REASONS TO BE PRETTY Plays SpeakEasy Stage Company 3/4-4/2

From March 4 through April 2, 2011, SpeakEasy Stage will proudly present the New England Premiere of Neil LaBute's provocative drama reasons to be pretty.

Sparked by one man's offhand remark about his girlfriend's appearance, reasons to be pretty navigates the crumbling relationships of four young friends as they come to terms with their unfulfilling lives and question the American obsession with physical beauty.

The show, which was nominated for a 2009 Tony Award for Best Play, is playwright Neil LaBute's final installment in a loose trilogy of plays focusing on the modern-day obsession with physical appearance. SpeakEasy Stage also presented the Boston premieres of the other two plays in the series, Fat Pig and The Shape of Things.

Neil LaBute is a prolific American film director, screenwriter, and playwright praised for his terse, rhythmic, and highly colloquial works. His films include In the Company of Men, Your Friends and Neighbors, Nurse Betty and the recent Death at a Funeral. Among his many plays are The Distance from Here, The Mercy Seat, Some Girl(s), Wrecks, and In a Dark Dark House.

SpeakEasy Stage Company General Manager Paul Melone will direct the Boston premiere of reasons to be pretty having previously directed both Fat Pig and The Shape of Things for SpeakEasy. A native of Rhode Island and a graduate of Boston University, Mr. Melone was honored with a 2010 Elliot Norton for his direction of SpeakEasy's acclaimed production of Adding Machine: A Musical last spring.

Three exciting new Boston-area talents - Burt Grinstead, Andy MacDonald and Danielle Muehlen - will make their SpeakEasy debut with this production. Recent Norton Award nominee Angie Jepson (Honey in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf) rounds out the cast.

The design team includes Eric Levenson (scenic); Gail Astrid Buckley (costumes); Jeff Adelberg (lighting) and Rick Brenner (sound). Jayscott Crosley is the Production Stage Manager.

reasons to be pretty will play for five weeks, March 4 through April 2, in the Roberts Studio Theatre in the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont Street in Boston's South End.

Ticket prices range from $30-$55 with discounts for students, seniors and persons age 25 and under. For tickets or more information, the public is invited to call 617-933-8600 or visit www.SpeakEasyStage.com.