First Draft at Charter Theater Launches Second Season At Kennedy Center

First Draft at Charter Theater, a nonprofit organization devoted to developing theater audiences alongside new plays, and supporting local artists and theaters looking to produce new work, announced today that it will launch its second season at the Kennedy Center's Page to Stage Festival over Labor Day Weekend, with the reading of a new comedy, "Best Men," by Mario Baldessari and Chris Stezin.

"Our mission at First Draft is expanding energetically and rapidly in the direction of supporting DC-area playwrights and theaters looking to produce new work, in addition to our mainstay goals of developing audiences that love live theater," said First Draft Artistic Director Leslie A. Kobylinski. "We recognize that the economic downshift has hit, not just the pockets of DC-area audiences, but theaters and artists as well. Through our reading series and pilot theater-partnership program, we have tapped in to the need to help local theaters reduce the economic risk and fear that often surrounds the development and presentation of new plays, and encourage greater consideration of local playwrights' work."

The organization is officially kicking off its second year of programming with the First Draft Reading Series at the 10th Annual Kennedy Center Page to Stage Festival, which takes place on the Saturday and Monday of Labor Day Weekend. At the festival, First Draft will hold a staged reading and post-reading discussion of "Best Men," a new comedy by Mario Baldessari and Chris Stezin - a play that follows the story of two estranged friends who are reunited under unexpected circumstances.

"Charter Theater is proud to be one of the founding members of the Page to Stage Festival," Kobylinski said, "and we're delighted that, in this milestone year, we are presenting this engaging and unexpected exploration of the boundaries of male friendship by two of Charter's stalwarts and local DC playwriting stars."

"As we continue executing our mission during this exciting second season," she said, "we plan to give special attention to DC-area playwrights, and to partnering local theaters in our community interested in producing new work and developing audiences. Ultimately, we'd like to be seen as a matchmaker - between audiences and new plays, and playwrights and theaters. Our success last season, partnering 1st Stage in the development and production of ‘Jack and the Bean-Stalk' by D.C. area artists: playwright Mario Baldessari and composer Rex Daugherty, convinced us this is a viable approach moving forward."

First Draft at Charter Theater is supported in part by Arlington County through the Cultural Affairs Division of the Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources and the Arlington Commission for the Arts. The First Draft Reading Series is also made possible in part by the warmth and generosity of the Drama Committee of the Arts Club of Washington, The Share Fund and The Community Foundation for the National Capital Region.

The organization's mission is to develop audiences alongside new plays, and support local artists and theaters looking to produce new work. For more information, visit First Draft online at www.firstdraft.org.

 

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