Northern Stage Sets Lineup for 4th Annual NEW WORKS NOW Festival

Northern Stage has announced its fourth annual New Works Now, a showcase and celebration of new plays, and this year, female playwrights, to be presented January 6 - 8 at the Barrette Center for the Arts.

Inaugurated in 2014, New Works Now presents rehearsed staged readings of plays new to the American theater. New Works Now 4.0 will include three staged readings over the course of three days, each featuring a post-show conversation with the playwrights, actors, and directors.

Producing Artistic Director Carol Dunne explains how the plays were chosen, saying, "Northern Stage has now established a strong track record of successfully producing new work, most recently receiving kudos from the New York Times for our Off-Broadway production of Orwell in America. Because of this success, we had a record-breaking number of plays - over 100 - under consideration for this season's New Works Now festival, and much of the best work we received was from women. We hope you will join us in celebrating these three incredible female playwrights in New Works Now 4.0."

Readings are as follows:

Portugal by Elizabeth Heffron, Friday, January 6, 7:30 PM

She Exits, Laughing by Marisa Smith, Saturday, January 7, 7:30 PM

Piece Of by Tasha Gordon-Solomon, Sunday, January 8, 2:00 PM

Admission is free, but seats are reserved. Contact the box office to secure your reservation at 802.296.7000 or boxoffice@northernstage.org.

Accompanying the staged readings is the second annual Thirsty Theater, a mini-series of pop-up 10-minute plays. No tickets are required for this series, which is scheduled for the following times: Runway Lounge by Elisabeth Gordon at Tip Top Café, Saturday, January 7, 6:00 PM (Dinner reservations recommended); Polar Bear Swim by Marisa Smith at the Filling Station, Saturday, January 7, 10:00 PM.

ABOUT THE PLAYS:

Portugal explores the fallout (both literal and metaphorical) of mankind's nuclear adventures through the lens of a young couple living near Hanford Nuclear Reservation in rural Washington State. Playwright Elizabeth Heffron's full-length play Bo-Nita received an Edgarton New Play Award from TCG and premiere productions at Seattle Repertory Theatre and Portland Center Stage, where it had been developed at the JAW Festival of New Plays in 2012. Portugal received a 2016 Holland New Voices MainStage reading at the Great Plains Theatre Conference this past May. Evan Yionoulis, Professor Adjunct in Acting and Directing at Yale University, will direct this reading. She is an Obie-award winning director who has directed new plays and classics in New York, on Broadway, and across the US.

She Exits, Laughing is a hilarious and deeply perceptive story of aging gracefully (or sometimes not so gracefully) and how we try to care for one another in the face of the inevitable. Playwright Marisa Smith's full-length play Saving Kitty premiered at Wellfleet Actors Harbor Theater and was then produced by New Jersey Repertory. In the summer of 2015, Saving Kitty enjoyed an extended sold-out run at the Central Square Theater in Cambridge, Mass. and starred Jennifer Coolidge in the leading role. Lillian King returns to Northern Stage to direct this piece and brings with her a wealth of experience having assistant-directed Rocky and Peter and the Starcatcher on Broadway.

Piece Of is an inventive, imaginative look at being a child in the age of memes, Internet fame, and uber-liberal helicopter parents. Tasha Gordon-Solomon's plays have been developed and produced at Actors Theater of Louisville, Clubbed Thumb, Ars Nova, The Perry Mansfield New Works Festival, Dixon Place, New Georges, INTAR, and the Flea. She is a recipient of the Dramatist Guild Fellowship. Northern Stage's Assistant Artistic Director and Director of Education Eric Love directs. Audiences may remember his work from last summer's youth production of School of Rock!

Previous years' festivals produced three plays that have been brought to the main stage for world premieres at Northern Stage and beyond. Orwell in America by Joe Sutton played on Northern Stage's main stage in March of 2015 followed by an Off-Broadway run at 59E59 Theaters in New York City, where it garnered acclaim in the New York Times from theater critic Ken Jaworoski: "As the title character, Mr. Horton delivers perhaps the finest performance I've seen Off Broadway this year." Mad Love by Marisa Smith was Northern Stage's world premiere in January 2016, followed by a run at New Jersey Repertory Company in the fall of 2016. Last year's Trick or Treat by Jack Neary is slated to run on the company's main stage January 18 - February 5, 2017.

Northern Stage is a regional non-profit LORT-D professional theater company with a mission to change lives, one story at a time. Based at the crossroads of New England -- the Upper Valley of the Connecticut River -- Northern Stage's intimate space sets the stage for actively involving its audiences with ambitious productions and expansive educational programs. Founded in 1997, Northern Stage has offered more than 115 high-quality, professional productions of new works, classics, and musicals. The company celebrates its 20th Anniversary Season this year and annual attendance is now over 30,000.