On the Square Productions Teams with MTWorks for THE TRAGEDY OF DANDELION Reading Tonight

Duncan Pflaster's darkly comedic play in verse The Tragedy of Dandelion will be presented by On the Square Productions' Write Angle Reading series at University Settlement tonight, December 17th at 7:30pm in Speyer Hall where On the Square Production is an Artist-In-Residence for their 2012-2013 season. The play will be directed by Michael Swartz.

Playwright Duncan Pflaster has won awards for his plays The Empress of Sex, The Taint of Equality, Prince Trevor Amongst the Elephants, The Thyme of the Season, The Starship Astrov, Sweeter Dreams, The Wastes of Time, Bill's Threesome, Dark Night of the Russet Rascal, Mine or Yours, Eternity: Time Without End, and The Tragedy of Dandelion. Other selected plays include Messin' With The Kid, Suckers, Admit Impediments, Say Something Shocking (The Spit-Take Play), Sleeping in Tomorrow, Pleased as Man With Man to Dwell, and Ore, or Or. Five of his full-length plays are published online at Indie Theater Now. www.DuncanPflaster.com

Director Michael Swartz is an actor and director based in Astoria, New York. He was trained at DeSales University, where he had the pleasure to work with the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival for three seasons. Michael made his NY directorial debut in 2007 with a staged reading of Steven Bost's The Minervae. He has since directed a number of staged readings, a world premier solo show, and On the Square Productions' sold-out run of A Midsummer Night's Dream in 2010.

About the play: The Princess Dandelion dresses as a boy in order to escape her rapist and would-be husband, along the way falling in love with another princess, and traveling through her society, meeting nuns, soldiers, and clowns, and all the time her pregnancy continues, the impending birth complicating everything. Written entirely in iambic pentameter, The Tragedy of Dandelion is a five-act verse play full of Shakespearean tropes and double entendres.

Cast includes: Rob Benson*(Pearl Theatre, NY/Edinburgh Fringe Festivals); Charles Andrew Callaghan*(Williamstown Theatre Fest., Yale Rep, Denver Center); Erik Gullberg*(Metropolitan Playhouse, Alabama Shakespeare); Leone Hanman*(Guildhall East Hampton Theater, Oxford Playhouse England); Christopher Kloko (Drilling Company, Milk Can Theatre Co., A&E); Jason Michael Miller (HBO, NBC, Key of Awesome); Rachel McPhee*(The Pearl Theatre, The Flea Theatre, Key of Awesome); and Marnie Schulenburg*(CBS - Daytime Emmy Nominee for As the World Turns, Second Stage, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival).
*Actors Appearing courtesy of Actors Equity Association

Award winning theatre company On The Square Productions discovers and cultivates original works by established and emerging playwrights. Through our unique developmental laboratory, playwrights experiment to transform ideas into fully mounted productions. We are imaginative and innovative yet socially relevant and accessible. We produce work that is reflective of the world we live in, mindful of the past, with an eye focused on the future.

The Tragedy of Dandelion by Duncan Pflaster, tonight, December 17th 7:30PM at University Settlement (184 Eldridge St. at Rivington). Take the J/Z to Bowery, B/D to Grand St, F to Delancey St or 2nd Ave, and also J/M/Z to Essex St. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at the door. Visit www.onthesquareproductions.com and University Settlement.

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