Rising Phoenix Rep's Cino Nights Presents SOLITARY MAN 1/29

Following performances of its first year of Cino Nights presentations (including new plays by Gary Sunshine, Mando Alvarado, Courtney Baron, Florencia Lozano, Kristen Palmer, Emily DeVoti, Lucy Thurber, Jessica Dickey, Adam Szymkowicz, Laura Eason, Daniel Reitz, Megan Mostyn-Brown, and Dael Orlandersmith), Rising Phoenix Rep continues the series on January 29th at 7 p.m. with SOLITARY MAN by Keith Reddin.

About the show: In the play, it’s the end of an era, as Jimmy’s has been sold. In its place, a new tenant sure to cause controversy. A comedy about siblings, gentrification, and Neil Diamond. SOLITARY MAN is directed by Meg Gibson and features Sam Breslin Wright, Katie Kreisler, Stephen Park, and Mandy Siegfried.

Show to be performed at: Seventh Street Small Stage, 43 East Seventh Street (6 to Astor Place, R/W to 8th Street, F to 2nd Ave) performances from September 2010 – June 2012

Admission is free; space is extremely limited, reservations are strongly encouraged and can be made by calling 212-946-5198 for more information please visit www.RisingPhoenixRep.org

Inspired by Joe Cino and his Caffe Cino—one of the original birthplaces of Off-Off-Broadway theatre and early home to such writers as Doric Wilson, Robert Patrick, John Guare, Sam Shepard, Lanford Wilson, and William M. Hoffman—New York Innovative Theater Award winning company Rising Phoenix Rep has commissioned twenty-one playwrights to write new, full-length plays for the Seventh Street Small Stage, the intimate back room space at Jimmy’s No. 43 in the East Village, where the company has mounted critically acclaimed and award winning productions of new plays for the past six years.

Rising Phoenix Rep artistic director Daniel Talbott described the series as a place to tap into the raw, inspired, inventive, and pioneering work of the Caffe Cino, where the love of theatre and new plays was joined with a scrappy, do-it-yourself work ethic. All shows will be rehearsed for a week and then fully mounted and produced, warts and all, for one night only with free admission.

Cino Nights are currently scheduled through June 2012 and will celebrate the spirit of indie theatre as a home for new plays and theatre artists as well as hopefully honor what has been said of the Caffe Cino: “the first studio of theater where playwrights can experiment as painters and poets have done for a century, free from the tyranny of audience, box-office, church, and criticism.” The plays will be fully produced for one night only on a more or less monthly basis.

The remaining playwrights, in the order their plays will appear, are:

February 12th – Crystal Skillman

March 11th – Jonathan Blitstein

March 25th – Charlotte Miller

April 22nd – Brooke Berman

May 2012 – Melissa Ross

June 10th – Daniel Talbott

June 17th – Cusi Cram

The previous productions in the series were:

Gary Sunshine’s BEST SEX EVER premiered on October 3, 2010. It was directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel and featured Stephen Bel Davies, Cathy Curtin, Jimmy Davis, Mike Doyle, and Jeffrey Nauman.

Mando Alvarado’s (O)N THE 5:31 premiered on October 24, 2010, directed by Taibi Magar and featuring Jolly Abraham, Sarah Baskin, and Bernardo Cubria.

Courtney Baron’s HERE I LIE premiered on November 7, 2010, directed by Daniel Talbott and featuring Denis Butkus and Samantha Soule.

Florencia Lozano’s BUSTED premiered December 12, 2010, directed by Portia Krieger and featuring Maggie Bofill, Audrey Esparza, Nate Miller, Puy Navarro, Ana Reeder, and Jeanine Serralles.

Kristen Palmer’s THE STRAY DOG premiered on January 23, 2011, directed by Julie Kline and featuring Stephen Brown, Chad Goodridge, Brian Miskell, Laura Ramadei, Jelena Stupljanin, and Haynes Thigpen.

Emily DeVoti’s THE UPSTART premiered on February 13, 2011; directed by Taibi Magar and featuring Edward Carnevale, Julie Kline, and Anne O’Sullivan.

Lucy Thurber’s NAMED premiered on February 27, 2011; directed by Jenna Worsham and featuring Lila Dupree, Ronete Levenson, Katie Meister, and Sarah Tolan-Mee.

Jessica Dickey’s ROW AFTER ROW premiered on May 22, 2011; directed by Stephen Brackett and featuring Sevrin Anne Mason, Michael Kingsbaker, and Bjorn Thorstad.

Adam Szymkowicz’s CLOWN BAR premiered on June 19, 2011; directed by Kip Fagan with lyrics by Adam Szymkowicz and Adam Overett, and music by Adam Overett. The cast featured Alex Anfanger, Brett Aresco, Stephen Bel Davies, Sam Breslin Wright, Jamie Effros, Jessy Hodges, Beth Hoyt, Jessica Pohly, Dominic Spillane, and Stephen Stout.

