South Coast Rep's NewSCRipts Series Features Pamatmat's AND RIGHT NOW Tonight

Lifelong dreams, love of literature and past reckoning. Those themes are at the heart of A. Rey Pamatmat's two-character drama, And Right Now. The new play, commissioned by South Coast Repertory, is featured in a staged reading tonight, March 18, at 7:30 p.m., as part of SCR's 27th season of its NewSCRipts reading series.

Daniel is a writer, fresh out of college and looking for a job. Linda is an émigré from the Philippines, now married with children. Her lifelong dream comes true when she opens a local bookstore. It turns out to be the same one Daniel loved as a boy-and what begins as his interview for a part-time job becomes much more as Linda and Daniel realize that their connections go far deeper than a shared love of literature. They will have to face the trauma of their pasts-but can they find forgiveness?

And Right Now will be directed by Shelley Butler. Her directing credits at South Coast Repertory include the NewSCRipts reading of How the World Began, and Theater for Young Audiences productions of The Borrowers, A Wrinkle in Time and Charlotte's Web.

Pamatmat is currently the 2012-13 Hodder Fellow in Playwriting at Princeton University's Lewis Center for the Arts and just completed a turn as the 2011-12 Playwright of New York (PoNY) Fellow at The Lark Play Development Center. His play Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them began a rolling world premiere at The Actors Theatre of Louisville's 2011 Humana Festival of New American Plays; it received a citation award from the American Theater Critics' Association/ Steinberg New Play Awards. His play Thunder Above, Deeps Below was the inaugural production in the new space of San Francisco's Bindlestiff Studio in 2012. Waterwell Theatre commissioned and produced his play A Spare Me, which will be published by Playscripts, Inc. His newest play, Shotgun Message, was developed at Victory Gardens' Ignition Festival.
His plays and shorts have been widely produced, including Vortex Theatre Company (Deviant); Actors Theatre of Louisville (This is How It Ends, Ain't Meat, and 1260 Minute Life); Vampire Cowboys (Red Rover), HERE (High/Limbo/High), and the Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts Camp (Out of Joint).

Pamatmat is a member of the Ma-Yi Writer's Lab, and a past recipient of the Princess Grace Award for Playwriting, a New York Foundation for the Arts Playwriting Fellowship, and a Truman Capote Literary Fellowship. His other plays include: Beautiful Day, New, Picture 24, Pure, Out of Joint, and The Shotgun Message. He earned a B.F.A. in drama from New York University and an M.F.A. in playwriting from Yale School of Drama.

Past NewSCRipts readings include Donald Margulies' Collected Stories, Richard Greenberg's Three Days of Rain and Amy Freed's Freedomland, all of which went on to New York productions. Plays selected for the NewSCRipts series have earned six Pulitzer Prize nominations; Margaret Edson's Wit won the prize in 1999.

SCR launched the NewSCRipts play reading series in 1985 to bring the audience into the process of creating new works with emerging and established playwrights. After each public reading on the Julianne Argyros Stage, audience members engage in lively exchanges with the playwright and are active participants in the play's development by providing valuable feedback for the writer.

South Coast Repertory's NewSCRipts series is generously underwritten by Elaine J. Weinberg.

TICKETS to the NewSCRipts reading of And Right Now may be purchased online at www.scr.org, by phone at (714) 708-5555 or in person at the SCR box office. Tickets are $14, and include audience discussions with the playwright and dramaturg.

LOCATION: South Coast Repertory is located at 655 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa, at the Bristol Street/Avenue of the Arts exit off the San Diego (405) Freeway in the Folino Theatre Center, part of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts. Parking is available off Anton Blvd. on Park Center Drive.

ABOUT South Coast Repertory: Tony Award-winning South Coast Repertory, founded in 1964 by David Emmes and Martin Benson and now under the leadership of Artistic Director Marc Masterson and Managing Director Paula Tomei, is widely recognized as one of the leading professional theatres in the United States. SCR is committed to theatre that illuminates the compelling personal and social issues of our time, not only on its stages but through its wide array of education and outreach programs. While its productions represent a balance of classic and modern theatre, SCR is renowned for its extensive new-play development program, which includes the nation's largest commissioning program for emerging and established writers and composers. Each year, it showcases some of country's best new plays in the Pacific Playwrights Festival, which attracts theatre professionals from across the country. Of SCR's more than 460 productions, one-quarter have been world premieres, whose subsequent stagings achieved enormous success throughout America and around the world. Two SCR-developed works have won Pulitzer Prizes, and another eight were named Pulitzer finalists. In addition, SCR works have won several OBIE Awards and scores of major new-play awards. Located in Costa Mesa, California, SCR's Folino Theatre Center is home to the 507-seat Segerstrom Stage, the 336-seat Julianne Argyros Stage and the 94-seat Nicholas Studio. Today, SCR produces 13 shows and eight public readings each season.

Pictured: Bill Brochtrup and Fionnula Flanagan in the NewSCRipts reading of Bill Cain's How to Write a New Book for the Bible in 2010.

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