WorkShop Theater Company will Present ACT-SO Evening of Theatre June 2nd-11th

By: May. 26, 2005
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The WorkShop Theater Company will hold its 6th annual ACT-SO Evening of Theater on June 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 9th, 10th and 11th at 8 PM.

The evening, which is presented in affiliation with NAACP NYC Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics (ACT-SO), will feature the critically-acclaimed ACT-SO Theater Ensemble as talented high school students throughout New York City perform adaptations of published works, monologues, Slam poetry, and other original works by the ACT-SO scholars. The ACT-SO Evening of Theater is conceived and directed by Willie Ann Gissendanner, ACT-SO drama coach and long time member of the WorkShop Theater Company.

The Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics (ACT-SO) is a major youth initiative of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Founded in 1978, by renowned author and journalist, Vernon Jarrett, ACT-SO provides a forum through which African-American youth demonstrate academic, artistic and scientific prowess and expertise, thereby gaining the same recognition often only reserved for entertainers and athletes. A year-long enrichment program designed to recruit, stimulate, improve and encourage high academic and cultural achievement among African-American high school students, the ACT-SO program centers around the dedication and commitment of community volunteers and business leaders; to serve as mentors and coaches to promote academic and artistic excellence among African-American students.

Now in its 11th year, the WorkShop Theater Company specializes in the development of new plays, and also nurtures the talents of actors, playwrights and directors with the presentation of readings and workshops as well as fully staged plays, musicals and multi-media productions. The company's two-theater complex on 36th Street includes the 65-seat Main Stage Theater and the 35-seat Jewel Box Theater. Last year's award-winning film, Finding Neverland, began as the stage play The Man Who Was Peter Pan by Allan Knee, presented by the WorkShop Theater Company in 1998. The WorkShop has also presented premiere productions of the plays Angel Wings by Murray Schisgal (who is best known for Luv and the screenplay of Tootsie) and 1348 by Tom Dulack (author of the Off-Broadway hit Breaking Legs).

The WorkShop Theater Company will also premiere Linda Segal Crawley's Pineapple and Henry, directed by Scott C. Sickles; it will run from June 17th to July 9th. "From the jazz era to the present day on the same street corner in Brooklyn, local denizens struggle to attain control of their lives while looking for love in the wrong places," states a press release.

The WorkShop Theater is located at 312 West 36th Street, on the 4th floor, between 8th and 9th Avenues.

Tickets to the ACT-SO Evening of Theater, which are $10, can be reserved by calling 212-695-4173. ext. 1

For more information, visit www.workshoptheater.org


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