Casting and Directors Announced for PLAYWRIGHTS REVOLUTION At Capital Stage

Capital Stage presents its annual new works festival PLAYWRIGHTS' REVOLUTION, a series of staged readings of new plays. As Sacramento's leader of bold, thought-provoking theatre, Capital Stage created PLAYWRIGHTS' REVOLUTION, to identify and develop new plays and playwrights.

Each year, a handful of plays are carefully selected from hundreds of submissions. Directors and actors are selected, and audiences are invited to participate in post-reading discussions to contribute to the development of the world's newest plays. During the 2017/18 Season Capital Stage received over 600 submissions of never-been-produced plays. This series of staged readings on July 24th, 25th, 26th and 27th celebrates the finalists whose work reflects the mission of Capital Stage to entertain, engage and challenge its audience with bold, thought-provoking theatre. Tickets are FREE - Suggested Donation at the door.

THE PLAYS

THE END OF THE WORLD by Andrew Biss Directed by Kirk Blackinton Tuesday, July 24 at 7:00 pm at CLARA - Ballet Studio 1 Follow Valentine as he makes his own way in the world. Valentine, accustomed to a life of cosseted seclusion, isn't so keen on the idea. But go he must, and soon finds himself venturing forth into the vast world beyond. His new adventure is soon drawn to a halt, however, when he is mugged at gunpoint. Frightened and exhausted, he seeks shelter at a bed and breakfast named, rather ominously, The End of the World, an establishment run by the dour Mrs. Anna. Then things start getting strange.... An odd yet oddly touching tale of life, death and the space in-between.

Featuring: Matthew Hanjoong, Gina Harrower, Jamies Jones*, Shannon Mahoney*, Ryan Snyder, Eric Wheeler*

WELCOME TO MATTESON! by Inda Craig-Galván Directed by James Wheatley Wednesday, July 25 at 7:00 pm at CLARA - Ballet Studio 1
A dark intra-racial comedy about reverse gentrification and how we deal with the "other" when the other looks just like us. A suburban couple hosts a welcome-to-the-neighborhood dinner party for their new neighbors - a couple recently (forcibly) relocated from Chicago's roughest housing project - and it's anything but welcoming.
Featuring: Tarig Elsiddig, Destiny Robins, Tory Scroggins, Taylor Vaughan GREAT WHITE by Deborah Yarchun Directed by Imani Mitchell Thursday, July 26 at 7:00 pm at CLARA - Ballet Studio 1

A coming-of-age drama set in present-day southern Florida that explores the unremitting love for family and the consequences of inaction. Fourteen-year-old Brooke is in trouble. Her sixteen-year-old sister, Ivy, is manic and increasingly violent, and their mother, Gail refuses to acknowledge the danger. As Brooke struggles to hold her family together, she copes by tracking a great white shark. This leads her to Luis, a troubled fifteen-year-old boy intent on swimming out to meet the shark in the ocean. As their friendship deepens, Brooke becomes increasingly aware of the shark drawing closer in her own life: that her sister, in a manic fit, might kill her.
Featuring: Juan Chávez, Nicole Anne Salle, Elyse Sharp

MONICA: THIS PLAY IS NOT ABOUT Monica Lewinsky by Dianne Nora Directed by Katie Rubin Friday, July 27 at 7:00 pm at CLARA - Ballet Studio 1 A play through a series of scenes between Monica Lewinsky and different imagined lovers that asks what the cost of intimacy is, how we reckon with our past selves, and what we talk about when we talk about Other Women.

Featuring: Rob August, David Campfield*, Katherine Miller*, Matt K. Miller*, Kelley Ogden, Lori Russo*, Michael Patrick Wiles*
*Member Actors' Equity Association

