GayFest NYC's THE LOVES OF MR. LINCOLN Opens Tonight

GAYFEST NYC, Inc. (Bruce Robert Harris and Jack W. Batman, Producers; Craig Wesley Divino, Associate Producer), the country's premier producer of new LGBT-themed plays, concludes the Fifth Festival of Plays, a four-week event filled with powerful theatre works spotlighting gay issues, with the World Premiere of the new play, The Loves of Mr. Lincoln, written by David Brendan Hopes and directed by Sidney J. Burgoyne.

The five-member cast features Don Burroughs, Leah Curney, Tyrone Davis, Jr., Steven Hauck and Stacey Todd Holt.

Partially based on historic letters between Abraham Lincoln and his best friend, Joshua Speed, The Loves of Mr. Lincoln is the author's stirring interpretation of the lives they lived, together and apart. It is a brilliant theatrical depiction of our 16th President, Abraham Lincoln, who loved his wife, his children, the Union, the United States of America and Joshua Speed.

Performances begin Thursday, June 6, 2013 and a limited two-week engagement through Sunday, June 16, 2013 in the June Havoc Theatre at the Abingdon Theatre Arts Complex (312 West 36th Street). Opening night is Friday, June 7, 2013 at 7:30 p.m.

The creative team includes Michael Hotopp (Set), Carrie Robbins (Costumes), John Eckert (Lighting), and Paul Huntley (Hair & Wigs). The Production Stage Manager is Aislinn Curry.

The Loves of Mr. Lincoln will play the following schedule: Tuesday-Saturday at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday at 3:00 p.m. with a special added matinee on Saturday, June 15 at 2:00 p.m.

Single tickets are priced at $25 and are available at www.Theatermania.com or by calling 212-352-3101. For additional information log onto: www.GAYFESTNYC.com. All proceeds from GAYFEST NYC benefit the Harvey Milk High School.

Currently in performance at the 2013 GAYFEST NYC Festival, and in conjunction with The Loves of Mr. Lincoln, is The BASiC Theatre Project production of Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde written by Moisés Kaufman in the Dorothy Strelsin Theatre (May 30 - June 16, 2013). Directed by Zi Alikhan, the cast features Drew Feldman, Benjamin Fisher, Joshua Forcum, Michael Greehan, Anthony Jackson, Charlie Kolarich, Michael Lorz, Russell Peck, Jonathan Sokolow and Carl Wilson.

The Festival opened with the New York Premiere of Moonlight & Love Songs by Scott C. Sickles (May 23-June 2, 2013). Directed by Steven Petrillo, the cast featured Nick Bailey, D.H. Johnson, Kathryn Markey, Gerald McCullouch, Robert Meksin, Corey Richmond Skaggs and Christine Verleny.