Rosebud Baker, & Bokhour & Aspiras to Star in The Maternal Instinct Reading

Rosebud Baker, one of the stars of the upcoming Sundance Channel original series "Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys" will star in a staged reading of Monica Bauer's The Maternal Instinct on Monday, December 6th at 7pm at the WorkShop Theater's Main Stage (Baker also won the Best Actress in One Act Play Award in this past summer's Planet Connections Theatre Festivity). In The Maternal Instinct, the gender issue if front and center as a lesbian marriage is torn apart over the decision to have a baby. Directed by Glory Kadigan (founder of the Planet Connections Theatre Festivity), the cast also will also star Broadway's Christine Bokhour (Chicago, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) and Angelica-Lee Aspiras (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee), as well as John Fico, Ashley Lovell, and Nicole Taylor.

In The Maternal Instinct, the setting is present day Boston, home to same-sex marriage and the nation's most driven research scientists. Lillian, a brilliant scientist working on a breakthrough discovery about the maternal instinct in mice, has been sober for a year, which is also nearly as long as she has been married to Sarah. A surprise gift from Lillian's best friend threatens to blow her sobriety, and her marriage, apart. The gift: all expenses paid for Sarah to be artificially inseminated and fulfill her need to become a Mom. Lillian argues against it with surprising force, and her friends have no idea why she is dead set against raising a child.

Admission to the reading is free and open to both the public and industry. There will also be a talkback after the reading.

Bauer's work about men, BALLS! The Testosterone Plays, just enjoyed a three week run at the WorkShop Theater's Main Stage, with critics raving "...this is a woman whose plays about men pack as strong a punch as anything done by Mamet or Labute" (Karen Tortora-Lee, The Happiest Medium), and "BALLS! is a compelling evening of theater showcasing some wonderful acting and keen writing" (Charles Bales, OffOffOnline).

When The Maternal Instinct was first seen in New York at the 2006 Midtown International Theater Festival, Jack Hanley wrote for NYTheatre.com that "Monica Bauer's The Maternal Instinct stays unflaggingly on the eponymous topic-beautifully exemplifying it empirically as well as emotionally. . .It's theatre at its best. . .The science is intriguingly explored, presented accurately without going over the heads of the lay audience members such as myself. . .The Maternal Instinct is a play well worth seeing precisely because it makes you ask questions about your own personal standard of ethics. Again, that's theatre at its best."

The reading of The Maternal Instinct will take place on Monday, December 6th at 7pm at the WorkShop Main Stage Theatre (312 W. 36th Street, 4th Floor between 8th and 9th).