Keen Company Announces 2013 Keen Teens Festival of New Work

Keen Teens, the educational Theatre Partnership between Off-Broadway's Keen Company and the theatrical publishing company Samuel French, has selected the writers for the program's seventh season: Jonathan Caren, Madeleine George, and Anna Moench, who have been commissioned to write thirty-minute, large cast plays, which will be produced with student actors Off-Broadway.

This year's Keen Teens Festival of New Work will offer The Dance Company by Jonathan Caren, directed by Kel Haney; Flip Turn by Madeleine George, directed by Larissa Lury; and A Polar Bear In New Jersey by Anna Moench, directed by Shelley Butler. Performances will be at the Lion Theatre at Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street, between 9th & 10th Avenues): Friday, May 3rd at 8pm, Saturday, May 4th at 4pm & 8pm and Sunday, May 5th at 2pm & 5pm. All tickets are $15 and available at www.telecharge.com, by calling 212/239-6200 or in person at the Theatre Row Box Office.

Keen Teens is a unique educational theatre program which seeks to improve the quality of plays written for high school students by commissioning scripts from highly regarded professional writers. Playwrights write plays 30 minutes in length that involve a large cast and also reflect Keen Company's mission of producing plays that are generous in spirit and provoke identification. The plays are performed by high school students from across the tri-state area, as part of a free program which allows students an immersive experience in new play production. The productions are all designed and directed by theatre professionals, allowing the students a unique opportunity to work alongside some of the most talented emerging artists working in New York today. Samuel French, Inc. then publishes the plays, which have already garnered over 176 performances around the globe.

In its first six seasons, Keen Teens produced plays by Courtney Baron, Barton Bishop, Bekah Brunstetter, Bathsheba Doran, Anton Dudley, Liz Flahive, Marcus Gardley, Jason Grote, Naomi Iizuka, Greg Kotis, Mike Lew, Cheri Magid, Winter Miller, Michael Mitnick, Janine Nabers, Qui Nguyen, Ryan Pavelchik, Jenny Schwartz, and Kathryn Walat

Jonathan Caren's plays have been developed with Manhattan Theater Club, The Old Globe, The Old Vic, The Ensemble Studio Theater, The Flea, Rattlestick, New York Stage and Film, Ars Nova, The Lark and Partial Comfort Productions amongst others. In 2012, his play The Recommendation premiered at The Old Globe in San Diego. He wrote for the CW's "Melrose Place" before heading back to New York to attend Juilliard as a playwright. Member: Partial Comfort. The Dance Company is about three former jocks that infiltrate an all-girl high school dance company.

Madeleine George writes books and plays. Her two novels: Looks and The Difference Between You And Me, were published by Viking Children's Books. Her plays The Zero Hour, Precious Little, and Seven Homeless Mammoths Wander New England have been developed and produced at theaters across the country. She's a founding member of the Obie-winning playwrights' collective 13P (Thirteen Playwrights, Inc.), and a resident playwright at New Dramatists. Her play Flip Turn fantastically blends the under and above water worlds at a public pool, when an ordinary day calls for extraordinary feats of daring and trust.

Anna Moench is a Jerome Fellow at the Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis and a Van Lier Fellow at the Lark Play Development Center in New York City. Her plays have been seen at the Old Vic, 59E59, Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Flea, and Dixon Place. Anna has developed plays with The Public Theater, The Lark, the Sewanee Writers' Conference, and The Inkwell. Anna has been a member of the 2011 Emerging Writers Group at The Public Theater and Youngblood at Ensemble Studio Theatre. For Keen Teens, Anna wrote A Polar Bear In New Jersey, about a teenage polar bear setting out on her own...to New Jersey. A play that's a little bit about global warming, but mostly about fitting in when you're different.

"Keen Teens is an amazing program, which provides great opportunities for everyone involved. The outstanding playwrights that Keen Company and Samuel French commission give students material that is more artistically challenging and personally meaningful than many of the plays often performed by high school students. The actors for all of the plays this year are smart, talented, full of creativity and bring themselves into the room honestly and fully in a way that is really unique for a group of teenagers. At the same time, Keen Teens offers playwrights the opportunity to write for large casts, and for guaranteed performance and publication. The plays are interesting, engaging, and each ask a lot of the performers in very different ways. I look forward to seeing how these plays grow over the next several weeks, and can't wait to share them with audiences," said Larissa Lury, Keen Teens' Program Director.

"It's in keeping with Samuel French's long term tie to theatre and education that we are particularly proud to be associated with the Keen Teens' program. High School students are afforded the opportunity to act alongside professional director and designers in an effort to bring the vision to life of material expressly written for them by the three commissioned professional playwrights," added Abbie Van Nostrand, Director of Marketing for Samuel French.

Jonathan Silverstein, Artistic Director of Keen Company, said "I am so proud to continue Keen Teens, Keen's unique educational program. This year we are working with three talented writers who have written inspiring plays for our diverse group of students to premiere Off Broadway in May. We are thrilled to welcome aboard Samuel French, Inc as our new publishing partner. With Samuel French's strong roots in the educational community, we hope the plays we premiere will be produced by more high schools across the country and abroad.

For more information, go to http://www.keencompany.org/teens.html

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