Stephen Adly Guirgis Joins Moses, Rapp & Shinn in BAD BOYS OF OFF BROADWAY

Stephen Adly Guirgis will join Itamar Moses, Adam Rapp and Christopher Shinn for "The Bad Boys of Off Broadway", the first in a series of seminars focused on the culture, business and history of Off Broadway sponsored by The Off Broadway Alliance, on Sunday, February 28, 2010.

The announcement was made today by Peter Breger, chair of The Alliance.

Guirgis's plays include The Little Flower of East Orange, Our Lady of 121st Street, Jesus Hopped the ‘A' Train, In Arabia, We'd All Be Kings and The Last Days of Judas Iscariot. He is Co-Artistic Director of LAByrinth Theater Company.

"The Bad Boys of Off Broadway" also features Itamar Moses (The Four of Us, Back Back Back, Back at Leipzig), Adam Rapp (Red Light Winter, Stone Cold Dead Serious, Essential Self-Defense) and Christopher Shinn (Dying City, Now Or Later, What Didn't Happen). David Cote, theater editor and chief drama critic for Time Out New York, will serve as moderator.

The panel will be held on Sunday, February 28, 2010 from 12:30pm - 2:00pm at The Snapple Theater Center's Jerry Orbach Theater, 210 West 50th Street at Broadway. Admission for the seminar is free, however reservations are a must.

To RSVP for the event, visit http://obaseminar.eventbrite.com/ before February 26.

The Off Broadway Alliance is an open forum for Off Broadway producers, general managers, venue owners, press agents and marketing personnel who meet to promote and support Off Broadway theater, encourage and assist new producers, plan for the future of the industry, share ideas and network. Membership is open to everyone in the Off Broadway theater community.

The Alliance created and administers 20 at 20, the biannual event where you can purchase $20 tickets to participating Off Broadway shows 20 minutes prior to curtain. This past June, The Alliance released the first ever Off Broadway Economic Impact Report, which detailed Off Broadway's $461 million impact on the City of New York during the 2008 theater season.

For more information visit www.offbroadwayalliance.com

About Stephen Adly Guirgis

Stephen Adly Guirgis is a member and the co-artistic director of New York City's LAByrinth Theater Company. His plays have been produced on five continents and throughout the United States. His most recent play, The Little Flower of East Orange, starring Ellen Burstyn and directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman, completed an extended run at The Public Theater last season. Other plays include Our Lady of 121st Street (10 best plays of 2003; Lucille Lortel, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle Best Play Nominations), Jesus Hopped the ‘A' Train (Edinburgh Festival Fringe First Award, Laurence Olivier Nomination for London's Best New Play), In Arabia, We'd All Be Kings (2007 LA Drama Critics Best Play, Best Writing Award), and The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (10 best Time Magazine & Entertainment Weekly), produced by LAByrinth in collaboration with The Public Theater. Judas Iscariot also completed a critically acclaimed run in London at the Almeida Theater. All five plays were originally produced by LAByrinth and directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman. Along with his play Den of Thieves, they are all published by Dramatists Play Service as well as by Faber and Faber. His one act play, Dominica The Fat Ugly Ho, was directed by Adam Rapp as part of the 2006 E.S.T. Marathon. His new play, "The Motherf**ker With the Hat" will premiere in New York in the 2010-2011 season. As an actor, he appeared in numerous plays including Guinea Pig Solo, produced by LAByrinth at The Public Theatre, and has had leading film roles in Todd Solondz's Palindromes, Brett C. Leonard's Jailbait opposite Michael Pitt, and in Kenneth Lonergan's Margaret. Other credits include Philip Seymour Hoffman's upcoming Jack Goes Boating, Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche New York, Adam Rapp's Blackbird, Noah Buschel's Neal Cassady, as well as Meet Joe Black, Noise, Trainwreck: My Life as an Idiot, and "Law and Order". His television writing credits include NYPD Blue, The Sopranos, David Milch's CBS drama Big Apple, and Shane Salerno's NBC series UC: Undercover. Stephen has received a 2006 PEN/Laura Pels Award, a 2006 Whiting Award, and a 2004 TCG fellowship. He attended the 2004 Sundance Screenwriter's Lab, and was named one of 2004's 25 New Faces of Independent Film by Filmmaker Magazine. He is the recipient of new play commissions from Manhattan Theatre Club, Center Theater Group, and South Coast Repertory, and is a member of New Dramatists, MCC's Playwright's Coalition, New River Dramatists, and The Actor's Studio Playwright/Directors Unit. He developed and directed Liza Colón-Zayas' Sistah Supreme for Danny Hoch's Hip Hop Theater Festival, Marco Greco's award-winning Behind the Counter with Mussolini in New York and Los Angeles, and directed Melanie Maras's "Kiss Me on the Mouth" for InViolet Rep. A former Violence Prevention Specialist/H.I.V. Educator, he has facilitated numerous workshops in New York City area prisons, schools, shelters, and hospitals.

