Salon Series-Staged Readings Of New Plays Begins Again 3/27

The Fire Dept Artistic Directors Erica Gould and Audrey Rosenberg have announced that the return of the company's Salon Series-staged readings of new plays, presented in non-proscenium environments that encourage an intimacy between audience and performer, followed by a discussion with the artists and noted guest speakers whose life experiences speak to the issues raised by the material-will begin with The Minotaur by Anna Ziegler (BFF), directed by Erica Gould (Neil LaBute's autobahn and Stand Up), and starring Mario Cantone (Sex and the City), Jill Clayburgh (Dirty Sexy Money, An Unmarried Woman), Campbell Scott (Dying Young, Singles, Longtime Companion), and Jeremy Webb (The Glorious Ones, Kander & Ebb's The Visit) on Friday, March 27 at 7 pm at the historic Players Club, 16 Gramercy Park South at 20th Street. The event will be produced by Audrey Rosenberg (Infamous with Sandra Bullock, upcoming documentary about Barack Obama).

The Minotaur is a startlingly relevant adaptation of the myth of Theseus and Ariadne, in which the young Athenian prince kills the Minotaur, and steals Ariadne away from Crete and into an uncertain future. Set in a timeless present, The Minotaur is a whimsical, and poetic new play about love, loss, forgiveness, and the primal longings that connect us to and separate us from our animal selves. Casting a different light on the monster in the labyrinth, the play asks if we can rewrite our destinies, or if we are condemned to the fate our cultural stories dictate.

A portion of the proceeds from the evening will benefit the NiteStar Program, a non-profit organization serving underprivileged, inner-city youth, that uses the performing arts and peer education to provide HIV/AIDS awareness and pregnancy, substance abuse, and relationship violence prevention; help youth to make informed decisions; provide options for changing attitudes and prejudices; and create opportunities for behavioral change.

On Friday, April 24, The Fire Dept will present the second installment of this year's Salon Series- Dividing Ashes by Chiori Miyagawa. In this quirky, moving, and fanciful exploration of personal responsibility, our place in history, and the debts we owe to those who love us, a man falls through the ice in Central Park on the coldest day of winter, taking the woman who tries to save him on an upside-down journey historical and hysterical.

Exposure Time by Kim Merrill finishes the series on Friday, May 29. Can technology irrevocably alter who we are and how we perceive the world? A hypnotic exploration of the birth of photography and the complex psychological, artistic, and emotional arithmetic that entwined and ensnared together pioneer photographer Julia Margaret Cameron, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll), and their mutual muse, Alice Liddell.

The inaugural event in The Fire Dept Salon Series, "At War: American Playwrights Respond to Iraq," took place in June 2007 at the National Arts Club, and featured Michael Cerveris, Peter Sarsgaard, and David Strathairn, and the following winter played several nights at the Bleecker Street Theatre.

Founded in spring 2006 by Audrey Rosenberg, Erica Gould, and Jessica Blank, The Fire Dept is a New York-based, non-profit theatre company made up of established and emerging theatre artists dedicated to creating work that cannot be replicated inside a television box or on a movie screen, work of visceral and heightened theatricality that not only entertains, but also wrestles with questions of importance to our society and our world. Developing theatre that combines the rigor and structure of great narrative storytelling with the vitality of formal experimentation, The Fire Dept is committed to the development of new plays and theatre pieces, as well as vital re-interpretations of existing works. Using alternative as well as traditional theatre spaces, The Fire Dept is committed to igniting questions, sparking controversy, and responding to the urgency of our times.

The founding members of The Fire Dept are Rob Ackerman, Jessica Blank, Suzanne Bradbeer, Dave Calvitto, Amelia Campbell, Kathleen Chalfant, Constance Congdon, Chuck Cooper, Stefania de Kenessey, Jessica Dickey, Anton Dudley, Peter Gallagher, Janeane Garofalo, Jeff Goldblum, Nick Hallett, Judith Hawking, Sarah Nina Hayon, Brian Keith Jackson, Erik Jensen, Toby Jones, Rajiv Joseph, Laurence Klavan, Carson Kreitzer, Neil LaBute, David lander, Harry Lennix, Josh Lucas, Matthew Modine, Lynn Nottage, Denis O'Hare, Dael Orlandersmith, Aidan Quinn, Steven Rattazzi, Theresa Rebeck, Gloria Reuben, Jose Rivera, Jake Robards, Lynn Rosen, Edwin Sanchez, Jonathan Schaefer, Jeremy Schwartz, David Strathairn, Daniel Sunjata, Sona Tatoyan, Myra Lucretia Taylor, April Yvette Thompson, Jeremy Webb, Sheri Wilner, Rebecca Wisocky

The members of The Fire Dept Artist Advisory Board are Peter Askin, Jill Clayburgh, Emily Mann, Lynn Redgrave, Marian Seldes, and Sam Waterston.

Tickets for the Salon Series evening of The Minotaur are $23 and may be purchased by visiting www.thefiredept.org, phoning SmartTix at 212 868-4444, or by visiting www.smarttix.com.

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