Rattlestick Playwrights Theater Presents F*CK!NG GOOD PLAYS FESTIVAL

RATTLESTICK PLAYWRIGHTS THEATER (Daniella Topol, Artistic Director; Annie Middleton, Managing Director) is proud to announce that their annual F*CK!NG GOOD PLAYS FESTIVAL will take place May 7 through May 12 at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. The F*CK!NG GOOD PLAYS FESTIVAL is a long-standing tradition at Rattlestick of doing readings of bold new works from Rattlestick Alumni Writers and from Rattlestick's apprentice company, Middle Voice; as well as welcome new writers to Rattlestick for the first time. On the final day of the F*CK!NG GOOD PLAYS FESTIVAL, Rattlestick will present TheaterJam, a day-long event featuring over 20 writers.

All events are completely free the public. Reservations are encouraged and can be made by visiting Rattlestick.org.

"What unifies these new plays is that these writers are creating work that is urgent and relevant, and doing it in such a way that is deeply compelling, artful, poetic, and witty," saidDaniella Topol. "These plays are all unicorns in their own beautiful way and must be heard. We close out the Festival with TheaterJam where 20 lead artists will be sharing excerpts of new work. We welcome the public in to this community event to give theater outsiders an insider's glimpse into the artistic process."

The F*CK!NG GOOD PLAYS FESTIVAL is generously supported by Peter Emch, and is part of Rattlestick's New Voices/New Works Program, presented in partnership with Rosalind Productions, Inc.

THE SCHEDULE IS AS FOLLOWS -

Monday, May 7 @ 7pm

The Eradication by Rattlestick Alumni Playwright Keith Josef Adkins

It's the year 2021. The president has been assassinated and the country's in chaos. A rogue and rebel group is also killing Black people. An aging Black man and his adult son barricade themselves in their rural home, anticipating the incoming doom. However, things turn when two teenager show up at their doorstep. We quickly discover the two men must face another danger-the repercussions of their past.

Keith Josef Adkins is a playwright, screenwriter, and artistic director. Some of his plays include The Fight of a Migrant, The People Before The Park, Pitbulls, Safe House. Keith received Samuel French's inaugural Award for Impact and Activism in the Theater Community. He's a 2015 Helen Merrill Playwright Award recipient and a National Black Theater's Teer Spirit Awardee. He's the artistic director of The New Black Fest, an organization dedicated to new and provocative playwriting and discussion from the African Diaspora. Keith currently writes for Katori Hall's new TV drama for Starz. He also wrote for Shondaland's "For The People" on ABC and CBS' "The Good Fight." He's currently developing a feature film.

Tuesday, May 8 @ 7pm

In the Southern Breeze by Jiréh Breon Holder

Directed by LA Williams

When a runaway slave gets lost in a mysterious forest, an Absurdist drama ensues. In the Southern Breeze offers a challenging look at how our society has treated and continues to treat African American men.

Jiréh Breon Holder currently serves as the Playwriting Fellow at Emory University. He is an Atlanta area playwright, director, and dramaturg. He is also a co-founder of Pyramid Theatre Company in Des Moines, Iowa. His plays include Too Heavy for Your Pocket (Roundabout Theatre Company production, Alliance Theatre production, Kendeda Playwriting Prize, Edgerton Foundation Award, & Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Award), The Dancing Granny (Alliance Theatre production), and Some Bodies Travel (co-written with Tori Sampson.) His plays have been developed at Manhattan Theatre Club, Kennedy Center, Old Globe Theatre, and Yale School of Drama. M.F.A.: Yale School of Drama. B.A.: Morehouse College. www.JirehBreonHolder.com

Wednesday, May 9 @ 7pm

Slingshot by Kia Corthron

After a negligent manufacturing defect causes a terrible accident at work, Malik must live with the inevitable consequences. Lawyer Laurel's confident, comfortable life is challenged when she meets Malik's father Gid. In a nation where lawsuits have been equated with greed, how can Gid attain compensation and justice comparable to human life?

Kia Corthron was the 2017 resident playwright of Chicago's Eclipse Theatre. Productions at Playwrights Horizons, BAM, ATL/Humana, EST Marathon, NY Theatre Workshop, Minneapolis' Children's Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Yale Rep, Atlantic Theater Company, NY Stage and Film, Baltimore Center Stage, Goodman Theatre, MTC, Hartford Stage, London's Royal Court and Donmar Warehouse. Windham Campbell Prize, USArtists, McKnight National Residency, Daryl Roth Creative Spirit, NEA/TCG, Kennedy Center Fund. TV: "The Jury," "The Wire."?Dramatists Guild Council, New Dramatists alum, Authors Guild. The Castle Cross the Magnet Carter was the winner of the 2016 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize.

Thursday, May 10 @ 7pm

The Hour of Great Mercy by Miranda Rose Hall

Directed by Rattlestick Directing Fellow Kevin Hourigan

Ed, a Jesuit priest, returns to the icy and isolated community of Bethlehem, Alaska, in a last-ditch effort to reconcile with his estranged family. Upon arrival, he finds a town still shaken by a tragedy that struck five years ago. As Ed and the community test the limits of their capacity to forgive, Ed unexpectedly falls in love with a stranger beneath the starry Alaskan sky.

Miranda Rose Hall is a playwright from Baltimore, MD. She has read or developed her work with Rattlestick, The Playwright's Realm, New York Theater Workshop, Woolly Mammoth, Baltimore Center Stage, NNPN, the Kennedy Center, and Orlando Shakespeare Theater. She is resident playwright with LubDub Theatre Co., which is currently developing work with the Orchard Project Greenhouse. She earned her MFA from the Yale School of Drama, and currently teaches at Georgetown University.

