National New Play Network Announces 15th Anniversary Celebration: PERMANENT COLLECTION

The NATIONAL NEW PLAY NETWORK (NNPN), the country's alliance of non-profit theaters that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays, announces the 15th Anniversary Celebration performances of Permanent Collection by Thomas Gibbons. A staged reading of the original Rolling World Premiere will be presented on Monday, April 22 at Core Member Theaters across the country, including Actor's Theatre of Charlotte (Charlotte, NC), InterAct Theatre Company (Philadelphia, PA), Kitchen Dog Theater (Dallas, TX), Riverside Theatre (Iowa City, IA), Salt Lake Acting Company (Salt Lake City, UT), and Unicorn Theatre (Kansas City, MO). Gibbons' award-winning play has gone on to more than 30 productions across the country and around the world since it was first produced in 2003.

ABOUT THE PLAY
Inspired by events at Philadelphia's storied Barnes Foundation, this compelling drama follows a suburban Museum's newly hired African American Executive Director, whose ideas for making adjustments to the Permanent Collection set off a firestorm of racially-charged controversies, within and beyond the institution's hallowed walls.

ABOUT THOMAS GIBBONS
Thomas Gibbons is playwright-in-residence at InterAct TheatreCompany in Philadelphia, which has premiered eight of his plays: Pretending to America, 6221, Axis Sally, Black Russian, Bee-luther-hatchee, Permanent Collection, A House With No Walls, and Silverhill. Other plays include The Exhibition and Homer. His plays have also been seen at the National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center, off-off-Broadway at Blue Heron Theatre, Northlight Theatre, Florida Stage, Unicorn Theatre, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, New Repertory Theatre, Florida Studio Theatre, Arizona Theatre Company, Center Stage, Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, Kirk Douglas Theatre/Center Theater Group, Aurora Theatre, Madison Repertory Theatre, Roundhouse Theatre, and many others. He is the recipient of seven playwriting fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the Roger L. Stevens Award from The Fund for New American Plays, the Barrie and Bernice Stavis Playwriting Award, the NAACP Theatre Award, two Barrymore Awards for Outstanding New Play, and a Pew Fellowship in the Arts. Permanent Collection was the pilot selection of the National New Play Network's Continued Life of New Plays Fund, and A House With No Wallswas a subsequent selection. Both plays, along with Bee-luther-hatchee, are published by Playscripts.

ABOUT THE CONTINUED LIFE OF NEW PLAYS FUND
NNPN's flagship program, the Continued Life of New Plays Fund supports three or more theaters which choose to mount the same new play within a twelve-month period. The result is a Rolling World Premiere through which the playwright develops a new work with multiple creative teams, for multiple communities of patrons, ensuring the resulting play is of the highest possible quality. And with a minimum of three productions in a single year, the play attains the momentum it needs to join the repertoire of frequently-produced new American works. NNPN provides grants of $7,000 to the first three participating theaters in each Rolling World Premiere; to date, NNPN has championed the continued life of 37 new plays in over 100 productions, with over a quarter-million dollars in grants.

ABOUT ACTOR'S THEATRE OF CHARLOTTE
Actor's Theatre of Charlotte is the region's only professional theatre company solely dedicated to presenting bold and innovative new works by contemporary playwrights. We serve the Charlotte community by bringing stories to life that are entertaining, relevant and thought provoking.

ABOUT INTERACT THEATRE COMPANY
Founded in 1988, InterAct Theatre Company is a theatre for today's world, dedicated to producing new and contemporary plays that explore the social, political and cultural issues of our time. InterAct sees itself as a kind of theatrical "public square," encouraging live writers to explore the most pressing, complex and dramatically interesting stories, characters and issues. Through its multi-award-winning educational and artistic programs, InterAct seeks to promote cultural diversity and community engagement at the highest professional level.

ABOUT KITCHEN DOG THEATER
Founded in 1990, Kitchen Dog Theatre provides a place where questions of justice, morality, and human freedom can be explored. They choose plays that challenge our moral and social consciences, and invite audiences to be provoked, challenged, and amazed. They believe that the theater is a site of individual discovery as well as a force against conventional views of the self and experience. It is not a provider of answers, but an invitation to question. Since theater of this kind is not bound by any tradition, Kitchen Dog Theater is committed to exploring these questions whether they are found in the classics, contemporary works, or new plays.

ABOUT RIVERSIDE THEATRE
Now in its 32nd season, Iowa City's Riverside Theatre is one of only three professional, Equity affiliated theatre companies in Iowa. Its year-round programming includes an indoor season of mostly contemporary works, an outdoor summer season of classic works, and education and outreach programs for all ages. A proud Core Member of NNPN since 2011, the theatre's long-time commitment to developing new work has resulted in over 20 premieres of original scripts.

ABOUT SALT LAKE Acting Company
Founded in 1970 to present innovative and thought provoking plays for Utah audiences and to nurture a community of local professional theatre artists, SLAC is committed to presenting a year round season of regional and world premieres as well as commissioning, developing and producing the work of emerging playwrights. SLAC has been a Core Member of NNPN since 2002.

ABOUT UNICORN THEATRE
Founded in 1974, the Unicorn Theatre exists to enhance the cultural life of Kansas City by producing professional contemporary, thought-provoking theater which inspires emotional response and stimulates discussion. Along with regular offerings of new plays, Unicorn has been sponsoring the annual National Playwright Award since 1981.

ABOUT NNPN
The National New Play Network (NNPN) is the country's alliance of non-profit professional theaters that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays. Since its founding in 1998, NNPN has commissioned almost two dozen playwrights, provided nineteen MFA graduates with paid residencies, and supported more than 100 productions nationwide through its innovative Continued Life of New Plays Fund, which creates "Rolling World Premieres" of new plays. Hundreds of artists have gained employment through these efforts in the dozens of regions of the country where NNPN member theaters are located. NNPN receives substantial support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, the Shubert Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. The Network is comprised of a relatively small group of Core Members, who pioneer and implement collaborative new play strategies, and a growing group of Associate Members, who disseminate the Network's programs and strategies nationwide.

NNPN's Core Member theaters are: Actor's Express Theatre (Atlanta), Actor's Theatre of Charlotte (Charlotte, NC), Borderlands Theater (Tucson), Curious Theatre Company (Denver), Florida Studio Theatre (Sarasota), Fountain Theatre (LA), Horizon Theatre Company (Atlanta), InterAct Theatre Company (Philadelphia), Kitchen Dog Theater (Dallas), Magic Theatre (San Francisco), Marin Theatre Company (Mill Valley, CA), Mixed Blood Theatre Company (Minneapolis), New Jersey Repertory Company (Long Branch), New Repertory Theatre (Watertown, MA), New Theatre (Coral Gables, FL), Orlando Shakespeare Theater (Orlando), Performance Network Theatre (Ann Arbor, MI), Phoenix Theatre (Indianapolis), Playwright's Theatre of New Jersey (Madison), Prop Thtr Group (Chicago), Riverside Theatre (Iowa City, IA), Salt Lake Acting Company (Salt Lake City), San Diego REPertory Theatre (San Diego), Southern Rep (New Orleans), Unicorn Theatre (Kansas City, MO), and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company (Washington, DC).

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