Staged Reading of FAMILIAR STRANGERS Set for Planet Connections Theatre Festivity

Award-winning playwright Lynda Crawford's new play Familiar Strangers will have a staged reading at Planet Connections Theatre Festivity on Wednesday, July 6th at 1:30 pm followed by a talk-back. The play was inspired by the book Stranger to the System: Life Portraits of a NYC Homeless Community (Curbside Press) by Jim Flynn. The reading is directed by Terry Greiss, who is the co-founder of Irondale Ensemble Project.

Familiar Strangers follows Nelson Hall's journey on the streets of Tomkins Square Park, where Nelson has been living "homeless by choice," along with several other denizens of the park who are there without much choice.

The cast features Dennis Carnegie, Jerry Chapa, Meredith A. Cody, Colleen Cosgrove, Marie Louise Guinier, Shashone Lambert, David Logan Rankin, Donnell E. Smith, and Peter Zielinski.

The reading takes place at the Paradise Factory, Upstairs Theater, 64 East 4th Street (F train to 2nd Avenue). Benefiting: Coalition for the Homeless.

More info is available at www.planetconnections.org. The reading is free and open to the public. To reserve tickets, go to planetconnections.org/2016-full-productions/2016-staged-readingsfamiliar-strangers.

Playwright Lynda Crawford's plays include PILLOW OF TEARS, performed in the In Her Name Festival in April 2016 and at the Women Playwrights International Conference at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, July 2015; THE AUDIT, presented at EAT's New Work Series, October 2015; STRANGE RAIN, showcased in FringeNYC 2013 and awarded Overall Excellence in Playwriting; A PROCESSION OF CLOUDS, showcased in the Unchained Festival 2013 and tied for Audience Favorite; CONSUMER BEHAVIOR (co-written with Gary Kupper), showcased at FringeNYC 2002 and the recipient of a Playwrights' Project grant from Abrons Arts Center in 2000 and 2001; SECRETS OF THE BIRDS, a finalist in the 2006 Samuel French Short Play Festival; and HOWARD INK!, a finalist in the John Gardner Play Competition 2007, and produced in the Harvest Festival in 2013. Several of Lynda's plays have been published at Indie Theatre Now. Lynda is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the K/Q Collective, the League of Independent Theater, and the League of Professional Theatre Women. She leads the Playwriting Lab at SUNY/Empire State College in Manhattan, and she will be teaching a playwright workshop in Theatre and Social Change at NYU this fall.

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