Horse Trade Theater Group to Present THE FLOWER THIEF, 8/2 - 19

Horse Trade Theater Group will present the first full-length mainstage production to come out of The Fire This Time Festival, Pia Wilson's (member of The Public Theater's 2008 Emerging Writers Group) THE FLOWER THIEF. The production will be directed by Horse Trade Artistic Director, Heidi Grumelot (Donnie and the Monsters at UNDER St. Marks; punkrock/lovesong at The Brick) and will feature Sameerah Harris, Allyson Morgan, Genesis Oliver, Erwin A. Thomas, and Keona Welch.

Clinging to nature's promise of renewal, Clark desperately turns to stealing flowers as everything around him slowly wilts. Jumping through time and mind, Pia Wilson's The Flower Thief eloquently explores a young man's grief over the loss of his twin brother.

The production will run August 2-19 at The Red Room (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Avenue and Bowery), Thursday through Saturday at 8pm. Tickets ($18/$15 students & seniors) are available online at www.horseTRADE.info or by calling 212-868-4444.

PIA WILSON (Playwright) is a 2011 Heideman Award finalist for her short play, Turning the Glass Around and a semi-finalist in the 2011 Bay Area Playwrights Festival. She is a member of the 2008 Emerging Writers Group at The Public Theater and a 2009 playwriting fellow with the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. She is also a member of The Passage Theatre Play Lab and a member of the 2009 Project Footlight team of composers and librettists. Her full-length drama, Red Rooster, and her play Generation T were a part of The Classical Theatre of Harlem's Future Classics reading series. Red Rooster was also part of the Emerging Writers Spotlight Series at The Public Theater. All the Pretty Girls was featured in The Looking Glass Theatre's Spring 2009 Writer/Director Forum. The River Pure for Healing was part of the 2008 Resilience of the Spirit play festival. Her play, Tree of Life, received a 2007 workshop production at The Red Room.

HEIDI GRUMELOT (Director) is the Artistic Director of Horse Trade Theater Group. She is co-creator and producer of the monthly storytelling show TOLD and the founding director of The Drafts, an acting ensemble responsible for development of over forty original plays to date as part of a monthly reading series. Heidi's New York directing credits include Donnie and the Monsters at UNDER St. Marks, punkrock/lovesong at The Brick, Dido and Aeneas with The New York Collective of Performing Arts at The West End Theater and The Boston Early Music Festival, A River Pure for Healing and An Absolutely Perfect Life at UNDER St Marks, Accidents Do Happen, Tom's Things, and Turning the Glass Around in The Red Room. Assistant director credits include Antony and Cleopatra, Love's Labour's Lost, and A Christmas Carol for the American Shakespeare Center. She has also directed productions in Michigan, Virginia, and Mexico. Prior to working at Horse Trade, Heidi worked for Laura Stanzyck Casting and The Public Theater's Casting Department. Casting Assistant credits include Impressionism on Broadway, The Cripple of Inishman at Atlantic Theater Company, The Shawshank Redemption at The Gaiety Theater in Dublin, Holiday Garland at The Westport Country Playhouse, and Hamlet and Hair at Shakespeare in the Park.

THE FIRE THIS TIME FESTIVAL explores the possibilities in black theater and offers early-career playwrights of African and African American descent the opportunity to write and produce material that reflects diverse perspectives as 21st Century Theater artists.

HORSE TRADE THEATER GROUP is a self-sustaining theater development group; with a focus on new work, it has produced a massive quantity of stimulating downtown theater. Horse Trade's Resident Artist Program offers a home to a select group of Independent Theater artists, pooling together a great deal of talent and energy. It is also the home of FRIGID New York – the first and only festival of its kind in New York City.

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