Playwrights' Center Announces Plays, Playwrights for Expanded 2014-15 Series

The Playwrights' Center has announced the plays and playwrights to be featured in its 2014 PlayLabs festival and 2014-15 Ruth Easton New Play Series. This year, the Ruth Easton New Play Series will grow from one reading of each play to two.

These events are the public components of the development work at the 43-year-old Playwrights' Center, where around 60 plays are workshopped each year. PlayLabs and the Ruth Easton New Play Series represent the Center's most intensive play development opportunities for playwrights, allowing Core Writers time to hone their scripts and get audience feedback. The readings feature top local and national actors and incorporate design elements, elevating the staged reading to an intimate art form all its own.

"The 2014-15 season has something for everyone, with genres from hip hop to historical and topics from gun control to gospel music," said Producing Artistic Director Jeremy B. Cohen. "I'm so inspired by this season's brilliant slate of diverse playwrights from around the country, and excited to share their work with our standing-room-only audiences. To see the demand grow so intensely for a chance to see this new work--such that we've added a second performance to each of the Ruth Easton readings--is a real testament to the level of excellence of our writers, and the hunger of Twin Cities audiences for new American plays."

All events in the Playwrights' Center season are free.

PLAYLABS, October 20-26

For more than 30 years, the PlayLabs festival has been energizing playwrights and wowing audiences. Over 75% of the plays featured in PlayLabs over the past decade have gone on to production, such as Dan O'Brien's "The Body of an American" (Portland Center Stage), Allison Moore's "Slasher" (Humana Festival), and Mat Smart's "The Royal Society of Antarctica," which was developed at PlayLabs 2013 and will premiere at Chicago's Gift Theatre in March 2015.

PlayLabs is one of the nation's most intensive play development programs, giving playwrights 30 hours of vital workshop time with a team of collaborators, and two public readings with time for rewrites in between.

PlayLabs 2014 runs October 20-26 at the Playwrights' Center. In addition to the three featured plays, audiences are invited to a showcase of work by the Center's playwriting fellows and a Saturday night party. All events are free and open to the public.

The 2014 PlayLabs festival will feature "Cocked" by Sarah Gubbins, "The Absence of Weather" by Ken Urban, and "Le Switch" by Philip Dawkins, all Core Writers at the Playwrights' Center.

RUTH EASTON NEW PLAY SERIES, December-April

This season, the Ruth Easton New Play Series is expanding from one reading of each play to two. Five new plays by Core Writers will be featured between December and April. Participating playwrights receive 20 hours with collaborators to workshop their script-to write, rewrite, experiment, and shape their work.

Plays recently seen in the Ruth Easton New Play Series that have gone on to production include "The Way West" by Mona Mansour (Steppenwolf), "The Few" by Samuel D. Hunter (Old Globe Theatre), and "Brahmani: A One-Hijra Stand-up Comedy Show" by Aditi Brennan Kapil (Mixed Blood Theatre).

The 2014-15 Ruth Easton New Play Series will feature "Forget Me Not When Far Away" by Kira Obolensky (local writer), "Dust" by Qui Nguyen, "Marie and Rosetta" by George Brant, "The REALNESS: the second break beat play" by Idris Goodwin, and "Romeo & Naomi Ramirez" by Kathryn Walat.

For ticket information, see www.pwcenter.org or contact the Playwrights' Center at (612) 332-7481 or info@pwcenter.org.

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