Irish Repertory Theatre hosts 'New Works Reading Series'

The Irish Repertory Theatre (132 West 22nd Street) is hosting a NEW WORKS READING SERIES to support new plays and emerging playwrights.  As part of its mission statement, The Irish Repertory Theatre "encourages the development of new works focusing on the Irish and Irish American experience, as well as a range of other cultures."  The next, of the free monthly staged readings, is The Electric Century by Andrew Case. The reading is on Friday, April 25th at 3 PM, tickets are free, and the event is open to the public.  An RSVP to 212-727-2737 is required.

THE ELECTRIC CENTURY will be read by Fred Applegate* (Young Frankenstein, The Producers), Meg Gibson* (Human Error, Ride Down Mt. Morgan),  Salvatore Inzerillo* (Dutch Heart of Man, Pretty Chin Up), Stephen Kunken* (Rock 'n' Roll, Frost/Nixon), Sarah Lord* (Bhutan, Fifth of July), K.K. Moggie* (Grace, Richard III) and Jay Patterson* (August Osage County, Inherit The Wind *courtesy of AEA.

THE ELECTRIC CENTURY is an historical fantasy set in Gilded Age New York. The play imagines that Thomas Edison, on the verge of a breakthrough discovery, met Belle da Costa Greene, the curator of JP Morgan's Library. Set in a New York where the Bowery B'Hoys rule the five points and Henry Clay Frick rules uptown, the play follows Tom and Belle as they struggle to leave their mark on the
century to come-- Tom through his inventions, Belle through the paintings that she chooses to hang on the walls of the Morgan library. As the two grow ever closer entwined, and Tom learns some of Belle's deepest secrets, he finds she may have been the better inventor after all, because she had invented not just a trinket but herself.

ANDREW CASE  (playwright). Plays include THE RANT, which will be produced in 2008-9 at InterAct Theatre in Philadelphia and the New Theatre in Miami; PACIFIC, produced at Steppenwolf Theatre; and a number of plays read and developed at Primary Stages through their New American Writers Group, including THE CAD, BULLHEAD CITY and IN LOCO PARENTIS. Other work has been produced at the 24-Hour plays at the Atlantic Theatre, Prospect Theater Company, the Salon for the Lincoln Center Directors Lab, the Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center, and the New York International Fringe Festival. His plays have been developed at New
Dramatists, the Atlantic Theatre, the Fifth Night Series at Nuyorican Poets Café, the 78th Street Theatre Lab, 29th Street Rep, and ASK Theatre Projects. Andrew has received a playwriting fellowship from the Manhattan Theatre Club and the Samuel Goldwyn screenwriting award. In addition to the Primary Stages New American Writers Group, he is a member of the Lark Theatre Play Development Center, and the PEN America Center. In January 2006 his parody blog "The Right Honorable Samuel A. Alito, Jr.," was featured on CNN and newspapers across the country. He once wrote a few limericks for NPR's "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me."

Kara Manning, Literary Manager, hopes that the reading series will "give playwrights, both emerging and more established, the invaluable opportunity to develop their new work in a supportive, safe environment and will also introduce some Irish playwrights, especially those who might not yet have the New York recognition they merit, to an American audience."  Charlotte Moore, Artistic Director, Ciarán O'Reilly, Producing Director, Patrick A. Kelsey, Managing Director.

Additional readings are scheduled for Friday, May 23, September 26, October 24, November 21 and December 5, 2008.  All readings are at 3 PM unless otherwise noted and are located at The Irish Repertory Theatre (132 West 22nd Street).

Tickets are free and the reading is open to the public.  Seating is limited.
RSVP by calling The Irish Repertory Theatre Box Office at (212) 727-2737.
For more information visit www.irishrep.org.