Laura Eason’s The Undeniable Sound of Right Now premiered on August 28, 2011; directed by Kirsten Kelly and Laura Eason and featuring Daniel Abeles, Estelle Collins Bajou, Jimmy Davis, Jeff Still, and Lusia Strus.

Daniel Reitz’s BLOOD STROKES premiered on September 25, 2011; directed by Daniel Reitz and featuring Tom Bozell, Joel Johnstone, and Chet Siegel.

Megan Mostyn-Brown's EDIE & ALEXANDER premiered on November 13, 2011; directed by Mia Rovegno and featuring Erin Gann and Molly Ward.

Dael Orlandersmith’s KILLING FLOOR premiered on January 15th, 2012; directed by Christian Parker and featuring Jack Gwaltney and Stephen Payne.

Reservations will be available one week before the performance each month. Seating is extremely limited. For reservations please call 212-946-5198; for more information please visit www.RisingPhoenixRep.org.

Keith Reddin (Playwright) Plays include: Life and Limb, Rum and Coke, Big Time, Nebraska, Life During Wartime, Brutality of Fact, Almost Blue, All the Rage, But Not for Me, Frame 312, Prophets of Nature, Human Error, Missionary Position, Will to Art, Acquainted with the Night, Too Much Memory, produced at Playwrights Horizons, Manhattan Theater Club, NY Shakespeare Festival, Atlantic Theater, Primary Stages, Naked Angels, as well as regionally at Goodman Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, Berkeley Rep, Yale Rep, American Repertory Theater, Alliance Theater, Alley Theater, as well as in London, Berlin, Sydney, and Tel Aviv. He has also written for film and television.

Meg Gibson (Director) DIRECTING: Exit/Interview Mabou Mines Resident Artist/2012; Too Much Memory 2008 Fringe Festival best play and NYTW, produced by Rising Phoenix Rep; Charm, Hysteria, Big Love, The Ride Down Mt. Morgan, Too Much Memory for Salt Lake Acting Company. Yale School of Drama Research Fellow/emphasis on design. ACTING: NYC: Public/Measure for Measure, King Lear, The Ride Down Mt. Morgan, Casanova, Fen, Temptation. Atlantic/Human Error. Rattlestick/Slipping. Rising Phoenix Rep/Ceremony. REGIONAL: American Repertory Theatre, Actors Theater of Louisville, Mark Taper Forum, Long Wharf, Yale Rep, Huntington, Williamstown, Westport Playhouse, O’Neill Conference. FILM and TV: Treme, Rubicon, Che, Dust, Law & Order, SVU, CI, Sex and the City, Night Listener, Picture Perfect.

2007 Caffe Cino Fellowship and New York Innovative Theatre Award winning Rising Phoenix Repertory was founded in 1999 by Artistic Director Daniel Talbott. The phoenix takes the energy of the old, combines it with the new, and soars into the future. By learning from the traditions of the past and the teachings of the present, we want to rediscover the craft of a raw and vital Living Theatre. Rising Phoenix Rep started by producing an ongoing reading series of new plays as well as workshops and festivals, and now produces both in the Indie Theatre and Off-Broadway. Upcoming Off-Broadway productions include the world-premieres of 3C by David Adjmi (co-produced with Rattlestick and piece by piece productions) and Analphabet by Martin Moran (co-produced with piece by piece and The Barrow Group). Recent productions include the acclaimed, sold-out Off-Broadway runs of Elective Affinities (co-produced with piece by piece and Soho Rep), Slipping (produced with piece by piece and Rattlestick) and Too Much Memory (also with piece by piece) which transferred to the New York Theatre Workshop’s Fourth Street Theatre after winning the FringeNYC award for Outstanding Play in 2008.

RPR is currently in the middle of a year-and-a-half-long event called Cino Nights, inspired by Joe Cino and his Caffe Cino—one of the original birthplaces of Off-Off-Broadway—for which the company has commissioned twenty-one playwrights to write new, full-length plays to be fully produced in the intimate back room of East Village restaurant Jimmy’s No. 43 on a shoestring budget. Other recent productions include Ceremony, Afterclap, Birthday, and Don’t Pet the Zookeeper (Seventh Street Small Stage); 365 Days/365 Plays (Jimmy’s No. 43 and The Public Theater); What Happened When (HERE Arts Center); Fall Forward (part of the Sitelines/River to River festival produced by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council); The Telling Trilogy (including The Ride, 2006 NYIT Award Nominee – Outstanding Original Short Script/Crystal Skillman), Rules of the Universe (Winner, 2007 NYIT Awards for Outstanding Original Short Script/Daniel Reitz and Director/Daniel Talbott), and Three Sisters (Seventh Street Small Stage); Gift by Mark Schultz and Ponies by Mike Batistick (FringeNYC). Rising Phoenix Rep serves as a home base for a company of theatre professionals that encourages an open exchange of work and ideas within the greater theatre community. The company is a proud member of the Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York and The Dish. www.RisingPhoenixRep.org

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