Belber's GEOMETRY OF FIRE to Premiere at Rattlestick With Birney, Mudge and More

Rattlestick Playwrights Theater (David Van Asselt, Artistic Director and Sandra Coudert, Managing Director) continues its 14th anniversary season with the World Premiere of Geometry of Fire, a new drama by Stephen Belber, directed by Lucie Tiberghien (The Pavilion).  Performances begin Saturday, November 15th, 2008.  Opening night is Monday, November 24th at 7pm.  The show will run through Sunday, December 14, 2008.  Mr. Belber is currently represented in New York by the acclaimed Naked Angels production of Fault Lines at the Cherry Lane Theatre.

In Geometry of Fire, Belber’s newest work, we find an investment banker-turned-Marine-sniper recently returned from Iraq and a Saudi-American who just wants to get laid.  In any other world, these two guys would be best friends.  But when their lives collide in this one, each is forced to survive on the fly.  Based on a true story.  Geometry of Fire had a developmental production at New York Stage & Film in July 2007.

The cast of Geometry of Fire includes Reed Birney (Blasted, Dark Matters), Donnie Keshawarz (Tarzan, Taboo), Jennifer Mudge (Fault Lines, The Pavilion) and Kevin O’Donnell (Off Broadway debut).

The creative team is comprised of Robin Vest (sets), Anne Kennedy (costumes), Peter West (lights), Eric Shim (sound), Mary Robinette Kowal (props), Rick Sordelet (fight choreography) and Brian Smallwood (technical director). Katrina Renee Herrmann is Production Stage Manager, Alyssa Ritch is Assistant Stage Manager, and Alice Reagan will serve as Assistant Director.

Geometry of Fire will have the following performance schedule: Wednesday – Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 3pm. Tickets are $40.00 and are available through SmartTix (212-868-4444) or www.smarttix.com. Rattlestick Playwrights Theater is located at 224 Waverly Place (off Seventh Avenue South – between West 11th & Perry Streets).

Stephen Belber (Playwright). His most recent play, Fault Lines (Naked Angels) is currently running at The Cherry Lane Theatre.  Other plays include Match (Broadway, Tony nomination for Frank Langella), A Small, Melodramatic Story, (LAByrinth Theater Company), McReele (Roundabout), Tape (Naked Angels--NYC/LA/London), Carol Mulroney (Huntington Theater), One Million Butterflies (Primary Stages), Drifting Elegant (Magic Theater), The Transparency of Val (Theater Outrageous, NYC), The Wake (Via Theater, NYC), Through Fred (Soho Rep), The Death of Frank (Araca Group, NYC).  As a screenwriter, he wrote Tape, directed by Richard Linklater, starring Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke (Sundance; Berlin);  The Laramie Project (co-writer) for HBO Films, (Sundance, Emmy nomination for screenwriting); and Drifting Elegant, directed by Amy Glazer.  TV credits include Rescue Me and Law & Order SVU, (staff writer). His film, Management, which he wrote and directed, starring Jennifer Aniston, Steve Zahn and Woody Harrelson, premiered at the Toronto Film Festival this September. 

Lucie Tiberghein (Director).  Credits include The Things We Know, (a short film which Lucie co-wrote and directed) Hurt Village, by Katori Hall, (BRIC) and the world premieres of A Small Melodramatic Story by Stephen Belber (LAByrinth) and Augusta by Richard Dresser (Contemporary American Theater Festival). Other recent credits: Geometry of Fire, (Sundance), Hoodoo Love, (Katori Hall, Cherry Lane), Air Conditioning (Tommy Smith, Juilliard).  Lucie directed Rattlestick’s production of Craig Wright’s The Pavilion, which received a 2005 Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Play of 2005.

Rattlestick Playwrights Theater is a multi-award-winning company which has produced over thirty-nine world premieres in the past thirteen seasons and was the recipient of the 2007 Ross Wetzsteon Memorial OBIE Award for its work developing new and innovative work.  Rattlestick’s Advisory Board participates in The Emerging Playwrights Project, which matches a new playwright with an established artist for an experienced eye and creative support.  Playwright and artist mentors have included Edward Albee, Jon Robin Baitz, Zoe Caldwell, Arthur Kopit, Craig Lucas, Joe Mantello, Terrence McNally and Marsha Norman.  Previous plays include Two Boys in a Bed, Message to Michael, Carpool, Volunteer Man, A Trip to the Beach, Ascendancy, Stuck, Vick’s Boy, The Messenger, Saved or Destroyed, Neil’s Garden, My Special Friend, Faster, Bliss, St. Crispin’s Day, Where We’re Born, Five Flights, Boise, Finer Noble Gases, God Hates The Irish: The Ballad of Armless Johnny, Miss Julie, Acts of Mercy: passion-play, Cagelove, It Goes Without Saying, Dark Matters, Stay, American Sligo, Rag and Bone, War,  Lady, the Off-Broadway GLAAD Award-nominated hit The Last Sunday in June and Craig Wright’s The Pavilion, which received a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Play of 2005.

Photo Credit Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.

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