RLTP’s Season To Spotlight Gurney, O'Neill And More

Road Less Traveled Productions (RLTP) today announced its 2011-2012 season; the selections underscore RLTP's commitment to new plays, local playwrights, and high-profile contemporary dramas of outstanding merit. Highlights include a one-man show starring Buffalo theatre legend Vincent O'Neill, a high-powered team-up of Artie Award winners Darryl Schneider, Derek Campbell, and John Fredo, and an onstage appearance by renowned playwright and Buffalo native A.R. Gurney.

RLTP will launch its season with the world premiere of Shaun McLaughlin's Internal Continuity, an offbeat romantic comedy about three overgrown misfits attempting to enter the adult world of dating. McLaughlin is an Emmy Award winning television writer; the playwas developed through RLTP's Emanuel Fried New Play Workshop. RLTP Executive Director Scott Behrend will direct a cast that includes RLTP Resident Actor Bob Grabowski as well as Matt Witten, star of the 2010 RLTP/Curtain Up! hit comedy, The Couple Next Door.

Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Tracy Letts' most recent offering, Superior Donuts, will make its Western New York debut in the second season slot. RLTP's Behrend said that the comedy/drama, about a struggling diner in a scrappy inner-city neighborhood, should "strike a chord with Western New York audiences through its refreshing themes of hope, nostalgia, diversity, and redemption."

The third show of the season will bring Irish Classical Theatre Company Founder and Artistic Director Vincent O'Neill to the RLTP stage for the first time in Conor McPherson's one-man show, St. Nicholas. In the play, O'Neill will portray an alcoholic theatre critic who uncovers a secret community of vampires - yes, vampires. Said Behrend, "The undead are really hot right now, and Vincent O'Neill is always in season..."I couldn't be more jazzed to have him join us for this macabre and darkly funny play."

Early 2012 will see a winning creative team return to the Road Less Traveled Theater to work its magic on a world-premiere play by RLTP Resident Playwright Darryl Schneider. Clean Break reunites Derek Campbell and John Fredo, director and star of the 2010 Artie Award Outstanding Production of a Play, The Goat; Or, Who Is Sylvia? The play focuses on Fredo's character, an inveterate gambler, as he fights to salvage his relationship with his daughter. Schneider won the 2007 Artie for his critically acclaimed drama War Room.

The season will close with RLTP's annual American Theatre Masters series, which, in 2012, coincides with the final installment of RLTP's three-year A.R. Gurney cycle. Gurney will be the 2012 American Theatre Master and the play will be Ancestral Voices, a semi-autobiographical family drama set in 1940s Buffalo. The Buffalo-born playwright will attend RLTP's annual Spring Gala and, suggesTed Behrend, "audiences may expect Mr. Gurney to actually take the stage and appear in his own play" on the night of the Gala.

2011-2012 Road Less Traveled Productions Season Details

* Internal Continuity - 9/9/11-10/2/11

* Superior Donuts - 11/11/11-12/4/11

* St. Nicholas - 1/27/12-2/19/12

* Clean Break - 3/9/12-4/1/12

* Ancestral Voices - 4/20/12-5/13/12

To purchase a subscription, please visit www.roadlesstraveledproductions.org or call 716-629-3069.

About Road Less Traveled Productions

Road Less Traveled Productions (RLTP) is a professional theatre company founded by Scott Behrend and Jon Elston. RLTP is dedicated to the development and production of new theatrical works by Western New York playwrights, as well as presentations of esteemed modern dramas of outstanding literary merit. RLTP is located in the Market Arcade Film & Arts Centre in the Downtown Buffalo Theater District. For ticketing information, visit www.RoadLessTraveledProductions.org or call 1-800-745-3500. RLTP's work is made possible through public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.

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