Studio 42 Hosts 3rd Annual Unproducible Smackdown Today

Today, May 3rd, Studio 42 will present the Unproducible works of Meghan Deans - winner of the '13 Unproducible Smackdown (Ashore), Eric Dufault (Year of the Rooster), Brett Epstein - Fan Slam winner (I Loved Sam Stone), Leah Nanako Winkler (Death for Sydney Black), and Lauren Yee (Ching Chong Chinaman). Direction by Liz Carlson (The Playwrights Realm's Lottie in the Late Afternoon), Matt Dickson (INTAR's The Lowest Form of Writing), John Giampietro (EST's Year of the Rooster), and Jesse Jou (Rising Circle Theater Collectives's Say You Heard My Echo). The plays of the Smackdown are produced by Alyssa Anderson, Ying Le, Greg Nobile, Meghan Pressman, and Lico Whitfield.

The 3rd annual Unproducible Smackdown is a one-night-only event that celebrates Studio 42's "unproducible" mission. Taking a cue from professional wrestling, five playwrights will battle for the coveted Most Unproducible Playwright title, with the winner being decided by live audience vote. The Smackdown will be presented on May 3rd, from 8-10:30pm, at University Settlement, Speyer Hall, located at 184 Eldridge Street (between Forsyth and Allen) in Manhattan. Tickets start at $35 and can be purchased at www.brownpapertickets.com or at www.stu42.com.

The 2014 Unproducible Smackdown will feature performances by Brian Belcinski (Studio 42's My Base and Scurvy Heart), Adam Blodgett (Studio 42's Miss Lilly Gets Boned), Darcy Folwer (The Management's Your Boyfriend May Be Imaginary), Frank Harts (A Raison in the Sun), Alex Herrald (The Public Theater's Life and Times), Megan Hill (The Management's The House of Von Macrame), Sue Jean Kim (Second Stage Theatre's Water by the Spoonful), David Mitsch (Studio 42's Billy Witch), Ariela Morgenstern (Flashdance The Musical, National Tour), Gregg Mozgala (The Apothetae's The Penalty), Will Roland (Studio 42's Billy Witch), Natalie Saibel (Studio 42's The Sporting Life), Risa Sarachan (The Management's Your Boyfriend May Be Imaginary), Marguerite Stimpson (Studio 42's Wasps), and Debargo Sanyal (The New Group's Bunty Berman Presents...).

About the Unproducible Smackdown:

"Too frequently, playwrights find themselves bound in by the limitations set by budgets or risk-adverse programming. Our Unproducible Smackdown is a challenge to go big and wild, and to embrace what makes theater spectacular and unexpected." - Moritz von Stuelpnagel, Artistic Director, Studio 42

Past winners of the Unproducible Smackdown have included Meghan Deans (Ashore) and Joshua Conkel (MilkMilkLemonade). Recent Studio 42 productions: Wasps by Ken Urban (2013); Miss Lilly Gets Boned by Bekah Brunstetter (2012); Billy Witch by Gregory S. Moss (2012); My Base and Scurvy Heart by Adam Szymkowicz (2011); The Sporting Life by Nick Jones & Rachel Shukert (2010); andSpacebar: A Broadway Play by Kyle Sugarman by Michael Mitnick (2010).

Studio 42 is a nonprofit off-off-Broadway theater company founded in 2001 and New York's leading producer of "unproducible" plays. The word "unproducible" is ripped from the rejection letters of theaters all over the country. It denotes scripts in which the potential depravity, experimental structure, or scale of spectacle take them out of consideration for producers in their right minds.

For more information on Studio 42, visit: www.Stu42.com.

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