Sheen Center Theatre Festival Begins Tomorrow, 6/20

This week, The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture (18 Bleecker Street, at the corner of Elizabeth Street, NYC) launches its third annual Sheen Center Theater Festival. Taking place June 20 - 23, participating Broadway and Award-winning stage veterans include Tony Award nominee Brenda Braxton (Smokey Joe's Café, Chicago), Tina Fabrique (Ragtime, Noise/Funk),Drama Desk Award winner Ken Jennings (Urinetown, Side Show, Sweeney Todd),Matthew Sims, Jr. (National Tour of Motown The Musical), Lortel and Drama Desk Award winner Mirirai Sithole (School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play), Zonya Love (The Color Purple).Rounding out The Festival company are Francesco Andolfi, Kent Coleman, Ty Corbin, Daniel Damiano, Matt Golden, Daniel Harray, Trevor Hayes, James Jelkin, James B. Kennedy, Gates Leonard, Joyce Miller, Kathleen O'Neill, Allison Lewis-Towbes, Marcel Mascaro, Mario E. Sprouse, Katie Warns-Steckel, Perri Yaniv,and Kayte Zhang.

Celebrating the voices of established Catholic playwrights in staged reading presentations, this year's full-length plays feature works by playwright Caridad Svich (OBIE Award Winner), Nathan Yungerberg (Cherry Lane mentee under Stephen Adley Guirgus), William Baer (Guggenheim Fellowship recipient), and Erik Ehn (Whiting Award winner), as well as an adaptation of The Gospel of John interpreted by Ken Jennings, best known to Broadway audiences for his performances in the original Broadway companies of Sweeney Todd, Side Show, Urinetown and Grand Hotel.

Admission is free. Reservations are required and can be made online at www.sheencenter.org/shows/festival.

"Since its inception two years ago, The Sheen Center Theater Festival has proudly given Catholic playwrights a platform to present exciting, theatrically vibrant, and well-crafted works of theatre," says Kelley Girod, curator of The Sheen Center Theater Festival. "This year's festival features a program of plays by promising, award and prize-winning playwrights that tackle provocative, political, spiritual, and above all, human themes. Caridad, Nathan, William and Erik are writing exciting theater for today's audiences. The Sheen Center is proud to continue its mission of developing relevant new theater and shining a spotlight on the talent creating it."

The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture (www.sheencenter.org) is a New York City arts center located in NoHo that presents a vibrant mix of theater, film, music, art and talk events. A project of the Archdiocese of New York, The Sheen Center serves all New Yorkers by presenting performances and artists that reflect the true, the good, and the beautiful. Named for the late Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, best remembered as an inspirational author, radio host and two-time Emmy Award-winning television personality, The Sheen Center reflects his modern-day approach to contemporary topics. The Sheen Center is a state-of-the-art theater complex that includes the 270-seat off-Broadway Loreto Theater, equipped with five-camera high-definition TV and live-stream capability and a multi-track recording studio; the 80-seat off-off-Broadway Black Box Theater; four rehearsal studios; and an art gallery.