OLD BONES, RIVER CITY & More Set for Performance Network Theatre in December

Performance Network Theatre's Fireside New Play Festival (FNPF) returns with its latest installment of four of the hottest new plays in the country, performed for the first time on a Michigan stage on Sunday, December 15 through Wednesday, December 18 at 7pm. Audiences can sample works by UM grad and Chicago playwright Steven Simoncic, Louisville playwright Diana Grisanti, Chicago playwright Reina Hardy, and Michigan playwright Linda Ramsay-Detherage (author of the March FNPF hit "Sugarhill.") Admission is Pay-What-You-Can and reservations can be made at performancenetwork.org or over the phone at 734-663-0681. Performances are immediately followed by a facilitated talk back to share feedback on the brand new plays!

In its 13-year history, the Fireside New Play Festival has launched over 20 plays to full productions across the country. The Festival consists of a series of staged readings, where actors, having rehearsed for just 10 hours, read from the scripts to present a playwright's new work. There is a talk-back held after each performance to gather feedback for the playwright. Staged readings of scripts in development give audiences the first look at promising new American plays, and with post-show feedback sessions after each reading, the comments may even help to shape their future!

PNT Associate Artistic Director and Literary Manager Carla Milarch said "I'm beyond thrilled with the four plays we've selected for the December Festival. We received a record number of submissions this time, and Fireside audiences are in for a real treat. From a searing drama about race and memory, to a play where a star literally steps out of the sky to ask a character to a party, these are some of the most unique and moving new plays in America today."

"Broken Fences" by Steven Simoncic
Sunday, December 15, at 7 pm

As a West Side Chicago neighborhood gentrifies, property taxes rise and Hoody and D struggle to keep the only home they have ever known. But when April and Czar buy the house next door, the very definition of home is called into question.

Steven Simoncic's plays have received productions, readings and workshops at The Goodman Theatre, Victory Gardens Theatre, The Second City, Pegasus Players, The Baruch Center for the Performing Arts, Stageplays Theatre New York, and The Soho Theatre in London. Steven is currently a resident playwright at Chicago Dramatists Theatre and the Writer in Residence at 16th Street Theatre. He has written several short films, been nominated for a Pushcart prize, and has recently won an Emmy. Steven holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan, an MFA in fiction from Warren Wilson College and an MLA from the University of Chicago. Steven's play "Broken Fences" was selected as a finalist for both The Road Theatre's Summer Playwrights Festival in Los Angeles, and Stage Left Theatre's 2013 LeapFest in Chicago.

"River City" by Diana Grisanti
Monday, December 16, at 7 pm

Shaken by her father's death, Mary sets off to uncover three generations' worth of secrets buried in the West End of Louisville, Kentucky. River City charts Mary's discoveries, which span four decades, and investigate race, memory, and the ghosts that haunt one American family.

Diana Grisanti is a Louisville, Kentucky native. She was a nominee for the Wasserstein Prize and a runner- up for the Kennedy Center's Paula Vogel Award for her play Semantics and is the inaugural recipient of the Marsha Norman Spirit of Achievement Lilly Award. Her short play "Post Wave Spectacular" was produced in the 2010 Humana Festival, and her musical "Richie Farmer Will Have His Revenge on Durham" (written with the fabulous composer/lyricist Matt Schatz) was Best of Fest in Austin's Frontera Fest. Diana received her BA from the University of Iowa and is currently pursuing her MFA in playwriting and fiction at UT Austin's Michener Center for Writers. Before relocating to Texas, she lived in Cuernavaca, Mexico, where she worked as a teacher and translator

"Old Bones" by Linda Ramsay-Detherage
Tuesday, December 17, at 7 pm

When famed anthropologist Richard Rutherford dies, his daughters Millie, the glamorous host of a National Geographic television show, and Marie, a sensible Physics professor, come home to make peace with his memory, and with each other. The secrets they uncover may put his discoveries to shame.

Linda Ramsay-Detherage is a freelance writer from Detroit, Michigan. Her first play, "The Sunday Punch," was produced in 2011 at the Planet Ant Theatre in Detroit. It was subsequently nominated for a Wilde Award for Best New Play in Michigan 2011. Her second play, "Sugarhill," was completed in November, 2012, and received its first professional staged reading at the Performance Network in Ann Arbor, Michigan in March, 2013, and is currently slated for another professional reading in the spring of 2014. In addition to writing plays and other projects, Linda has worked as a professional actor. She lives in the Lakes Area north of Detroit, and is active in promoting the arts.

"The Claire Play" by Reina Hardy
Wednesday, December 18, at 7 pm

Claire Leverrier, a poet haunted by the death of her childhood crush, reveals the secrets of the universe using a bicycle light and puppets. "The Claire Play" is a romance. Or is it a metaphor? Either way, Claire might never recover once a star steps down from the sky and invites her to a party.

Reina Hardy is a playwright from Chicago who recently fetched up in Texas. She's a Michener Fellow at UT Austin, a 2013 finalist for the Terrence McNally Prize, the recipient of the 2012 Interact 20/20 Commission, and a National New Play Network Playwright. Her plays, which usually contain magic and sometimes contain science, have been seen at Capital Stage Sacramento, Orlando Shakespeare, and the Great Plains Theatre Conference, where Reina was awarded the Holland New Voices Award. This fall, two of her plays premiered in Austin: "Glassheart" with the Shrewds at Salvage Vanguard, and "Stars and Barmen" at the Vortex. She spent part of this summer at the Kennedy Center, workshopping "The Claire Play," which will be seen at the National New Play Showcase in December. Her TYA play, "Annie Jump and the Library of Heaven," will be produced as part of UTNT at UT Austin in February 2014. Reina will return to the Vortex in Fall 2014 for "Changelings" a spectacle about family, fairies and theft.

Admission to The Fireside New Play Festival is Pay-What-You-Can. Reservations can be made at the Performance Network Box Office at 734-663-0681, online atperformancenetwork.org, or at Performance Network Theatre (120 East Huron St., Ann Arbor, 48104) Monday - Friday 10am-6pm, and Saturday 11am-6pm.
The Fireside Festival is generously underwritten by Joseph C. Walters.

Founded in 1981, Performance Network Theatre has grown from a fledgling company to Ann Arbor's resident professional theatre. The Network reaches 40,000 theatre patrons and children each year through the year-round Professional Series and the Children's Theatre Network. Performance Network also presents the Fireside New Play Festival and a series of classes on theatre-related topics. The Network provides uncompromising artistic leadership in the region and produces works that engage, challenge and inspire audiences and artists.

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