ORVILLE STATION Reading Set for the Dramatists Guild Tonight

Impetus Ensemble presents a staged reading of Orville Station tonight, February 7, 2014 at 7:30PM at the Dramatists Guild, in the Frederick Loewe Room, 1501 Broadway (off 44th St), Suite 710, NYC. Admission is free. The cast includes: Francesco Andolfi (Dorian Gray), Matthew Crooks (Vatican Falls), Cali Gilman (The Mad Ones), JC Haro (Beyond Therapy). With Carlotta Brentan (One Day Like This, written & directed by Neil LaBute).

Orville Station delves into the dark, festering world that lies beneath the picture-perfect suburban towns in America where boredom and false promises of a better life have left some folks feeling "cheated and betrayed," to quote Nathanael West from The Day of the Locust.

Lenny is a 25-year-old screenwriter wannabe who has completed one script that was met with universal rejection. He and his two friends travel to NYC each weekend to alleviate some of the dullness of life in the (fictional) town of Orville, NJ. Orville happens to have the dubious distinction of most train deaths per year-usually suicides-in the Garden State (stats are based on a real North Jersey town). Into their complacent lives burrows the mysterious Chizzy who convinces Lenny that he must do, "something drastic" if he ever wants to succeed as a writer.

Orville Station examines the fear and anxiety that comes with potential change. Dreaming is safe but actively pursuing that dream can often provide the ultimate terror.

Orville Station marks Frank J. Avella's 17th full-length play. Vatican Falls, set against the backdrop of the Catholic sex abuse scandal, was a semifinalist for the 2013 Newborn Festival and received Special Mention at the 2013 O'Neill. Consent, a play that confronts bullying and homophobia, was a 2012 semifinalist for the O'Neill NPC. Frank has also written Nemesis, The Mad Ones, Screw the Cow and Less Than 2 Degrees. Produced stage works include: Greener, The Bubble, Iris, Lexy, Michael's #1 Fan, 3 Cains and Unhinging. Upon reviewing IRIS in 2005, the Cincinnati Post wrote: "Avella's plays tend to send earthquakes through his audience's comfort zones." An NYU's Tisch Grad alum, Frank is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild.