Padua Playwrights to Livestream BLACKOUTS By Murray Mednick

Padua kicks off the 2020 season with a series of performances in June of Blackouts, written and directed by Murray Mednick. With Blackoutsthe celebrated avant-garde playwright and director brings his poetic gifts to bear on the Covid-19 crisis. Written and directed specifically for online live-stream viewing, Blackoutsbrings Mednick's trademark streetwise lyricism and dry humor to bear on an infernal encounter with the health care system, American style. Explains Mednick, "Blackoutsis a partially autobiographical account of a recent surreal hospital stay." Starring the award-winning actor Tony Abatemarco, the stellar cast also includes Youssif Kamal, Christopher Rivas, Shyla Leffner and Jon Gentry-Blackoutswill be presented in two parts, June 5, 6, 7 (Part 1) and June 12, 13, 14 (Part 2).

An important figure in the Off-Off Broadway movement of the 1960s, Murray Mednickis a leading voice of his generation and the winner of multiple prestigious awards for his many plays and productions. An Obie-award winner, Mednick is the recipient of two Rockefeller Foundation grants and a Guggenheim Fellowship, an American Theatre Critics Association Best New Play citation (for Joe and Betty), a Career Achievement Award from the LA Weekly, an Ovation Lifetime Achievement Award for Outstanding Contributions to Los Angeles Theater from the LA Stage Alliance, a Local Hero Award from Backstage West, and the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle's Margaret Harford Award for Sustained Excellence in Theater. "As Murray Mednick experiments with language... he is emblematic of a Los Angeles dramatic tradition in much the same way that Clifford Odets is identifiable with Gotham or David Mamet with Chicago," wrote Bob Verini in Variety. His recent play Mayakovsky and Stalinhad its New York premiere at the Cherry Lane Theatre in October of 2019 under the playwright's direction. With BlackoutsMednick continues his lifelong exploration of theatre as a medium for truth telling and connection.

With roots in Mednick's influential Padua Hills Playwrights Workshop/Festival (1978-1995), Padua Playwrightsis committed to the exploration of the spoken word and its myriad connections to the possibility of cultural transformation. Under the artistic direction of Guy Zimmerman since 2001, the company has produced over fifty evenings of new theatre, many multiple award winners. The company has also published eight anthologies of new work, distributed nationally by TCG.

Blackouts runs June 5, 6, 7 (Part 1) and June 12, 13, 14 (Part 2) Friday and Saturdays @ 8:00p pm, Sundays @ 3:00p.

Tickets to each event are $12.50. All performances will live-stream online. Link and instructions to access live-stream performances will be provided with ticket purchase conformation.

TICKETS:

$12.50 payable online only at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/106050905112