About Itamar Moses

Itamar Moses is the author of the full-length plays OUTRAGE, BACH AT LEIPZIG, CELEBRITY ROW, THE FOUR OF US, YELLOWJACKETS, BACK BACK BACK, and COMPLETENESS, the musicals REALITY! (with Gaby Alter), and FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE (with Michael Friedman and Daniel Aukin), and an evening of short plays called LOVE/STORIES (OR BUT YOU WILL GET USED TO IT). His work has appeared Off-Broadway and elsewhere in New York, at regional theatres across the country and in Canada, and is published by Faber & Faber and Samuel French. He has received new play commissions from The McCarter Theater, Playwrights Horizons, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, The Wilma Theater, South Coast Rep, Manhattan Theatre Club, Lincoln Center, and The Goodman Theatre. Itamar holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU and has taught playwriting at Yale and NYU. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, MCC Playwrights Coalition, and is a New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect. He was born in Berkeley, CA and now lives in Brooklyn, NY.

About Adam Rapp

Adam Rapp is a novelist, filmmaker, and an OBIE Award-winning playwright and director. He has been the recipient of the Herbert & Patricia Brodkin Scholarship, two Lincoln Center le Compte de Nuoy Awards, a fellowship to the Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France, the1999 Princess Grace Award for Playwrighting, a 2000 Roger L. Stevens Award from the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays, a 2000 Suite Residency with Mabou Mines, the 2001 Helen Merrill Award for Emerging Playwrights, Boston's Elliot Norton Award, was short-listed for the 2003 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing, received the 2006 Princess Grace Statue, a 2007 Lucille Lortel Playwriting Fellowship, and the Benjamin H. Danks Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

His plays include NOCTURNE (A.R.T., Off-Broadway at NYTW), GHOSTS IN THE COTTONWOODS (Victory Gardens; The Arcola, London), ANIMALS AND PLANTS (A.R.T.), BLACKBIRD (The Bush, London; Pittsburgh City Theatre; Off-Broadway with Edge Theater), STONE COLD DEAD SERIOUS (A.R.T., Off-Broadway with Edge Theater), FINER NOBLE GASES (26th Annual Humana Festival of New American Plays, Off-Broadway at Rattlestick, 2006 Edinburgh Fringe Festival), FASTER (Off-Broadway at Rattlestick), TRUEBLINKA (Off-Broadway at the Maverick Theater), DREAMS OF THE SALTHORSE (Encore, S.F.), GOMPERS (Pittsburgh City Theatre; The Arcola, London), RED LIGHT WINTER (Steppenwolf, Off-Broadway with Scott Rudin Productions at The Barrow Street Theater), ESSENTIAL SELF-DEFENSE (Playwrights Horizons/Edge Theater, Drama Desk Nomination for Best Original Music), AMERICAN SLIGO (Rattlestick), BINGO WITH THE INDIANS (The Flea), THE METAL CHILDREN (Vineyard Theatre), and KINDNESS (Playwrights Horizons).

As a director, his production of BLACKBIRD (Edge Theater) received two Drama Desk Nominations. His production of RED LIGHT WINTER was the first play to completely sell-out Steppenwolf's Garage Theater and won the Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Work. It then transferred to the Barrow Street Theatre for a six-month Off-Broadway commercial run, where it received a Citation from the American Theatre Critics Association, a Lucille Lortel Nomination for Best New Play, two OBIE Awards, and was named a finalist for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize. His production of FINER NOBLE GASES at the 2006 Edinburgh Festival received a Fringe First Award, A Best Actor Award from the London Stage, and the List Magazine/Writers' Guild of Great Britain's Best Newcomer Prize. He also directed Christopher Denham's CAGELOVE at Rattlestick, Stephen Adly Guirgis' DOMINICA: THE FAT UGLY HO for E.S.T.'s Marathon '06, and Julian Sheppard's LOS ANGELES at The Flea. Most recently he directed world premieres of his plays AMERICAN SLIGO (Rattlestick) BINGO WITH THE INDIANS (The Flea), and KINDNESS (Playwrights Horizons).

