KC Rep Adds FIRST PAGE New Play Workshop to Spring 2013 Season, 2/8-3/2

Kansas City Repertory Theatre is pleased to announce the launch of First Page New Play Workshop, a four-week event developed by the Rep to foster new works by local and National Theatre artists. First Page will follow a playwright's concept as it evolves from the first spark of an idea into a successful new script or theatrical production. All events will take place at Copaken Stage, 13th and Walnut in Kansas City, MO.

First Page has four activities demonstrating various stages in the development of a new play: a developmental production of Waiting for You on the Corner of {13th and Walnut}, a workshop reading by Nathan Louis Jackson, and a playwright's slam. The event will wrap with an encore production of Eric Rosen and Matt Sax's Hip Hop musical Clay as an example of a fully-realized project.

• NEW WORKS REVISITED - encore presentation of Clay * * REVIEWERS WELCOME * * Friday, February 22 at 8 p.m.; Saturday, February 23 at 8 p.m.; Friday, March 1 at 8 p.m.; Saturday, March 2 at 8 p.m.

Presented at the Rep in 2007 as Rosen's inaugural production as artistic director, Clay exemplifies the creative process from start to finish: readings, workshops and, finally, a production and highlights the best of what new work means for Kansas City.

Audiences are invited to stay for a post-show conversation with Sax and Rosen to hear the back story about creating Clay and its subsequent engagement at New York's Lincoln Center.

• DEVELOPMENTAL PRODUCTION - Waiting for You on the Corner of {13th and Walnut} * * NOT OPEN FOR CRITICAL REVIEW ** ALERT: NEW PERFORMANCE DATES - February 8 and 9 at 8 p.m.; February 10 at 2 p.m.; February 12-14 at 7 p.m.; February 15 at 8 p.m.; February 16 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.; Sunday, February 17 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Written by Sojourn Theatre and The TEAM and commissioned by Kansas City Rep, Waiting for You on the Corner of {13th and Walnut} moves from the Rep's 2012/13 schedule to become the cornerstone of First Page. In the spirit of innovation and creativity that our First Page program is designed to foster, the cast of Waiting for You on the Corner of {13th and Walnut} - a Kansas City play based on the stories of real people - will first perform the play in progress, and then, after each performance, members of the creative team will join the audience for conversation. Notes from that day's post-play discussion will be part of the continued development of the piece, and sometimes changes will be seen at the next day's performance. This is an invaluable part of a process that will allow artists and audiences to collaborate on a new play.

• WORKSHOP READING - Nathan Louis Jackson February 24, at 1 p.m. and 5 p.m.

A cast-reading of Jackson's newest project will give the playwright an opportunity to gauge audience response to the piece while it is still a work in progress.

A native son of Kansas City, KS, Jackson continues his close association with the Rep, having had his play Broke-ology produced at Copaken Stage in 2010, followed by a reading of an earlier work The Last Black Play, and, most recently, having been selected as the Rep's new Resident Playwright, which is made possible by an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation three-year playwright residenCy Grant.

• PLAYWRIGHTS SLAM - Local Playwrights February 25, at 7 p.m.

Local playwrights will read 5-minute excerpts from their latest scripts for feedback and audience reaction.

Tentatively scheduled are Jerry Genochio (Tack Driver); Kyle Hatley (Head, Death of Cupid, Watering the Grave, artistic director of Chatterbox Audio Theater); Frank Higgins (The Sweet By 'n' By, produced with Blythe Danner and Gwyneth Paltrow; WMKS: Where Music Kills Sorrow); Natalie Liccardello (Ice Cream Social ... Issues; Pies From the Porn Kitchen at the Kansas City Fringe Festival); Eric Rosen (Venice-soon to open at New York's Public Theater; Clay; Wedding Play; Winesburg, Ohio) and Matt Sax (Clay, Venice co-creator).

Ticket Information:
NEW WORKS REVISITED - CLAY • Tickets to Clay are currently on sale; $20 for Rep subscribers and $25 for the general public. Seating is reserved.
DEVELOPMENTAL PRODUCTION - Waiting for You on the Corner of {13th and Walnut} • Tickets have already been issued to subscribers. • $20-$45 tickets for the general public go on sale February 1. Reserved seats.
WORKSHOP READING with Nathan Jackson and • Tickets are free for Rep subscribers, reservations required. • $10 tickets for the general public go on sale February 1. General admission seating.
PLAYWRIGHT SLAM • Free to Rep subscribers, reservations required. • $10 tickets for the general public go on sale February 1. General admission seating.

Led by Michael Rohd and based in Portland, Oregon, Sojourn Theatre blends metaphor with public reality to make new theatre around the country focused on bringing strangers together amidst experiences where the ethical possibilities of imagination are placed alongside the communal muscle of responsibility.

The TEAM, the Theatre of the Emerging American Moment, is a New York City-based theatre company dedicated to dissecting and celebrating the experience of living in America today. Rachel Chavkin is the founding artistic director of The TEAM.

Now in its 48th season, Kansas City Repertory Theatre is its region's only member of the League of Resident Theatres (LORT) and serves as the professional theatre in residence at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC). Lauded by The Wall Street Journal, TIME magazine, Variety and the Toronto Sun, the Rep produces mainstage plays and special events at Spencer Theatre on the UMKC campus and Copaken Stage located in downtown Kansas City. Kansas City Rep employs more than 250 professional artists, technicians and administrators, and serves more than 100,000 patrons and 10,000 school children annually. Kansas City Repertory Theatre is led by Artistic Director Eric Rosen, and Producing Director Jerry Genochio.