Keen Teens Series to Continue with AND...ACTION and More This Spring

The Drama Desk and Obie Award-winning Keen Company will present the Eleventh Season of Keen Teens. This season's offerings will be And... Action by Eleanor Burgess directed by Julie Kramer; Rat Court by Boo Killebrew, directed by Daisy Walker; and Tilda Swinton Betrayed Us by A. Rey Pamatmat, directed by Zi Alikhan.

Auditions will be Tuesday January 25th and Wednesday January 26th. For more information about auditions, visit www.keencompany.org/ktaudition.

Performances will be May 12th - 14th at The Lion Theatre in Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street, between 9th and 10th Avenues). Tickets are only $19.25 and may be purchased by calling Telecharge at 212-239-6200 or online at www.telecharge.com. Tickets will go on sale April 1st.

Keen Teens is a unique educational theatre program which seeks to improve the quality of plays written for high school students by commissioning scripts from highly regarded professional writers. Playwrights write plays 30 minutes in length that involve a large cast and also reflect Keen Company's mission of producing plays that provoke identification, reflection and emotional connection. The plays are performed by high school students from across the metropolitan area, as part of a free program which allows students an immersive experience in new play production. The productions are all designed and directed by theatre professionals, allowing the students a unique opportunity to work alongside some of the most talented emerging artists working in New York today. Keen's program partner, Samuel French, Inc., then publishes the plays and make them available for future productions around the globe. In its first eight seasons, Keen Teens produced plays by Courtney Baron, Barton Bishop, Bekah Brunstetter, Jonathan Caren, Kristoffer Diaz, Bathsheba Doran, Anton Dudley, Halley Feiffer, Kenny Finkle, Liz Flahive, Marcus Gardley, Madeleine George, Jason Grote, Naomi Iizuka and Ryan Pavelchik, Greg Kotis, Mike Lew, Cheri Magid, Winter Miller, Michael Mitnick, Anna Moench, Janine Nabers, Qui Nguyen, Jenny Schwartz, and Kathryn Walat.

"I am thrilled to welcome three new writers into our Keen Teens family for our 11th season. Eleanor Burgess, Boo Killebrew and A. Rey Pamatmat have written smart, challenging and theatrical pieces which will give our teens a wonderful opportunity to delve into the human condition in honest and complicated ways. I am proud to bring my friend and colleague Molly Meador on board as Keen Teens Producer. Molly brings a wealth of experience and energy to the program and I am excited to see the program grow under her leadership," said Jonathan Silverstein, Artistic Director.

"How do you know what is important? What is worth fighting for? And are you willing to put yourself out there for it?" The three plays in our 11th Keen Teens Festival examine these questions, on a large scale and small. The plays do not simplify the questions for our Teen actors but give them a chance to explore along with our audience. With professional playwrights, directors and designers, students from High Schools all across NYC get the unique opportunity to create world premiere works that will then be available, through our partnership with Samuel French, for public performance," added Molly Meador, Keen Teens Producer .

For more information, go to www.keencompany.org.

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHTS:

Eleanor Burgess's plays have been produced at the ALLIANCE THEATRE, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Centenary Stage Company, the Samuel French Festival and the Boston Theatre Marathon, and developed at Ensemble Studio Theatre, Huntington Theatre Company, the Lark Play Development Center, the Kennedy Center/NNPN MFA Playwrights Workshop, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Ryder Farm, and Luna Stage. She's been the recipient of an EST/Sloan commission, the 2016 Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Award, the Susan Glaspell Award for Women Playwrights, and a Playwriting Fellowship at the Huntington Theatre in Boston, and a member of the writers' group at the Arcola Theatre in London, the Everyday Inferno Theatre Development Lab, and the Patriot Program at Merrimack Rep. Before becoming a writer, Eleanor taught history and creative writing in London, Boston, and New Haven. She has also worked as a gardener, a pastry chef, and a social media manager. She grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts, studied history and comparative theology at Yale College, and received an M.F.A in Dramatic Writing in 2015 from NYU/Tisch.

Boo Killebrew is a playwright, actress, and co-founder of CollaborationTown Theatre Company. Boo was a Lila Acheson Playwriting Fellow at The Juilliard School and the recipient of The Paula Vogel Award at The Vineyard Theater. She is a resident of The SPACE Working Farm, an alumni of the Emerging Writers Group at The Public Theater, a recipient of a NYFA Fellowship, an alumni of TerraNova's Groundbreakers, an Affiliated Artist and Kitchen Cabinet Member with New Georges, and a Usual Suspect with New Theater Workshop. Her plays include Miller, Mississippi (The Leah Ryan Prize 2015, Dallas Theatre Center 2017); Romance Novels For Dummies (Williamstown Theater Festival, 2016), Days Like Diamonds, The Play About My Dad, The d Life, Caveat Emptor and The Momentum NYC Fringe Festival Excellence Award for Overall Production of a Play; GLAAD Media Award Nominee). Her work has been presented at The Roundabout Theatre, The Public Theater, Williamstown Theater Festival, The Atlantic, New York Theater Workshop, New York Stage and Film, Perry Mansfield, Portland Center Stage, New Georges, Clubbed Thumb, The Huntington Theatre Co., 59e59 Theatres, The New Ohio, The Labyrinth, The Alley Theatre, and Boston Playwright's Theatre. Boo was an Edward F. Albee Foundation Fellow, an Artist in Residence at NYFA, Robert Wilson's Watermill Center, The New York Theater Workshop, The MacDowell Colony, Williamstown Theater Festival, and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Boo has received two New York Innovative Theater Awards, two Fringe Excellence Awards, and The Bette Davis Foundation Award. She is currently commissioned by Victory Gardens, The Dallas Theatre Center, and Manhattan Theatre Club. Boo is a writer for "Longmire" on Netflix and created the television pilot "Aim High" which is currently in development at AMC.

A. Rey Pamatmat's plays include after all the terrible things I do (South Coast Rep commission, Milwaukee Rep world premiere, Huntington Theatre Company); Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them (Rolling World premiere at The Actors Theatre of Louisville's Humana Festival of New American Plays, Company One, Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award Citation, GLAAD Media Award nomination, Lambda Literary Award Finalist); A Power Play; Or, What's-its-name (2014 O'Neill Playwrights Conference, development at A.R.T. Institute and Berkeley Rep's Ground Floor). House Rules (Ma-Yi Theatre Company); Thunder Above, Deeps Below (developed at O'Neill Playwrights Conference, world premiere by Second Generation, Lambda Literary Award Finalist); A Spare Me (Waterwell's New Works Lab). Rey is Co-Director of the Ma-Yi Writer's Lab, and a past recipient of the Playwright of New York (PoNY) Fellowship, Princeton's Hodder Fellowship, Princess Grace Award for Playwriting, Princess Grace Special Projects Grant, NYFA Playwriting Fellowship, and a Truman Capote Literary Fellowship.