Guillotine Theatre to Present John Morogiello's CIVILIZING LUSBY at Page-to-Stage, 9/2

John Morogiello's newest play will get its first DC reading by a troupe that's been associated with the emerging playwright since 2006. Morogiello's plays have been produced at the Abingdon Theatre Company and Greenwich Street T?heatre (NYC), Old Globe Theatre (San Diego), Oldcastle Theatre Company (Vermont), Mountain Playhouse (Pennsylvania), the New Jersey Rep, Actors Theatre of Louisville, the Canadian Stage Company and the English Theatre of Vienna (Austria). Locally, his work has been seen at Rep Stage and at the Capital Fringe Festival, where the press referred to him as a "comic genius" in 2009.

Civilizing Lusby has been read in Baltimore and New York, but this will be the first local reading of DC-area Morogiello's latest play.

"We had success with Bushwa, Jack the Ticket Ripper and Gianni Schicchi," says director Catherine Aselford. "I was lucky to direct Young Turg at an earlier Page-to-Stage, but Jakob Hoffman directed the off-Broadway production." Due to Morogiello's career ascent, small companies like Guillotine can no longer produce his plays (it's complicated - ask his agent) but can present his works as readings. "I'm so happy to be directing this reading, as Civilizing Lusby is so dark; it's a real departure for John. The jokes are there -- and they're as funny as John's jokes always are -- but the cynical view of humanity borders on the depraved. It's my kind of play."

Civilizing Lusby is directed by Catherine Aselford and features John Morogiello, Terence Aselford, Rebecca Herron and Luke Cieslewicz.

Civilizing Lusby will be read at 2:30 in the Kennedy Center's African Lounge on Monday, September 2, 2013. Admission is free.