CAST:Tessa Auberjonois, Carolyn Baeumler, Wendy Hoopes, Adrian LaTourelle, Todd Weeks

Michael runs the world's worst bookclub. Its three remaining members are either in the midst of a nervous breakdown, on the edge a mid-life crisis, or entangled in relationship woes -- and everyone is behind in the reading.  For his part, Michael is consumed by anxieties over his failing bookstore and less-than-perfect marriage.  In an attempt to put his business on the map, Michael has been vying for attention from the local paper, and they're finally showing interest.  But the very thing that should turn his world around, ends up turning it upside down, when a meticulously planned evening goes completely awry. 

Suzanne Maynard Miller (playwright)'s plays have been produced in Seattle, Los Angeles, New Haven, Providence and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She currently teaches playwriting at the Rhode Island School of Design and works with Open Classroom -- an artist-in-residency program that places teaching artists in the New York City public schools. In addition, Suzanne has taught playwriting at Brown University, in the Seattle and Providence public schools and at Rhode Island's Adult Correctional Institution. Suzanne is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and received her MFA in playwriting from Brown University, where she studied with Paula Vogel. She currently lives in Brooklyn. 

John Ruocco (director)'s work has been seen at Actor's Express, Penguin Rep, New Harmony Project, Playwright's Horizons, Repertory of St. Louis, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Merrimack Rep, the Vineyard Theater, the Sundance Theater Institute, Aspen Comedy Arts Festival, New York Stage and Film, Naked Angels, the Juilliard School, Ensemble Studio Theater, and the All Season's Theater Group. He is on the faculty of Playwrights Horizons Theater School at NYU, is a Drama League Fellow, and a graduate of The University of Pennsylvania.

wednesday november 20
7pm: Rust: An Illustrative Limbo
by Kirsten Greenidge
dir. Daniel Alexander Jones

CAST:  Jeanine T. Abraham, Helga Davis, Saidah Arrika Ekulona, Leslie Elliard, Dion Graham, Keith Anthony Jones, Anthony Mackie, Burl Moseley, Stacey Karen Robinson

NFL star Randall Mifflin's life is not easy.  His team refuses to play him, the sportscasters won't stop trashing him, and a mysterious stranger is determined to harass him until she gets what she wants.  Meanwhile articles of black memorabilia have animated themselves, haunting Randall's deteriorating world. 

Kirsten Greenidge (playwright) has enjoyed workshop productions at The Bay Area Playwright's Festival and the O'Neill Theatre Center; as well as readings at The Mark Taper Forum and A.S.K. Theatre Projects.  Her work has also been recognized by Sundance Theatre Laboratory and ACTF.  Kirsten earned her M.F.A at the University of Iowa.

American Theatre Magazine named Daniel Alexander Jones one of fifteen up-and-coming artists to watch in the 21st century. His latest play, Bel Canto, was workshopped at the 2002 Sundance Theatre Lab.  Daniel's distinct directorial style was developed on numerous productions of new plays by award-winning American writers, including Shay Youngblood, Erik Ehn and Renita Martin. He was resident director with Vicky Boone's vanguard Frontera @ Hyde Park Theatre in Austin.  In New York, Daniel most recently directed the Public Theater's workshop of Carl Hancock Rux's play Smoke, Lilies and Jade.

thursday november 21
4pm: 800 Words: The Transmigration of Philip K. Dick
by Victoria Stewart 
dir. Erica Gould

CAST:  Jan Leslie Harding, Judith Hawking, Felice Neals, Steven Rattazzi, Jeremy Webb, Frank Wood

800 Words: The Transmigration of Philip K. Dick is a reinvention of the last few days of Philip K. Dick, the science fiction author, who had religious visions in 1974 when an extraterrestrial God appeared to him. Based on a true story, the play begins just as Philip's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is to be released as the Hollywood film "Blade Runner." 800 Words is about God, art, madness, time, fiction and reality.

Victoria Stewart (playwright) graduated from the University of Iowa Playwrights Worskhop in May where her three plays Nightwatches, The Last Scene and 800 Words were produced in the Iowa New Play Festival. She has received the Richard Maibaum Award, the IRAM award and the Norman Felton Fellowship and was a finalist for the Francesca Primus award and the Jerome fellowship. Before concentrating on her writing, Victoria was a stage manager, working with Anne Bogart, Peter Sellars and Marcus Stern among others.

Erica Gould (director) Most recently, Gould served as Associate Artistic Director for BRAVE NEW WORLD: AMERICAN THEATRE RESPONDS TO 9/11. For BNW, she directed Charles Evered's Adopt a Sailor, Lillian Ann Slugocki's 2001: An Oral History; and Leah Ryan's Special Price For You OK?  Other recent directing credits include Janine Carter's radio play What Light From Darkness Grows; a mainstage reading of Lillian Ann Slugocki's Rough House at Playwrights Horizons; and The Witches''Triptych, winner of a 2000-2001 OOBR Award.  Gould has co-produced and directed numerous works of radio-theatre, including the NFCB Award-winning series, Archaeology of Lost Voices for NPR.  She has directed productions for Williamstown, Yale, NY Theatre Workshop, Circle Rep, NY Stage & Film, and New Jersey Shakespeare Festival; has been a recipient of the Drama League Directors Project Fellowship and the Senior Boris Sagal Directing Fellowship; teaching: Pace University, Yale, NYU/Playwrights Horizons, Connecticut College, and SVA. Member, SSDC. 

friday november 22
2pm - Frequency Hopping
by/dir. Elyse Singer 

CAST:  Michael Emerson, Isabel Keating

In 1940, Hedy Lamarr, the "most beautiful woman in the world," and composer George Antheil, the "bad boy of music," met at a Hollywood dinner party. Two years later, they received a patent for an invention now recognized as the model for wireless communication. Based on the true story of the film icon and the avant-garde composer's extraordinary collaboration and friendship, Frequency Hopping is a darkly comic play about connecting with another person operating at the same frequency.  Frequency Hopping was originally commissioned and developed by the EST/Sloan Project and has received additional developmental support from the Drama League and Yaddo.

