Williams' Play Surgery Runs at MITF, July 18-Aug. 5

Surgery, a new comedy by Karin Diann Williams has announced dates as part of the Midtown International Theatre Festival.  Opening is set for July 18, 2006 at the WorkShop Theater and performances will continue through August 5.

Stuart Hynson Culpepper is set to direct Surgery, which was a semi-finalist for the 2001 Chesterfield Writers Fellowship and the Stageplays.com Best Play 2001 Award and was last seen in Boston's Theatreworks 2002 BTW Unbound Festival.  This marks the New York City debut for the play.  It will be presented as the inaugural production of Culpepper/Williams LLC.

The cast includes Debra Kay Anderson (Ruthy), Ian Jarvis (Jack), David McDaniel (Frank), Melissa Miller (Thea), Katherine Puma (Zara), Laura L.C. Smith (Laney), Kira Sternbach (Ripley) and Joe Wachowski (Zed).

Surgery is "the story of a young woman whose impending wedding spurs a search for the birth-parents she's never met.  Instead of uncovering her roots, she encounters a birth-father whose recent brain surgery has wiped out most of his memory.  In the wake of their darkly comic reunion, two families are left to grapple with shifting roles, new relationships, and ghosts from a largely fictional past," according to press notes.

Williams is a playwright and screenwriter whose work has been produced and published internationally.  San Diego's Fritz Theatre (where she served as Playwright-In-Residence from 1992-2001) staged her plays Australia, Room, Susan Katrina and Jill, The Hatchet, Quiz, and The Third Voice of the Nightjar.  In NYC, her work has been produced by The Looking Glass Theater, the Gertrude Stein Repertory Theatre Digital Performance Institute, This Woman's Work Theater Company, Art House Productions, Blue Box Productions, Muse of Fire Theater, and the Strawberry One Act Festival, among others.

The performance schedule is as follows: Tuesday July 18 at 8:30 p.m., Sunday July 23 at 9:45 p.m., Saturday July 29 at 5:15 p.m., Monday July 31 at 8:30 p.m., Friday August 4 at 6:15 pm and Saturday August 5 at 3:15 p.m.  The WorkShop Theater is located at 312 West 36th Street on the 4th Floor in New York City.  Tickets are available at www.smarttix.com or by phoning (212) 868-4444.

Visit www.culpepperwilliams.com or www.fringenyc.org for more information.