CTG to Host AN OPEN CONVERSATION WITH PLAYWRIGHT WILL ENO, 11/2

Center Theatre Group presents "Sandbox@CTG: An Open Conversation with Playwright Will Eno," in the rehearsal room at the Kirk Douglas Theatre for a special one-night-only DouglasPlus event, Monday, November 2, 2015, at 8 p.m.

Eno, one of the most respected playwrights of his generation and a recipient of CTG's Fadiman Award for Playwriting, will be joined by Dr. Irving Biederman, USC Professor of Neurology and Psychology, to discuss and explore the subject of Eno's next play.

The evening will begin with actor Hugo Armstrong ("Bent" and "Waiting for Godot" at the Mark Taper Forum) reading excerpts from two of Eno's plays, "Middletown," winner of the Horton Foote Prize, and Pulitzer Prize finalist "Thom Pain (based on nothing)," which has been performed all over the world and translated into more than a dozen languages.

Eno and Biederman will then discuss the neurology of storytelling. Why or how has the human brain evolved to create and/or crave story? Is the mind driven toward creating narrative order even where there is none? Where in the brain does this story-making occur? The discussion will be moderated by CTG's director of new play development, Pier Carlo Talenti. An informal chat and a glass of wine with the audience follows.

Will Eno is a Residency Five Fellow at the Signature Theatre, which presented "Title and Deed" (included in The New York Times and The New Yorker magazine's Top Ten Plays) in 2012 and "The Open House" (Obie, Lucille Lortel and Drama Desk Awards) in 2014. Following an acclaimed run at Yale Repertory Theatre, his play "The Realistic Joneses" was on Broadway in 2014, directed by Sam Gold and staring Toni Collette, Michael C. Hall, Tracy Letts and Marisa Tomei. "The Realistic Joneses" won a Drama Desk Award, was named USA Today's "Best Play on Broadway," topped The Guardian's 2014 list of American plays and was included in The New York Times' "Best Theatre of 2014." His play "Gnit," a loving but aggressive adaptation of "Peer Gynt," premiered at the Actors Theatre of Louisville in 2013. "Middletown" premiered at the Vineyard Theatre and subsequently at Steppenwolf Theatre and many other American theatres and universities. He was recently awarded the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation Award.

Sandbox@CTG is a rare opportunity for audiences to meet CTG's family of artists and collaborators -- thinkers and visionaries -- whose expertise, ideas and inventiveness have inspired each artist to dig deep and play freely.

Tickets for "Sandbox@CTG: An Open Discussion with Will Eno" are $10, and can be purchased online at www.CenterTheatreGroup.org or by calling (213) 628-2772. The Kirk Douglas Theatre is located at 9820 Washington Blvd. in Culver City, 90232.

This presentation is part of the DouglasPlus programming at the KDT. DouglasPlus provides the flexibility to explore new work and push boundaries through fully and minimally staged events, workshops and readings and traditional and non-traditional performance configurations.

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