Horse Trade Theater Group & Sanity Island Present BUCKLE UP 7/25, 8/1 & 8/8

Horse trade Theater Group Presents SANITY ISLAND'S PRODUCTION OF BUCKLE UP: THE JOURNEY OF A RIDE HOME, written by NATALIE UNDERWOOD and directed by JP SCHUFFMAN

LIMITED ENGAGEMENT!
JULY 25, AUGUST 1 & 8 @  UNDER St. MarkS

When precocious, fourteen year old Cassie (Natalie Underwood) begins an affair with her youth minister, Will, she cannot fathom the complexities of their unique, decade-long relationship. And when she meets Allan (Joe Yoga), a writer from New York who wants to help Cassie escape her parents' oppressive home, she finds that both Allan's affections and support come at a cost. Now Cassie must choose between her past and her future as she is forced to confront questions of personal truth, responsibility and acceptance.

BUCKLE UP will feature John Murdock, Natalie Underwood, and Joe Yoga.

The creative team will include Lighting Design by Brian Douglas, Costume Design by Jen Perney, and Set Design by JP Schuffman.

The production, presented by Horse Trade Theater Group and Sanity Island, will play at UNDER St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place between 1st Ave and Ave A). Sunday, July 25, August 1, and August 8 at 8pm. Tickets ($12) are available by calling Smarttix at 212-868-4444 or online at www.horseTRADE.info.

NATALIE UNDERWOOD (Playwright/Cassie) is a writer, actor and performance artist, and a magna cum laude graduate of Columbia University. Her body of work includes Ms. Claws in Santa Goes South, an animated stop-motion short produced by Peter Wallach and featured in the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival, and the role of the Transman's girlfriend in The Crab, an official selection of the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2010. She has performed in Ramblings of a Gentleman Scumbag, God Tastes Like Chicken and Scratch. Buckle Up has been her largest project to date, a labor of love straight from the heart.

JP SCHUFFMAN (Director/Co-Producer) is incredibly excited to be working with such a passionate and talented group of New York artists. He most recently directed Ramblings of a Gentleman Scumbag, which won the FRIGID Festival's 2010 Imperial Favorite Award. He is formerly the Producing Director of the Wild Thyme Players a not-for-profit classical theatre company focused on developing stagecraft for artists of all experience levels. He also spent two years as the director of Shake Rattle and Role, a weekly stage combat workshop. Some of his directorial works include: Dancing At Lughnasa, Hamlet, Titus Andronicus, Romeo and Juliet, and Othello. Buckle Up is his second play in New York.
HORSE TRADE THEATER GROUP is a self-sustaining theater development group; with a focus on new work, it has produced a massive quantity of stimulating downtown theater. Horse Trade's Resident Artist Program offers a home to a select group of Independent Theater artists, pooling together a great deal of talent and energy. It is also the home of FRIGID New York - the first and only festival of its kind in New York City.