Jacob Subotnick (Sound Design), Susan Tenney (Assistant Director/Rehearsal Stage Manager - Mohammed Gets a Boner and Her Speech), Bradley Wehrle (Scenic Design), Christopher Weston (Lighting Design), and Tyler Winthrop (Assistant to the Producers).

All proceeds from ticket sales for Playwrights for a Cause will benefit The National Coalition Against Censorship, a non-profit advocacy organization, whose mission is to promote freedom of thought, inquiry and expression and oppose censorship in all its forms. The Coalition formed in response to the 1973 Supreme Court decision in Miller v. California, which narrowed First Amendment protections for sexual expression and opened the door to obscenity prosecutions. Over 40 years, as an alliance of more than 50 national non-profits, including literary, artistic, religious, educational, professional, labor, and civil liberties groups, The Coalition has engaged in direct advocacy and education to support First Amendment principles. The Coalition is unique in that they are national in scope, but often local in approach, and works with community members to resolve censorship controversies without the need for litigation. www.ncac.org

Tickets for Playwrights for a Cause range from $35 to $100, and are available at planetconnections.org or by calling OvationTix at 866-811-4111.

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