New Perspectives Theatre to Present DEAD RECKONING, 8/13-17

New Perspectives Theatre Company (NPTC) has announced DEAD RECKONING, the 6th Annual Women's Work Short Play Festival with three original scripts developed to that theme. The festival runs from Tuesday, August 13th to Saturday, August 17th with performances at 4:00pm and 7:30pm. DEAD RECKONING performs at NPTC Studio, 458 West 37th Street (at 10th Avenue.)

The festival is comprised of three plays: Between Here and There by Cecilia Copeland, directed by Daniella Caggiano; Pop Life by Holly Eaton, directed by Joyia Bradley; andRunning Out of Time by Felice Lesser, directed by Jenny Greeman. Meganne George serves as Set and Prop Design Consultant, Deborah Constantine is Lighting Designer, Peter Fogel is Costume Designer. Mario Monreal is the Audio/Visual Consultant..

Now in its 6th year, each Short Play Festival is created in NPTC's Women's Work LAB, in which Artistic Director Melody Brooks provides a theme to new members in the spring, and resident directors collectively dramaturge the scripts and bring them to production quality. The festival then provides the critical development tool of putting scripts on their feet fully rehearsed in a bare bones production. The theme of DEAD RECKONING was inspired (as all themes have been) by the social and political discourse percolating at the start of a new LAB. This year the increasing devastation from climate change heavily influenced our theme, along with downright legislative insanity at the state level, on an array of issues impacting citizens' ability to live healthy and productive lives. After an intensive and wide-ranging discussion of the topic each writer found her own take on this theme-from literal perspectives to more metaphorical explorations of unguided journeys and inevitable endings. The resulting plays are as unique and diverse as the talented writers who created them.

Between Here and There presents a no-longer young artist confronting the realities of "making it" in New York City. Through the power of technogoly she is aided in her self-assessment by her Skyped-in Mom and online cost of living calculators, all the while imagining what it will take to make her art "worth it". Set in the early evening of the great blackout of 2003, Pop Life brings four co-workers serendiptiously together in the same bar on their journey home-where they find themselves in a place transformed by its lack of power. Tropical Strom Sandy is the inspiration for the comical Running Out of Time, in which two lovers must evaluate their options in a changing world, after a lifetime of meaningful work and activism.

NPTC is an award-winning, multi-racial company performing in the Theatre District and communities throughout NYC. Now beginning its 22nd season, notable productions have includedRichard III, starring Austin Pendleton; The Taming of the Shrew (OOBR Award for Excellence), Exhibit #9 by Tracy Scott Wilson (Audelco Award); Jihad by Ann Chamberlain (OOBR Award for Excellence); Admissions by Tony Velella (10 Best Plays Citation, Backstage); the premiere of The Shaneequa Chronicles by OBIE-Winner Stephanie Berry (with Blackberry Productions); Anatomy of a Love Affair by Deirdre Hollman (Optioned by Essence Entertainment); and innovative productions of Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet, Othello, and Julius Caesar. The Company's mission is to develop and produce new plays and playwrights, especially women and people of color; to present classic plays in a style that addresses contemporary issues; and to extend the benefits of theatre to young people and communities in need. Our aim is not to exclude, but to cast a wider net.

2013 WOMEN'S WORK LAB WRITERS:

Cecilia Copeland: Full length works include: Light of Night World Premier with IATI Theatre 2014, COURTING and BIOLIFE Semifinalists for The O'Neill Playwrights Conference. The Wicked Son, awarded in the "Top Three Best New Jewish Plays," by the JPP. One Women, winner of the Lennis J. Holm Scholarship. One Acts: Amusement Bomber adapted into a short film with Metro Screen Australia. BILLBOARDS GREATEST HITS Commissioned and Produced by The Performing Arts High School. Other short works have been produced or presented at the Anarchist Theatre Festival of Montreal, Culture Project, CAPSLOCK THEATRE, Sticky, The Disreputables, Le Petite Morgue, 31 Plays in 31 Days, Ensemble Studios Theatre, INTAR Theatre,Cherry Lane Theatre, and Metro Screen Australia. Cecilia taught at Stella Adler Conservatory, Ohio University and the Performing Arts High School. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of New York Madness and a Member of the League of Professional Theatre Women.

HOLLY M. EATON earned her B.A. in Literature and Creative Writing from Dartmouth College. Her one-act plays, Front Stoop and Fifteen Minutes Past the Hour were featured at the Playwright's Slam in New York City in 2004. Fifteen Minutes Past the Hour went on to become a "Wild Card" choice in 2005 at the Strawberry One-Act Festival in New York City. In 2008, she received her M.F.A. in Playwriting from Adelphi University, where she studied with playwrights Kermit Frazier and Anton Dudley. Upon receiving her M.F.A., her play Swing was presented in a reading at Second Stage Theater. In September of 2008, Holly was chosen as a scholarship recipient for the first national meeting of the Black Women Playwrights' Group held at LoyolaUniversity. In 2009, Holly's play Five Card Stud was included in "Going to the River: River Plays" at Ensemble Studio Theatre. She is a member of TCG and Going to the River, an associate member of the Dramatists Guild, and a staff writer for the internet soap opera "Our World".

FELICE LESSER: Choreography, play/screenwriting, video, and computer animation are among the elements that constitute Felice Lesser's artistic work. Her "living cartoon" Funding the Artswas premiered in 2010 at Baryshnikov Arts Center, and is now being developed at LaGuardia Performing Arts Center for a new production in 2014-15. She won the 1988 Lawrence S. Epstein Prize for Choreography and her dance works have been performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, Joyce SoHo, Sarasota Ballet, & the 1991 Tokyo International Choreography Competition, among many other venues. She received two Accolade Awards for her "live documentary" I AM A DANCER. Her screenplays and plays were Semi-Finalists in the Chesterfield, Fade-In Online, Free Screenplay, and Writers Network Competitions. She's included on Credo Interactive's website as a "Master Animator" for her Life Forms work. She is an Adjunct Professor of Dance at UCONN/Stamford, and an Artist-in-Residence for Nevada and Idaho. BA Barnard, MA Columbia. www.fldt.org

SCHEDULE: (Press Performances August 13-17, 2013) Tuesday, August 13, 7:30pm; Wednesday, August 14, 7:30pm; Thursday, August 15, 4:00pm AND 7:30pm; Friday, August 16, 2013, 7:30pm; and Saturday, August 17, 4:00pm. All performances at New Perspectives Theatre Company, 458 West 37th Street (at 10th Avenue). Tickets: $15 $12/students and seniors w/ID. Advance Sale at www.nptnyc.org. Reservations: 212-630-9945; contact@nptnyc.org. LIMITED SEATING; ADVANCE TICKET PURCHASE ENCOURAGED.

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