His first anthology of plays, PLAYS BY Adam Rapp, is published by Broadway Play Publishing, which also publishes editions of BLACKBIRD, ANIMALS & PLANTS, FINER NOBLE GASES, and GOMPERS. RED LIGHT WINTER, NOCTURNE, STONE COLD DEAD SERIOUS AND OTHER PLAYS, and ESSENTIAL SELF-DEFENSE are all available in trade editions from Faber & Faber.

His first feature film, WINTER PASSING, starring Ed Harris, Will Ferrell, and Zooey Deschanel, received its world premiere as an Official Selection of the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival and was released in February, 2006. His second feature, BLACKBIRD, which was adapted from his play, received its world premiere at the 2007 Southxsouthwest Festival, was selected for the 2007 Edinburgh International Film Festival, won the Best Narrative Feature Prize at the Charlotte Film Festival, and garnered a Special Jury Prize for Achievement in Direction from the Florida Film Festival.

He is the author of the young adult novels MISSING THE PIANO (Viking/HarperCollins), THE BUFFALO TREE (Front Street/HarperColllins), THE COPPER ELEPHANT (Front Street/HarperCollins), LITTLE CHICAGO (Front Street Press), 33 SNOWFISH (Candlewick Press), UNDER THE WOLF, UNDER THE DOG (Candlewick Press), which was short-listed for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and received the Schneider Book Award from the American Library Association, and most recently PUNKZILLA (Candlewick Press), which was named a 2009 Michael J. Printz Honor Book. His adult novel, THE YEAR OF ENDLESS SORROWS, is published by Farrar Straus & Giroux. He is also the author of the graphic novel, BALL-PEEN HAMMER (First Second Books).

Upcoming projects include the world premiere of his play, THE METAL CHILDREN, which he will direct at The Vineyard Theatre, to open in May, and the graphic novel DECELERATE BLUE for Fist Second Books.

A graduate of Clarke College in Dubuque, IA, where he majored in Fiction Writing and Psychology, Mr. Rapp also completed a two-year playwriting fellowship at Juilliard. He was born in Chicago, IL, and lives in New York City.

About Christopher Shinn

Christopher Shinn was born in Hartford, Connecticut, and lives in New York. His plays have been premiered by The Royal Court Theatre, Lincoln Center Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons, the Vineyard Theatre, South Coast Rep, and Soho Theatre, and later seen regionally in the United States and around the world. He is the winner of an OBIE in Playwriting (2004-2005) and a Guggenheim Fellowship in Playwriting (2005), was a Pulitzer Prize finalist (2008), was shortlisted for the Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Play (2008), and has also been nominated for an Olivier Award for Most Promising Playwright (2003), a TMA Award for Best New Play (2006), a Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play (2007), and a South Bank Show Award for Theatre (2009). In 2009, his adaptation of Hedda Gabler premiered on Broadway at the Roundabout (American Airlines Theatre) and he has also written short plays for Naked Angels, the 24 Hour Plays, and the New York International Fringe Festival (2002 winner, Best Overall Production). He has received grants from the NEA/TCG Residency Program and the Peter S. Reed Foundation, and he is a recipient of the Robert S. Chesley Award. His plays are published in collections from TCG and A&C Black, and in acting editions from Dramatists Play Service and Playscripts. He teaches playwriting at the New School for Drama.

About David Cote

David Cote is theater editor and chief drama critic for Time Out New York. He's also a contributing critic for NY1's On Stage. His reporting, blogging and commentary have appeared in The New York Times, Opera News, The Guardian, The Times (UK), Salon and on WNYC. He has contributed essays for the Best Plays Yearbook series on Shining City, Blackbird and The Receptionist. His popular companion books to Broadway musicals include Wicked: The Grimmerie, Jersey Boys and Spring Awakening: In the Flesh. David is also a playwright and librettist. He's working on a commission from the Gingold Theatrical Group and ongoing opera collaborations with composers Stefan Weisman and Robert Paterson. In the 1990s, he was an actor and director, appearing in work by Richard Foreman, Richard Maxwell and Iranian exile Assurbanipal Babilla, which toured around the U.S. and Europe. From 1996 to '98 he founded and edited the underground broadsheet OFF: a journal for alternative theater. Fellowships: The MacDowell Colony. B.A. Bard College, 1992.

Photo Credit: Peter James Zielinski