Elyse Singer (playwright/director)'s plays include Love in the Void (HERE), Private Property (Edinburgh Fringe), Care-less: Eva Tanguay (Dixon Place) and Frequency Hopping.  Off-Broadway directing credits include the first NYC revival of Mae West's play SEX,  Deborah Swisher's Hundreds of Sisters & One BIG Brother and, most recently, Red Frogs by Ruth Margraff at P.S. 122.  Elyse's work has been seen at theatres including the Public, New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, Dance Theater Workshop, P.S. 122, Dixon Place, HERE, the Women's Project and Soho Rep and regionally in LA, San Francisco, Boston and Providence.  A Yale graduate, Elyse is a Convener and Usual Suspect at New York Theatre Workshop, an alum of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, an Affiliated Artist of New Georges, and the Artistic Director of the Hourglass Group. 

7pm - Francisco Pizarro Sings
by Jay Reiss 
dir. Erin Quinn Purcell

CAST:  Nina Hellman, Zak Orth, Ben Shenkman

Peter Bausch's acclaimed new novel Inca Dreams has just been nominated for a national book award.  However, the book's authorship has been challenged by Peter's one-time best friend, Russell Seligman, with whom he hasn't spoken in ten years.  Russell's lawsuit claims the basic story of the novel is his and he has a copyrighted screenplay to prove it.  Peter goes to Russell's home, ostensibly to convince him to drop the lawsuit, but with the help and interference of Russell's roommate, Joy, the three discover the true complexities of their friendships.

Jay Reiss (playwright)'s plays include The Tulip Craze (Manhattan Theatre Club's 6@6 reading series, Drama Dept. spring reading series, upcoming production at Sanford Meisner Theatre in LA); Meanwhile On The Other Side Of Mount Vesuvius, Hooray For Iceboy (co-writer), Two Men Poised (Adobe Theatre Company); The Romantics (MTC's First Hearing series).  His many short plays have been produced throughout the US and Canada.  Jay is the recipient of Lincoln Center's Le Compte du Nucy award and The Juilliard School's playwriting fellowship.  His newest play, Francisco Pizarro Sings, was commissioned by Manhattan Theatre Club.

Erin Quinn Purcell (director) is a girl from a town made famous by a river a railroad and a big bony box of ribs.  Apart from having the great pleasure of workshopping Jay's new play, Erin finds herself working on her and Gregory Jackson's, A Fish Story;  the long awaited follow-up to Off-Broadway's Duet! A Romantic Fable (which they co-wrote, co-directed and co-acted). A Fish Story (Michael Garin, composer) is scheduled for production with the adobe theatre company this Spring.

saturday november 23
3pm - In Watermelon Sugar
by Erika Rundle 
dir. Elyse Singer

CAST:  Ray Brahmi, Ron Cohen, Vin Knight, Bruce Kronenberg, John McAdams, Molly Powell, Ninon Rogers, Tony Torn

Adapted from Richard Brautigan's 1968 novel, In Watermelon Sugar tells the story of a richly ordered, post-literate culture threatened by the seductive presence of The Forgotten Works, a landscape of abandoned objects and ideas. The inhabitants of iDEATH, the dreamlike center of this unique community, are astonished by an act of collective violence that brings the culture's past (and future) into question. Told from the perspective of a man who is reinventing the craft of theatre, the play offers a vivid and compelling vision of a world where tigers are untrustworthy mathematicians, windows are spun from watermelon sugar, and every path leads to a bridge.

Erika Rundle (adaptor) has collaborated with Hourglass Group as dramaturg for Ruth Margraff's Red Frogs and Elyse Singer's Frequency Hopping. She has also dramaturged for Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab and several Waxfactory productions, including Quartet at the New York Center for Media Arts and Lady from the Sea at BAX. She is a doctoral candidate at the Yale School of Drama and the associate editor of Theater.

7pm - The Honeymoon Story
by Douglas Bost 
dir. Michael John Garcés

CAST:  Carolyn Baeumler, Lynn Cohen, Ron Cohen, Victor Verhaeghe

The Honeymoon Storyis a comedy about newlyweds whose honeymoon takes a bad turn when they stay at a very remote, very unusual bed and breakfast in Nova Scotia. Even if they survive the night, will their marriage? 

Douglas Bost (playwright) is a graduate of NYU's Dramatic Writing Program. The Honeymoon Story was part of EST's Octoberfest 1999 and, as an audio play, received an honorable mention award in the 2001 BBC International Radio Play competition. Doug's audio play Dead Man's Hole won the 1999 Ogle Award, and has aired on National Public Radio. Doug is currently making his play Focus Group into a short film, featuring Hourglass Group's lovely and talented Carolyn Baeumler.

Michael John Garcés (director) directed Kia Corthron's play breath, BOOM currently running at Yale Repertory Theatre and previously the world premier of Kia's Force Continuum at The Atlantic Theatre. Other credits include Recent Tragic Events by Craig Wright (Woolly Mammoth), Finer Nobler Gases by Adam Rapp (Humana Festival), and Havana is Waiting by Eduardo Machado (Cherry Lane). Theatres he has worked at include Repertorio Español, The Director's Company, The Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami, The O'Neill Playwright's Conference, and Sna Jtz'ibajom in Chiapas, Mexico. Mr. Garcés received a TCG New Generations Program Grant to work at INTAR, where he is Producing Artistic Director in association with Max Ferrá.