City Theatre Announces Casting for Staged Readings at Momentum Festival

City Theatre announces casting for the four original plays set for MOMENTUM, the theatre's annual festival of new plays at different stages. This year's selection features three of City's favorite alums as well as a distinguished playwright new to Pittsburgh audiences. The play's themes run the gamut from technology and football to history and community.

MOMENTUM is a celebration of new theatrical works featuring readings, workshops, panels, and conversation. The festival is a chance for audiences to not only see four new works in their earliest incarnations, but also to get to know the process of creating new plays and to glimpse inside the minds of the playwrights.

The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence
by Madeleine George
Directed by Sheila McKenna

Featuring Harry Bouvy and Rebecca Harris

Watson: trusty sidekick to Sherlock Holmes; loyal engineer who built Bell's first telephone; unstoppable super-computer that became reigning Jeopardy! champ; amiable techno-dweeb who, in the present day, is just looking for love. These four constant companions become one in this brilliantly witty, time-jumping, loving tribute (and cautionary tale) dedicated to the people-and machines-upon which we all depend.

The Unbuilt City
by Keith Bunin
Directed by Tracy Brigden

Featuring Brett Mack and Mary Rawson

Still residing in the Brooklyn Heights townhouse in which she grew up, Claudia has lived a life of luxury and loneliness. Now as her health is failing, and her money is drying up, a representative from an archive visits with an opportunity. Hoping to persuade Claudia to sell her famously secret collection, Jonah uncovers mysteries surrounding the nature of her legacy and the untold history of New York City.

Halftime with Don
by Ken Weitzman
Directed by Christian Parker

Featuring Tom Atkins, Kimberly Parker Green, Daina Michelle Griffith, and Cameron Knight

Retired NFL player Don Devers has had more surgeries than he can count, experiences violent outbursts, and relies on Post-It notes to offset his struggle with traumatic brain injury. Just as he's ready to throw in the towel, super fan Ed Ryan knocks on his door. With the help of Don's daughter Stephanie and Ed's wife Sarah, both pregnant and plotting from the sidelines, the fan and his hero find new resolve to get back in the game.

Mr. Joy
by Daniel Beaty

Featuring Bria Walker

What happened to Mr. Joy? A Harlem community is disrupted when the Chinese immigrant's shoe repair shop, a neighborhood pillar for decades, does not open its doors. Nine customers, ranging from 11-year-old Clarissa, a budding shoe designer, to Bessie, a "gangsta granny," reflect on the shop owner's impact in this moving exploration of one community's efforts to heal in order to dream again.

Tickets for the festival are available by phone at 412.431.CITY (2489) or online at www.citytheatrecompany.org. $20 passes can be bought for the whole weekend, or $5 tickets can be bought for individual readings. All events take place at City Theatre, 1300 Bingham Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15203. The festival begins on May 29th and ends on Sunday June 1st.