THE PLAYWRIGHTS

ANDREW BISS is an English playwright, a graduate of the University of the Arts London, and a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, Inc. whose works have been performed across the globe, spanning four continents from The Royal Court Theatre in London to the Playhouse Theatre in Tasmania. His plays have won awards on both coasts of the U.S., critical acclaim in the U.K., and quickly became a perennial sight on Off and Off-Off Broadway stages. In London his plays have been performed at The Royal Court Theatre, Theatre503, Riverside Studios, The Union Theatre, The White Bear Theatre, The Brockley Jack Studio Theatre, Fractured Lines Theatre & Film at COG ARTSpace, and Ghost Dog Productions at The Horse & Stables. In New York his plays have been produced at Theatre Row Studios, The Samuel French Off-Off-Broadway Festival, The Kraine Theater, The Red Room Theater, Times Square Arts Center, Manhattan Theatre Source, Mind The Gap Theatre, 3Graces Theatre Company, Emerging Artists Theatre, Curan Repertory Company, Pulse Ensemble Theatre, American Globe Theatre, The American Theater of Actors, and Chashama Theatres, among others. Visit him online at: http://www.andrewbiss.com/

INDA CRAIG-GALVÁN is a Chicagoan living in Los Angeles, who has earned an MFA in Dramatic Writing from University of Southern California. Inda's plays have been developed and presented at theatres including Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, Oregon Shakespeare Festival BLACK SWAN Lab, Kitchen Dog Theatre New Works Festival, Chalk Repertory Theatre, Skylight Theatre, San Francisco Playhouse, Playwrights' Arena New Pages Lab, MPAACT, Trustus Theatre Playwrights Festival, and Lorraine Hansberry Theatre. Honors include: The Kilroys List, The Kennedy Center Rosa Parks Playwriting Award, Blue Ink Playwriting Award, Urbanworld Film Festival's Grand Jury Prize for Best Screenplay, Jane Chambers Student Award for Feminist Playwriting, Black & Latino Playwrights Conference Winner, WomenWorks Playwriting Winner, Humanitas Play LA, and Princess Grace Award in Playwriting (runner-up). Visit her online at: http://www.indacraig-galvan.com/

Deborah Yarchun is a New York City-based playwright with an M.F.A. from the University of Iowa. Her plays have been developed at Ensemble Studio Theatre, The New Harmony Project, Jewish Plays Project's OPEN: The Festival of New Jewish Theater, The Great Plains Theater Conference, Jewish Ensemble Theater, Red Eye Theater, The Playwrights' Center, Poetic Theater Productions, Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, TheatreSquared, the William Inge Center for the Arts, Wiliams Street Rep, WordBRIDGE, and Workhouse Theater Company, and produced at Fusion Theatre, Theater Master's National MFA Playwrights Festival, EstroGenius Festival, the Minnesota Fringe Festival, the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, The Samuel French Off Off Broadway Festival, Playwrights Horizons' Peter Jay Sharp Theater by Young Playwrights Inc., and at theaters and universities across the United States and Canada. Deborah's honors include two Jerome Fellowships at The Playwrights' Center, an EST/Sloan Commission, The Kennedy Center's Jean Kennedy Smith Playwriting Award, the Kernodle New Play Award, a Tennessee Williams Scholarship, University of Iowa's Richard Maibaum Playwriting Award, and the Iowa Arts Fellowship. She was the Dorit & Gerald Paul Artist in Residence at Indiana University for Spring 2016. Her play GREAT WHITE was an Honorable Mention for the 2016 Relentless Award. Deborah was the 2017 Fall Playwright-in-Residence at the William Inge Center for the Arts and is a 2017-2018 Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellow. Visit her online at: http://deborahyarchun.com/

DIANNE NORA is a playwright with an M.F.A. from Columbia University School of the Arts, Masters in Philosophy, and BA from New York University, theatre scholar, and comedy writer who lives and works in Chicago, Brooklyn, and Dublin, Ireland. Her full-length plays include Julie (25F), Western Country, In Rooms Such As These, Everybody's Legs, Wasps (semi-finalist for the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference 2014), Ye That Dwell In Dust, and Prodigal. She assisted her mentor Tracy Letts on the world premieres of his play The Minutes, Linda Vista, and Mary Page Marlowe at Steppenwolf Theatre Company. She is currently co-writing a parody of the Bible with Scott Dikkers, founding editor of The Onion. Her newest play, Monica: This Play Is Not About Monica Lewinsky, was developed at the Chicago New Work Festival, and is a semi-finalist for Sanguine Theatre's Project Playwright and the O'Neill National Playwright's Conference 2018. Follow her online: https://twitter.com/DianneNora