29th Street Playwrights Collective New Works Series Presents PARK SLOPE QUARTET

29th Street Playwrights Collective New Works Series presents a staged reading of PARK SLOPE QUARTET, written by Catherine Rogers and directed by Kathy Gail MacGowan, Thursday, October 26, at Polaris North, 245 W29th Street, 4th Floor, at 7pm.

In PARK SLOPE QUARTET, Harry Michaels believes he may be at the end of his life. As he prepares to cross over, he receives hints of a world beyond. Harry hires a poetry tutor, Elsie, to help him put words to his visions. As they work, Elsie finds his willingness to let go of life transforms her own deep fear of living fully. Together they create an age-defying love affair with life and death.

The cast includes: Ron Brice (most recently seen in Annalise Lockhart's "Inheritance" and Onur Tukel's “Black Magic for White Boys”), Sage Kirwan (HBO film “Paterno,” starring Al Pacino, and Showtime's “Nurse Jackie,” opposite Edie Falco), Jon Krupp (MILK at New Georges and Barbour Award-winning playwright of KILONOVA), Nathalie Schmidt (feature film THE HOME, and award-winning web series I DO), and Maja Wampuszyc (Richard Vetere's LADY MACBETH AND HER LOVER and ZAGŁADA).

Director Kathy Gail MacGowan has directed hundreds of developmental readings for new work in New York, leading to the direction of 15 premieres by New York playwrights. In May she directed the New York premiere of Lauren Gunderson's play Emilie: La Marquise du Chatalet Defends Her Life Tonight at The Flea Theatre. MacGowan regularly guest directs at The Stella Adler Conservatory/NYU Tisch and recently directed and adapted Henry 4, Part 1, which toured public schools, senior centers and notably Rikers prison.  She is a Drama League Directing Finalist and a member of SDC, AEA, and holds a MFA from The New School for Drama. 

Resident Playwright Catherine Rogers' play La Notte was produced in August by the Foothills Festival, upstate New York. The premiere reading of her play Love Triangle, directed by Gia Forakis, was presented by 29PWC in Athens, Greece (2022). Catherine's other plays have been seen at Dixon Place, Women's Project, Manhattan Theatre Source, Salvage Vanguard, Hyde Park TX, Caffe Lena, Marlene Meyerson JCC, Cleveland Public Theatre, Athens Centre, and others. Active in Naked Angels Tues@9, she is a member of SAG/AFTRA, Dramatists Guild, and holds an MFA from U Texas. Catherine is a creative writing professor at Columbia University and a Michener Fellow. 

Now in its 8th season, the 29th Street Playwrights Collective develops the voices of emerging, mature playwrights through weekly writing sessions, craft discussions and presentations. Our goal is to foster new work for the stage while supporting the needs of the playwright, committing to gender parity (serving 50% women), and providing opportunities for the public to attend public performances via the NEW WORKS SERIES and provide feedback.

*We wish to express our gratitude to the Performers' Unions: ACTORS' EQUITY ASSOCIATION, AMERICAN GUILD OF MUSICAL ARTISTS, AMERICAN GUILD OF VARIETY ARTISTS, SAG-AFTRA through Theatre Authority, Inc. for their cooperation in permitting the Artists to appear in this program.

TICKETS: $10 at EventBrite, which benefit the New Works Series

WHERE / WHEN: Thursday, October 26, at Polaris North, 245 W29th Street, 4th Floor, at 7pm.