New Play CHATTING WITH THE TEA PARTY to Open in January at Robert Moss Theater

CHATTING WITH THE TEA PARTY, a documentary-style play by playwright Rich Orloff (Funny as a Crutch), based on interviews he conducted with leaders of Tea Party groups around the country, will have its world premiere and begin performances at The Robert Moss Theater (440 Lafayette Street, 3rd floor) on Saturday, January 30th. Directed by four-time Carbonell Award winner Lynnette Barkley, the play will open Monday, February 1st at 7pm. Tickets are $18 and can be purchased online at www.chattingwiththeteaparty.com.

A finalist for the Woodward/Newman New Play Award and the NuVoices New Play Prize,
CHATTING WITH THE TEA PARTY is about people as much as politics. Driven by a desire to figure out, "Who are these people?", Orloff ventured where no New York liberal playwright has gone before. Over two years, he attended more than 20 Tea Party events and collected over 60 hours of interviews with the local leaders, constantly surprised (and at times stunned) by what he experienced. Developed through readings at 15 theaters across the country, CHATTING WITH THE TEA PARTY now gets its world premiere. Nothing the Tea Party people in the play say has been made up.

Featured in the cast are John E. Brady (Newsies the Musical and The Lion King on Broadway), Maribeth Graham (two-time Carbonell Award winner) and Richard Kent Green (the title role in Einstein Off-Broadway) - who all play a variety of Tea Party people, liberals, and political and historical figures - and Jeffrey C. Wolf, who plays a New York playwright who has no idea what he's getting into. The set and lights are designed by Nick Francone, with costumes designed by Orli Nativ, and projections designed by Paul Girolamo.

RICH ORLOFF (playwright) began his writing career as a reporter, and his articles and essays have appeared in such newspapers and magazines as Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, Cosmopolitan, The Dramatist and Adult Video. The journalistic streak often shows in his comedies, in which dismantling stereotypes, prejudices and assumptions often takes center stage. Orloff is the author of 15 full-length plays, including the documentary-style Vietnam 101: The War on Campus, which has had 30 productions across the United States. His 2008 comedy Funny as a Crutch was a New York Times Critic's Pick. His other plays have won such accolades as the Pickering Award for Playwriting Excellence, the Auricle Award, the Abeles Foundation Award, and the Maxim Mazumdar New Play Prize. Orloff's short comedies have been published in numerous anthologies, including seven times in the annual Best American Short Plays. www.richorloff.com

LYNNETTE BARKLEY (director) is a four-time Carbonell Award winner. Since working alongside Tommy Tune in the development of the Broadway musical My One And Only, Lynnette has directed, choreographed and developed a myriad of plays and musicals from Off-Broadway, national tours and regional theater to corporate videos. Off-Broadway credits include Leave It To Jane, Dinner At Eight, Gifts of the Magi and The Road To Hollywood. Regional theaters include Florida Stage, Gateway Playhouse, American Stage and TheatreFest. Most recently, she directed Les Liaisons Dangereuses and
A Little Night Music for Palm Beach DramaWorks.

The playing schedule for CHATTING WITH THE TEA PARTY is as follows: Saturday, January 30 at 8PM; Sunday, January 31 at 3PM; Monday, February 1 at 7 pm (Opening Night); and then Thursdays at 7PM, Fridays and Saturdays at 8PM, and Sundays at 3PM. The limited engagement runs through Sunday, February 21st.