NNPN Opens THE TOTALITARIANS 2014 Rolling Premiere in New Orleans Tonight

The NATIONAL NEW PLAY NETWORK (NNPN), the country's alliance of non-profit theaters that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays, announces its 39th Rolling World Premiere: Peter Sinn Nachtrieb's The Totalitarians will receive three productions through the Network's Continued Life of New Plays Fund in 2014. The Totalitarians will begin its Rolling World Premiere at Southern Rep (New Orleans, LA, tonight, January 29 - February 23, 2014), followed by performances at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company (Washington, DC, June 2 - 29, 2014) and Z Space (San Francisco, CA, November 17 - December 14, 2014).

The Totalitarians was commissioned by NNPN through the Full Stage/USA Program at New Dramatists with a lead grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

About the play: We might be on the brink of revolution in Nebraska. Penny, a compulsive and compulsively-watchable candidate for state office enlists the help of Francine, a silver-tongued operative. Francine's husband Jeffrey, a doctor, is lying to his dying patients - one of whom opens his eyes to Penny's nefarious plans for the Cornhusker State. The Totalitarians is a raucous dark comedy about the state of modern political discourse, modern relationships and how easy it is to believe truths without facts.

Peter Sinn Nachtrieb, 6'6", is a San Francisco-based playwright whose works include boom (TCG's most produced play 2009-10), BOB, (2011 Humana Festival for New American Plays at Actor's Theatre of Louisville, Barrie and Bernice Stavis Award), T.I.C. (Trenchcoat In Common), Hunter Gatherers (2007 ATCA/Steinberg New Play Award, 2007 Will Glickman Prize), Colorado, and Litter: The True Story of the Framingham Dodecutuplets. His work has been seen off-Broadway and across the country including at Ars Nova, SPF, Woolly Mammoth, Seattle Repertory, Actors Theatre of Louisville, San Diego Rep, and in the Bay Area at A.C.T., Encore Theatre, Killing My Lobster, Marin Theatre Company, Impact Theatre, and The Bay Area Playwrights Festival. Currently he's working on an original musical called Fall Springs: A Musical Disaster. Peter holds a degree in Theater and Biology from Brown and an MFA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. Peter is a member of New Dramatists and is the Playwright in Residence at the Z Space in San Francisco. www.peternachtrieb.com.

NNPN's flagship program, the Continued Life of New Plays Fund supports three or more theaters which choose to mount the same new play within a twelve-month period. The result is a Rolling World Premiere through which the playwright develops a new work with multiple creative teams, for multiple communities of patrons, ensuring the resulting play is of the highest possible quality. And with a minimum of three productions in a single year, the play attains the momentum it needs to join the repertoire of frequently-produced new American works. NNPN provides grants of $7,000 to the first three participating theaters in each Rolling World Premiere; to date, NNPN has championed the continued life of 38 new plays in over 100 productions, with over a quarter-million dollars in grants.

Founded in 1986, Southern Rep's mission is to develop and produce new plays that reflect the diversity of the city we call home, to provide our audience with professional theatre of the highest artistic quality and achievement, and to establish a creative working environment that nurtures theatre professionals. As New Orleans' only year-round professional theatre, we strive to use the artistry of theater to enlighten, educate, and entertain audiences, and further extend that service through educational and outreach programs.

Woolly Mammoth was founded in Washington, DC in 1980. Now in their 34th season, Woolly is "...the hottest theatre company in town" (The Washington Post, May 2008), "know for its productions of innovative new plays" (The New York Times, November 2007). They garnered this reputation by holding fast to their unique mission: to ignite an explosive engagement between theatre artists and the community by developing, producing, and promoting new plays that explore The Edges of theatrical style and human experience, and by implementing new ways to use the artistry of theatre to serve the people of Greater Washington, DC.

Z Space is a hub for artists and audiences to revel in the creation, development, and production of outstanding new work. We commission, develop, present and produce a full season of new works from a variety of disciplines including theater, dance, music, performance art, and new media. We foster opportunities around the nation for these works and we engage diverse audiences through direct interactions with the process, the projects, and the artists.

The National New Play Network (NNPN) is the country's alliance of non-profit professional theatres that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays. Since its founding in 1998, NNPN has commissioned eighteen playwrights, provided nearly twenty MFA graduates with paid residencies, and supported over 100 productions nationwide through its innovative Continued Life of New Plays Fund, which creates "Rolling World Premieres" of new plays. Hundreds of artists have gained employment through these efforts all over the country where NNPN Member Theatres are located. NNPN receives substantial support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, the Shubert Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. The Network is comprised of a group of Core Members, who pioneer and implement collaborative new play strategies, and a growing group of Associate Members, who disseminate the Network's programs and strategies nationwide. Visit www.nnpn.org.

NNPN's Core Member theaters are: Actor's Express Theatre (Atlanta), Actor's Theatre of Charlotte (Charlotte, NC), Borderlands Theater (Tucson), Contemporary American Theater Festival (Shepherdstown, WV), Curious Theatre Company (Denver), Florida Studio Theatre (Sarasota), Fountain Theatre (LA), Horizon Theatre Company (Atlanta), InterAct Theatre Company (Philadelphia), Kitchen Dog Theater (Dallas), Magic Theatre (San Francisco), Marin Theatre Company (Mill Valley, CA), Mixed Blood Theatre Company (Minneapolis), New Jersey Repertory Company (Long Branch), New Repertory Theatre (Watertown, MA), New Theatre (Coral Gables, FL), Orlando Shakespeare Theater (Orlando), Performance Network Theatre (Ann Arbor, MI), Phoenix Theatre (Indianapolis), Playwright's Theatre of New Jersey (Madison), Prop Thtr Group (Chicago), Riverside Theatre (Iowa City, IA), Salt Lake Acting Company (Salt Lake City), San Diego REP (San Diego), Southern Rep (New Orleans), Unicorn Theatre (Kansas City, MO), and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company (Washington, DC).

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