Guthrie to Present Reading of Carlyle Brown's DOWN IN MISSISSIPPI

In collaboration with the Playwrights' Center, the Guthrie will present a reading of Down in Mississippi on Monday, January 19 in the Dowling Studio. This new play by Carlyle Brown is presented as part of a two-year collaboration between the Guthrie and the Playwrights' Center, and is one of 10 works developed through the Ruth Easton New Play Series. Tickets for the one-night-only reading are $10 and are now on sale through the Guthrie Box Office at 612.377.2224, toll-free 877.44.STAGE, 612.225.6240 (Group Sales) and online at www.guthrietheater.org.

A gospel play with music, Down in Mississippi explores the heart of the Civil Rights Movement, as three college students - an African-American man, a white woman and a white man - travel to the dangerous world of Mississippi in 1964 to register Negro voters. Along the way, they discover that they have to change themselves in order to change the world. Down in Mississippi was commissioned by the Department of Theatre in the School of Fine Arts and the Center for American & World Cultures at Miami University of Ohio.

The reading will be followed by a panel discussion moderated by Playwrights' Center Producing Artistic Director Dr. Polly K. Carl. Several project collaborators will participate, including playwright Carlyle Brown, director Noel Raymond, dramaturg Elissa Adams and Dr. Ann Elizabeth Armstrong from Miami University of Ohio.

A Minneapolis-based writer/performer, Brown is the artistic director of Carlyle Brown & Company, which has produced The Masks of Othello: A Theatrical Essay, The Fula From America: An African Journey and Talking Masks. His plays include The African Company Presents Richard III, The Little Tommy Parker Celebrated Colored Minstrel Show, Buffalo Hair, The Beggars' Strike, The Negro of Peter the Great, Pure Confidence, A Big Blue Nail and others. He has received commissions from Arena Stage, the Houston Grand Opera, The Children's Theatre Company, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Goodman Theatre, Miami University of Ohio and the University of Louisville. Brown is a 2008 Guggenheim Fellow, and has been recipient of playwriting fellowships from the New York Foundation of the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, McKnight Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board, Jerome Foundation, Theatre Communications Group and the Pew Charitable Trust. He has been the artist-in-residence at New York University School of the Arts Graduate Acting Program, The James Thurber House in Columbus, Ohio and Ohio State University Theater Department, where he directed this music drama Yellow Moon Rising.

About the Ruth Easton New Play Series
The Rush Easton New Play Series is one of America's leading developmental resources for playwrights. It pays for collaborators' time, flies the playwright's choice of artists to Minneapolis, pays for accommodations and supports public presentations with full-house audiences in its theater. Each writer receives a fully funded "dream team" workshop, culminating in a public reading designed to "field test" each play before an audience. In addition, the Center regularly flies leading artistic directors from producing theaters across the country to these readings, in hopes of fostering what it calls a "love connection" that will lead to the play's production.

About the Playwrights' Center
The Playwrights' Center champions playwrights and plays to build upon a living theater that demands new and innovative works. Founded in 1971 by a handful of playwrights seeking support of their work, the Center has since served 5,000 writers and put over $10 million in the hands of playwrights. Its major program areas include over $800,000 annually in fellowships, residencies, and workshops; a year-round R&D lab for new plays; a New Plays On Campus program serving the nation's college theater community; and a national career development program serving over 700 writers. In addition, the Center makes new plays accessible to the nation's theater community with writer profiles and downloadable script samples, available at the completely redesigned www.pwcenter.org.

About the Guthrie
The Guthrie Theater, founded in 1963, is an American center for theater performance, production, education and professional training. The Guthrie is dedicated to producing the great works of dramatic literature, developing the work of contemporary playwrights and cultivating the next generation of theater artists. Led by Director Joe Dowling since 1995, the Guthrie opened a new three-theater home on the banks of the Mississippi River in Minneapolis in June 2006.

The Guthrie is located at 818 South 2nd Street (at Chicago Avenue), in downtown Minneapolis. To purchase tickets or season subscriptions call the Guthrie Box Office between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. daily at 612.377.2224 or toll-free 877.44.STAGE. For more information, or to purchase tickets online, visit www.guthrietheater.org.