Chalfant, Ireland, Etc. Set for Irish Rep Reading, 4/27

The Irish Repertory Theatre will host a New Works Reading Series to support new plays and emerging playwrights. The next of the free monthly staged readings is If You Imagine It So… by Ann Marie Healy. The reading is on Friday, April 27th at 3:30 PM, tickets are free, and the event is open to the public. An RSVP to 212-727-2737 is required.

The play will be read by Kathleen Chalfant (Spalding Gray: Stories Left To Tell, Wit), Colby Chambers (Dog Sees God, 'Tis Pity She's a Whore), Lynda Gravátt (King Hedley II, Miss Witherspoon), Marin Ireland (The Ruby Sunrise, Cyclone) and David Margulies (The Accomplices, All That I Will Ever Be).

If You Imagine It So … is "the story of a marriage through all its thorny truths and lies. Grace and Charles Travers learn to negotiate the narratives they once created about each other with the unexpected aspirations they now have for their lives. Their daughter Jinny is forced to examine her betrayal against her mother in light of a memory that refuses to be known. An unexpected neighbor forges a connection that only serves as a reminder of the fragility of chance, love and the will to live. In the end, love does not save the day. It only makes all it all that much harder to understand," according to Irish Rep notes.

Healy's play Have You Seen Steve Steven will be developed at the Sundance Theater Institute this summer followed by a production in September 2007 with the Obie-award winning theater company, 13P (directed by Anne Kauffman). Her play The Night That Roger Went to Visit the Parents of His Old High School Girlfriend recently premiered in the 2006 EST Marathon of One-Acts plays (directed by Andrew McCarthy). Now That's What I Call a Storm was the recipient of a workshop fellowship with MCC Theater (directed by Jo Bonney), and produced by Edge Theater Company, directed by Carolyn Cantor and featuring Marylouise Burke. Dearest Eugenia Haggis was developed at LAByrinth Theater's 2004 summer intensive and The Cape Cod Theater Project. Her writing is published through Samuel French, Smith & Kraus, Playscripts and in The Kenyon Review.

Kara Manning, Literary Manager, hopes that the reading series will "give playwrights, both emerging and more established, the invaluable opportunity to develop their new work in a supportive, safe environment and will also introduce some Irish playwrights, especially those who might not yet have the New York recognition they merit, to an American audience."

Additional readings are scheduled for Friday, May 25, Tuesday June 26, July 31 and August 28 and Friday, September 28, October 26, November 16 and December 14. All readings are at 3 PM unless otherwise noted and are located at The Irish Repertory Theatre (132 West 22nd Street).

Tickets are free and the reading is open to the public. Seating is limited.  RSVP by calling The Irish Repertory Theatre Box Office at (212) 727-2737.  For more information, visit www.irishrep.org.

Photo of Kathleen Chalfant by Genevieve Rafter-Keddy