Friday, May 11 @ 7pm

The Villagers by Middle Voice Playwright Jaime Jaget

Directed by Jenna Worsham

Just weeks before leaving for college, Regan runs into Eddie late one night on the shores of their small northeast town. Their encounter pulls her world apart. Now as waves of past and present collide, Regan's forced to ask the water - can she ever really leave?

Jaime Jaget is a New York City-based Playwright. Growing up in a small Long Island town, she is interested in the weight of generations. She is the former Managing Director of the Middle Voice at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. Writing Credits include: '94 Letters to Your Father (Theater Jam V, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, dir. Jenna Worsham),SonnyBoy (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater), Shift (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, dir. Jenna Worsham), The Villagers (Middle Voice at Rattlestick) & Mrs. Swenson (Warren Miller Performing Arts Center, dir. Eddie Prunoske).

Saturday, May 12 @ 12noon

Sadie River's Drag Ball On The Lawn by Rattlestick Alumni Playwright Basil Kreimendahl

Directed by Will Davis

Sadie River is alive and well in Louisville, Kentucky and she's sick of being disregarded and poor! The Mother of an unconventional, down-and-out drag house, Sadie takes her family on a tour de force of capitalistic-realness! Can you pass?

Basil Kreimendahl is a resident playwright at New Dramatists. His plays have won several awards, including the Rella Lossy Playwright Award and a National Science Award at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. Kreimendahl has been commissioned by Oregon Shakespeare Festival's American Revolutions Program, and by Actors Theatre of Louisville. We're Gonna Be Okay had its world premiere at the 2017 Humana Festival and subsequent productions around the country. Kreimendahl's play Orange Julius was developed at the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference and had its New York premiere at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, in a co-production with P73. Kreimendahl's plays have also been produced or developed by New York Theatre Workshop, Ryder Farm, American Theater Company, Victory Gardens Theater, The Lark, La Jolla Playhouse, and LAByrinth Theater Company. They have been a Playwrights' Center Jerome Fellow and a McKnight Fellow and received an Art Meets Activism Grant for work with the trans community in Kentucky. Kreimendahl's work has been published by Dramatic Publishing and HowlRound. They received their M.F.A. from the University of Iowa in 2013.

Saturday, May 12 from 3-9pm

TheaterJam featuring Kate Bergstrom, Jorge Ignacio Cortiñas, Cusi Cram, nicHi douglas, Gina Femia, Kristine Haruna Lee, Annie Middleton, Winter Miller, Zoë Rhulen, Ren Sanitago, James Scruggs, Korde Arrington Tuttle, Daisy Walker, Dustin Wills, and more.

Rattlestick Playwrights Theater recently concluded acclaimed runs of both the New York premiere of Pulitzer Prize finalist Dael Orlandersmith's Until the Flood, directed by Neel Keller, as well as the New York premiere of Mashuq Mushtaq Deen's Draw the Circle, directed by Chay Yew. The 2017/2018 season began with the sold-out run of Tow Playwright-in-Residence Diana Oh's {my lingerie play} 2017: THE CONCERT AND CALL TO ARMS!!!!!!!!! The Final Installation, co-directed by Oh and Orion Stephanie Johnstone.

The 2017/2018 Season continues this month with Arthur Laurents's THE ENCLAVE, presented by Middle Voice, Rattlestick's apprentice company. Directed by Victor Cervantes Jr. (The Parlour), THE ENCLAVE will play an extremely limited run at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater (224 Waverly Place) from April 24, 2018 through April 28, 2018. The 2017/2018 Season will conclude in June with a workshop production of Cusi Cram's St. Vincent's Project, Novenas for a Lost Hospital directed by Daniella Topol(Ironbound) and starring Kathleen Chalfant (Angels in America, Wit).

Rattlestick also recently announced their 2018/2019 Season. In Fall 2018, MacArthur Genius Grant Winner Samuel D. Hunter (The Whale, Bright New Boise, The Few) will team up with long-term collaborator Davis McCallum with the plays Lewiston and Clarkston, to be performed on a double bill for the first time. In Spring 2019, Rattlestick will present the World Premiere of Lockdown by Cori Thomas (When January Feels Like Summer), and directed by Kent Gash (Barbeque), commissioned by Rattlestick with support from The Toulmin Foundation.

ABOUT RATTLESTICK PLAYWRIGHTS THEATER

Founded in 1994, RATTLESTICK PLAYWRIGHTS THEATER is an Obie-Award winning theater that has created, developed and produced over 100 World Premieres. Our mission is to present diverse, challenging and provocative plays that might not otherwise be produced and to foster the future voices of the American theater. When we take on a playwright, we guarantee him or her a second production, regardless of the reception of the first. We have produced the first plays and early works of some of today's leading voices, including Annie Baker (The Aliens), Sheila Callaghan (That Pretty, Pretty), Jesse Eisenberg (The Revisionist), Martyna Majok (Ironbound), Adam Rapp (The Hallway Trilogy), Lucy Thurber (The Hilltown Plays), Jonathan Tolins (Buyer and Cellar) and Craig Wright (The Pavilion). We have also produced works by some of our nation's most celebrated playwrights, including Craig Lucas (Ode to Joy), Dael Orlandersmith (Horsedreams), and José Rivera (Massacre, Sing to Your Children). We produce theater to inspire empathy and provoke conversations in response to the complexities of our culture. For more info visit www.rattlestick.org.

Rattlestick is accessible via the 1, 2 and 3 trains (at 14 St. and Christopher St./Sheridan Square) and the A, B, C, D, E, F and M trains (at West 4th St.).

FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT

WWW.RATTLESTICK.ORG

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