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The National New Play Network, the country's alliance of nonprofit theaters that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays, celebrates the success of the NNPN Rolling World Premiere (RWP) of The Firestorm by Meridith Friedman.
NNPN Associate Member Local Theater Company (Boulder, CO) will offer its production, directed by Pesha Rudnick, at Dairy Arts Center's Carsen Theater from October 13 - November 13. Core Member Kitchen Dog Theater (Dallas, TX) and Associate Member Stage Left Theatre (Chicago, IL) received acclaim from both critics and audiences for their first two productions of The Firestorm's Roll.
Gaby and Patrick are married. A hot political couple on the verge of moving into the governor's mansion. But when the campaign is hit with an impending political scandal, the race-and Gaby and Patrick's marriage-begins to fracture. Tensions rise. The personal becomes explosively political. And a husband and wife must confront just how strong their alliance really is.
Meridith's work has been developed, workshopped, and produced at theatres and festivals across the country, including Kitchen Dog Theater, Stage Left Theatre, Chicago's Theatre on the Lake, Local Theatre Company, Curious Theatre Company, Actor's Theater of Charlotte, The Kennedy Center, Chicago Dramatists, The Greenhouse Theatre Center, the NNPN National New Play Showcase, New Repertory Theatre, The Lark, Actor's Express, The Samuel French OOB Short Play Festival, The American Southwest Theatre Company at NMSU, The Johnny Mercer Writers Colony at Goodspeed Musicals, Florida Repertory Theatre, The Ashland New Play Festival, Orlando Shakespeare Theater, Florida Studio Theatre, and the Abbey Theatre in Orlando.
Her next play, The Luckiest People, a commission from Curious Theatre Company in Denver and funded by the National New Play Network, will premiere at Curious in May 2017 followed by a production at Actor's Theater of Charlotte. The Luckiest People is the first play in a new trilogy commissioned by Curious. Meridith was the NNPN Playwright-in-Residence at Curious for their 2010-2011 season, a 2012-2013 Dramatist Guild Fellow, and the recipient of a 2013-2014 Downstage Left Playwriting Residency at Stage Left Theatre. She recently completed the book for a new musical, The 30th Year, which was part of the inaugural New Musical Discovery Series in Orlando. She is currently working on a new musical, Masterpiece, and developing an original television pilot.
Based in Boulder, Colorado, Local Theater Company is a non-for-profit theater company specializing in original works of exceptional quality. Local Theater Company engage audiences through innovative performances that spark camaraderie, learning, and contemplation, and provide a resourceful environment for theater artists to take creative risks, and develop their work. Their new play development pipeline includes the annual Local Lab New Play Festival, followed by a fully-mounted world premiere production from the festival. The company also offers a series of literary and educational outreach initiatives, including Living Language, which adapts novels for the stage and presents them to school groups at Boulder Public Library.
National New Play Network (NNPN) is the country's alliance of non-profit professional theaters dedicated to the development, production, and continued life of new plays. Since its founding in 1998, NNPN has supported more than 200 productions nationwide through its innovative National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere program, which provides playwright and production support for new works at its Member theaters. Additional programs - its annual National Conference, National Showcase of New Plays, and MFA Playwrights Workshop; the NNPN Annual and Smith Prize commissions; its residencies for playwrights, producers and directors; and the organization's member accessed Collaboration, Festival, and Travel banks and online information sessions - have helped cement the Network's position as a vital force in the new play landscape. NNPN also strives to pioneer, implement, and disseminate ideas and programs that revolutionize the way theaters collaborate to support new plays and playwrights. Its most recent project, the New Play Exchange, is changing the way playwrights share their work and others discover it by providing immediate access to information on more than 9,500 new plays by living writers. NNPN's 30 Core and more than 75 Associate Members - along with the more than 150 affiliated artists who are its alumni, the thousands of artists and artisans employed annually by its member theaters, and the hundreds of thousands of audience members who see its supported works each year - are creating the new American theater. For more visit nnpn.org.
