NYC theatre companies partner to bring the World Premiere of THIEVES to the NoHo stage.
March is Women’s History Month and, in the NoHo Arts District, we honor women who create art and those who nurture new works by women playwrights. We are especially pleased to have renowned New York companies Rising Phoenix Repertory, Weathervane Productions and Rattlestick Playwrights Theater join the NoHo family of theatres with their world premiere of THIEVES, written by Charlotte Miller and directed by Daniel Talbott, at the Monroe Forum Theatre at the El Portal.
THIEVES is the first of three new play commissions from Rising Phoenix Rep and Weathervane, plays from three female playwrights – Charlotte Miller, Jessica Dickey, and Sarah Shaefer. The plays will each be produced over the next two seasons. In championing new work by women writers, Rising Phoenix and Weathervane are establishing extremely rare long form collaborations – from commission to production – with a firm commitment to mount the plays before having read a word. Another unique feature of the commissions is that they are company-based – each play will feature actors from Rising Phoenix Repertory’s company and its artistic director, Daniel Talbott, will direct all three plays. THIEVES, written by Charlotte Miller and co-produced by Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, will be the first to premiere.
Rattlestick Playwrights Theater is no stranger to L.A. and this will mark their third Los Angeles production. THIEVES follows Everything You Touch, co-presented with The Theatre @ Boston Court and directed by Jessica Kubzansky, and Slipping, which was written and directed by Talbott, one of the literary managers of Rattlestick, as well as the artistic director of the Lucille Lortel and the NYIT Award-winning Rising Phoenix Repertory.
“I love Charlotte and think she has such an insane amount of talent and a beautifully uncompromising voice,” said Rising Phoenix Repertory’s artistic director Daniel Talbott. “I feel so lucky and proud to get to work on this play with her and bring it to Los Angeles.”
Playwright Charlotte Miller is a Brooklyn-based playwright and performer. Her plays include Barn (Rising Phoenix Repertory), Worst Year Ever (NY Fringe Festival), Joan’s Boutique (The Spectrum), Favorite s (Rising Phoenix Repertory), Rocks (Tank Theater), and Raising Jo (PLAYPENN 2010), among others. Her plays have been read/workshopped with Rattlestick, Labyrinth, the Flea, PLAYPENN, and the Peoples Light Theater. She is a proud member of Rising Phoenix Repertory and the Actors Studio Playwrights/Directors Unit.
Her play THIEVES is a gritty portrait of a family in struggle and upheaval. When the family matriarch dies, three wayward children are reunited with their estranged father at their East Texas estate, ready to stake their claim. In the emotional chaos that ensues, Miller exposes the wounds inflicted and the truths ignored in the search for belonging and understanding. Are they really here to say goodbye? Or to plunder what’s left of a past that might be better forgotten?
Venue: Monroe Forum Theatre at the El Portal Theatre
5269 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood, CA 91601
Dates: Wednesday, March 18 to Saturday, April 4, 2015. Press opening is Friday, March 20
Schedule: Thursday through Saturday evenings at 7PM, Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2PM
Tickets: Price: $25.00
Online: www.elportaltheatre.com | Phone: 818-508-4200
Information: www.risingphoenixrep.org/upcoming
Rising Phoenix, vanden Heuvel and Rattlestick – who have collaborated on many productions over the past decade – all share a deep desire to support playwrights.
Talbot says, “Building on the work that Rising Phoenix Rep has done on new plays over the past 15 years in New York, notably through our Cino Nights series, we are continuing to look at how to build a deeper, stronger bridge between development and production with a commitment to see a new play through the process from start to finish with full support of the writer and their voice.”
Talbott founded Rising Phoenix Repertory in 1999 to produce new plays in traditional spaces and site-specific works around New York City. Rising Phoenix Repertory is also widely known for producing Cino Nights, an ongoing series inspired by Joe Cino and his Caffe Cino – one of the original birthplaces of Off-Off-Broadway theatre – for which the company has commissioned over twenty playwrights to write new, full-length plays, which are fully produced site-specifically in the intimate back room of East Village restaurant Jimmy’s No. 43.
Created in 2014 by Wendy vanden Heuvel, Weathervane Productions is dedicated to nurturing and supporting playwrights and their work from development to production. Wendy vanden Heuvel is also the artistic director of piece by piece productions, a not for profit organization whose productions have included Medea directed by Deborah Warner with Fiona Shaw on Broadway (associate producer), The Tricky Part (2004 Obie Award and two Drama Desk nominations including Best Play), All The Rage (Lucille Lortel Award, Outstanding Solo Show 2013) by Martin Moran, and several productions with Rising Phoenix Repertory and Rattlestick Playwrights Theater.
Rattlestick Playwrights Theater is co-producing the show THIEVES and is an award-winning company that has produced more than 60 world premieres in the past 19 seasons and was the recipient of the 2007 Ross Wetzsteon Memorial OBIE Award for developing new and innovative work.
• Rising Phoenix Rep Official Site – http://www.risingphoenixrep.org
• Rising Phoenix on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/RisingPhoenixRep
• Rattlestick Official Site – http://www.rattlestick.org
• Rattlestick on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/RattlestickPlaywrightsTheater
• Rattlestick on Twitter – https://twitter.com/RattlestickNY
See you at the theatre!
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