First Draft at Charter Theater Presents BEST MEN 9/3

First Draft at Charter Theater - a nonprofit organization devoted to developing theater audiences alongside new plays, supporting local artists and partnering with theaters looking to produce new work - announced today that it would celebrate 10 years as one of the co-founders of the Kennedy Center's Page-to-Stage Festival with the reading of a new comedy, "Best Men," by Mario Baldessari and Chris Stezin, a play that follows the story of two estranged friends who are reunited under unexpected circumstances. The staged reading and post-reading discussion of "Best Men" will take place on Saturday, September 3rd at 4 p.m. in the Terrace Gallery.

First Draft is officially kicking off its second year of programming at the 10th Annual Kennedy Center Page-to-Stage Festival taking place on Labor Day Weekend, with the launch of the 2011-2012 season of the First Draft Reading Series.

"At the 10-year mark, the Page-to-Stage Festival has become a vital attraction in the DC theater landscape," said First Draft Artistic Director Leslie A. Kobylinski. "Our organization has long championed DC-area playwrights and the unique opportunity the Page-to-Stage Festival offers to showcase their work. We are delighted that the festival is still thriving and attracting audiences from all over the region and we are excited, in this milestone year, to present this engaging new play that explores the boundaries of male friendship by two of Charter Theater's and DC's playwriting stars."

Mario Baldessari is a local playwright, actor and acting instructor, who is currently serving as the Playwright-in-Residence at First Draft at Charter Theater. His most recent plays include "Jack and the Bean-Stalk" at 1st Stage (in partnership with First Draft), which was Helen Hayes Award Recommended, and "Fat Gay Jew" at Charter Theater. His other playwriting credits include: "Fear Itself," "Wonders Never Cease," "Sacred Cows" and "The Rule of Three" for Charter Theater; and "Our Lady of Sandwich" for the National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts (NCDA). He is a faculty member at NCDA and has taught classes and workshops in improvisation for the Writer's Center, the Actors' Center, Imagination Stage and the Educational Theater Company. For many years, he was the lead writer and a founding member of the comedy troupe, Dropping the Cow.

Chris Stezin is a local playwright and actor whose plays have been produced at Charter Theater ("Hoboken Station," "Monkeyboy," "Sleeping and Waking," "what dogs do"); Washington Shakespeare Company ("a walk across the rooftops"); Project Y ("Walt and Jake in Sinking Up"); and Clemson University ("Fallen to Earth"). He has twice been nominated for the Helen Hayes' Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play - for "Hoboken Station" in 2000, and for "what dogs do" in 2003. The "Washington Post" has called his work "engrossing," "compelling" and "ridiculously funny."

"Best Men" is the third in a series of plays that Baldessari and Stezin have written together. The first two, "The Thing about My Brother" and "Fidelity Drumming," have been featured previously in the Reading Series.

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, and the Share Fund of the Community Foundation for the National Capital Region.

For more information, visit First Draft online at www.firstdraft.org.

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