David Hyde Pierce, Trip Cullman and More to Direct Powerhouse Readings This Summer

New York Stage and Film and Vassar College, this summer celebrating thirty years of their Powerhouse Theater collaboration, have announced the Play Readings Festival lineups that will bookend their upcoming 30th Powerhouse Theater Season, running from June 20 - July 27 at Vassar College (Poughkeepsie, New York).

Full programming will be announced at a later date. Subscription-only sales are now available online. Single tickets will go on sale online May 20. Visit http://powerhouse.vassar.edu for more info and to purchase subscription tickets.

Reading Festival #1: June 20 - 22, 2014

The Unbuilt City by Keith Bunin, directed by Sean Mathias

Choice by Winnie Holzman, directed by Sheryl Kaller

The Humans by Stephen Karam, directed by Sam Gold

Gilgamesh, The Prince by David Rabe

Fall by Bernard Weinraub, directed by Peter DuBois

Readings Festival #2: July 25 - 27, 2014

The Invisible Hand by Ayad Akhtar, directed by Ken Rus Schmoll

American Pop by Michael Friedman, directed by Trip Cullman

Turn Me Loose by Gretchen Law, directed by John Gould Rubin

Ripcord by David Lindsay-Abaire, directed by David Hyde Pierce

Dry Land by Ruby Rae Spiegel, directed by Adrienne Campbell-Holt

As previously announced, the three mainstage productions of the 30th Powerhouse Theater Season are: The Babylon Line by Richard Greenberg and directed by Terry Kinney (June 26-July 6); In Your Arms, an unprecedented collaboration with 10 playwrights (Douglas Carter Beane, Nilo Cruz, Christopher Durang, Carrie Fisher, David Henry Hwang, Rajiv Joseph, Terrence McNally, Marsha Norman, Lynn Nottage, & Alfred Uhry) writing wordless vignettes that will culminate in a new dance piece directed and choreographed by Christopher Gattelli, with music by Stephen Flaherty (July 5-13); and The Danish Widow written and directed by John Patrick Shanley (July 16-27).

Also previously announced, the two musical workshops will be: SeaWife by Seth Moore & The Lobbyists, directed by and developed with Liz Carlson with performances June 27-29 in The Susan Stein Shiva Theater; and A Walk on the Moon with music and lyrics by Paul Scott Goodman, book and additional lyrics by Pamela Gray, and directed by Michael Greif with performances July 25-27 in The Vogelstein Center for Drama and Film. And the twp play workshops will be: The Light Years written by Hannah Bos and Paul Thureen, developed and directed by Oliver Butler with performances July 11-13 in The Susan Stein Shiva Theater; and Laugh by Beth Henley, directed by David Schweizer with performances July 18-20 in The Susan Stein Shiva Theater.

Celebrating 30 years this summer, Powerhouse Theater is a collaboration between New York Stage and Film and Vassar College dedicated to both emerging and established artists in the development and production of new works for theater and film. The Powerhouse program consists of an eight-week residency on the Vassar campus during which more than 250 professional artists and 50 apprentices in the Powerhouse training program live and work together to create new theater works. Recent highlights at Powerhouse include The Hamilton Mixtape, the latest work from In the Heights Tony Award winner Lin-Manuel Miranda; Bright Star, an original musical from Steve Martin and Edie Brickell; and The Fortress of Solitude, a musical adaptation of the best-selling novel by Jonathan Lethem. Many shows from past seasons have found their way to Broadway, Off-Broadway, and theaters nationwide, including Stephen Karam's Sons of the Prophet (Roundabout Theater); Seminar by Theresa Rebeck (Golden Theater); Julia Jordan and Juliana Nash's Murder Ballad (Manhattan Theater Club); Pulitzer finalist Nathan Englander's The Twenty-Seventh Man (The Public Theater); and Storefront Church, John Patrick Shanley's final installment of his "Church and State" trilogy that began with Doubt (Atlantic Theater Company). Other projects developed at the Powerhouse include the Tony Award-winning Side Man and Tru; the multi-award-winning Doubt; the groundbreaking Broadway musical American Idiot, and A Steady Rain, produced on Broadway in 2009 with Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig.

New York Stage and Film (Johanna Pfaelzer, Artistic Director; Thomas Pearson, Executive Director; Mark Linn-Baker, Max Mayer, Leslie Urdang, Producing Directors) is a not-for-profit company dedicated to both emerging and established artists in the development of new works for theater and film. Since 1985 New York Stage and Film has played a significant role in the development of new plays, provided a home for a diverse group of artists free from critical and commercial pressures, and established itself as a vital cultural institution for residents of the Hudson Valley and the New York metropolitan region www.newyorkstageandfilm.org.

Vassar College (Ed Cheetham, Producing Director) is a highly selective, coeducational, independent, residential, liberal arts college founded in 1861. Consistently ranked as one of the country's best liberal arts colleges, Vassar is renowned for its long history of curricular innovation, and for the natural and architectural beauty of its campus. More than 50 academic departments and degree programs - from Anthropology to Cognitive Sciences to Urban Studies - encompass the arts, foreign languages, natural sciences, and social sciences, and combine to offer a curriculum of more than 1,000 courses. Vassar College is sited in New York's beautiful Hudson Valley in Poughkeepsie, NY. www.vassar.edu

Photo Credit: Jennifer Broski