Urban Stages Presents THE COOK'S TOUR, 2/8

Continuing their mission of developing new works and cultivating the next generation of playwrights, Urban Stages (Frances Hill, Artistic Director) will present a reading of David Koteles' The Cook's Tour, directed by Chris Henry.  The reading will take place on Tuesday, February 8 at 6PM.The free reading will take place at Urban Stages Theatre (259 West 30 Street) reservations can be made by calling 212 421-1380.

When Christopher visits his parents and introduces his new boyfriend Javier, the evening spins out of control with hilarious and damaging consequences. The Cook's Tour is a play about first impressions, wrong impressions, misgivings and cocktails.
 
The fantastic cast includes Kathleen Chalfant (Wit , Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Obie, Drama League, Lucille Lortel, Los Angeles Ovation awards; Angels in America, Tony and Drama Desk nominations, M. Butterfly, Racing Demon); Larry Pine (Broadway: End of the World, Angels in America, Bus Stop); Eric T. Miller (Safe Home, Nobody Suspects a Butterfly, Sweet Storm), Rebecca Nelson (Coming Soon, Henry Fool)  Josh Segarra ("The Electric Company" Fat Camp), 
 
Urban Stages (Frances Hill, Artistic Director) reading of
David Koteles'
The Cook's Tour
Directed by Chris Henry
Tuesday, February 8 at 6PM.
The free reading will take place at Urban Stages Theatre (259 West 30 Street)
Reservations can be made by calling 212 421-1380.
www.urbanstages.org 
 
DAVID KOTELES (Playwright) has had plays produced on the east and west coasts, including his award-winning, GLAAD-nominated comedy Bald Diva!: the Ionesco Parody Your Mother Warned You About. Bald Diva! was later published in NYTE's anthology Playing with Canons: Explosive New Works from Great Literature by America's Indie Playwrights. And it was listed on numerous end-of-the-year ("Best of the Season") lists for best play of 2004. David's enjoyed numerous New York productions, workshops and readings of his work at such places as Ensemble Studio Theatre, Manhattan Class Company, The Rattlestick, Alice's Fourth Floor, Primary Stages, The Perry Street Playhouse, Manhattan Theatre Source, Clemente Soto Velez, the Fresh Fruit Festival, the Homogenius Festival, Cherry Picking, the Red Room, and the Westbank Café. A graduate of the Columbia University School of the Arts, David has studied playwriting with Theresa Rebeck, Anne Bogart, Eduardo Machado, Leslie Ayvazian, Frank Pugliese, and Kelly Stuart. He was also honored with the Richard Rodgers Scholarship and a Howard Stein Fellowship while at Columbia. David graduated summa cum laude from Queens College, where he was made Phi Beta Kappa and earned the John Golden Award for Playwriting.  He has also written several (as of yet unproduced) film scripts and TV pilots, and David was a finalist for the Writer's Lab at the Sundance Film Festival. He's a staff writer on the webisode sitcom, Ernie's Girls. And he currently lives in Los Angeles, where he is desperately trying to be a Hollywood sell-out. 

CHRIS HENRY (director) is an award-winning theatre director in New York City. She is a co-founder and Artistic Director of Royal Family Productions, InC. Henry recently direcTed Gary Duggan's Trans-Euro Express at the Irish Arts Center with the Fundamental Theater Project. In December, she was awarded the NETC Regional Award for Excellence in Theatre along with Richard Dresser. Last January, Royal Family's production of Safe Home by Sean Cullen and directed by Henry was extended three times thanks to a sensational review in the New York Times. Her upcoming project, based on a feature film treatment she wrote for Ross Greenburg President of HBO Sports, is Nobody Suspects a Butterfly. An Off-Broadway version is planned in the Winter of 2012.   With Royal Family Productions,  she has collaborated with Jazz Legend Wycliffe Gordon on a new musical, Louie, Red and the Jazzman, at Lincoln Center's Clark Theatre. Favorite NYC Directing credits include Art of War at Madison Square Garden, Glory and the Juniper Queen at Symphony Space, Sharpen Your Blade("Time Out" Critic's Pick) at Tribeca Performing Arts Center, Fishbowl (New York Magazine Critic's pick) at the Michael Weller Theater, The Tuesday Shane Show at American Place Theatre, Suicide Society (Winner Best Director) at The American Globe Theatre, The Lovetalker at The New 42nd Street Theatre, Burn Thisat American Theatre of Actors, and over 50 others. Royal Family Productions, Inc. and Henry has been privileged to direct new work by John Cariani and William Mastrosimone.

URBAN STAGES is an award-winning, not-for-profit Off-Broadway Theatre Company founded in 1984 by Artistic Director, Frances Hill. Over the past 24 years, Urban Stages has produced over 70 productions (mostly world premieres) including Pulitzer Prize Finalist, Eisa Davis' BULRUSHER (2007), two Drama Desk nominations, an Outer Critic's Circle Award, an Obie nomination, and eight Audelco nominations. Its productions of MEN ON THE VERGE OF A HISPANIC BREAKDOWN, by Guillermo Reyes, and MINOR DEMONS, by Bruce Graham subsequently moved to commercial theatres. CHILI QUEEN, a play by newscaster Jim Lehrer, transferred to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. (1989). The majority of works developed at Urban Stages have had further productions commercially, regionally, and abroad. Numerous projects developed at Urban Stages have been adapted into film and television projects, including Scar, by Murray Mednick, Conversations with the Goddesses, by Agapi Stassinopoulos, and Cotton Mary, by Alexandra Viets. Last year's Urban Stages production of LANGSTON IN HARLEM earned the company four AUDELCO awards including Best Musical Production of 2010 and a Drama Desk Nomination