Workshop Theater Presents COLD SNAPS 2012 Festival, Now thru 12/15

WORKSHOP THEATER COMPANY presents prehistoric silliness, delicate romance, and valiant struggles for survival and sanity! If you’re tired of magical snowmen, elves in odd sizes, and miracles on 34th Street, then head up and over to 36th where the award-winning WorkShop Theater Company presents its annual antidote to excessive holiday cheer with COLD SNAPS 2012, the WorkShop’s Winter Short Play Festival running today, November 30 – December 15 in the Jewel Box Theater, 312 West 36th Street, 4th Floor.

“It’s not that we’re against holiday celebrations, quite the contrary. But sometimes a little holiday cheer goes a long way, and Cold Snaps 2012 provides an escape from all that relentless good will, forced family time and rampant consumer rage,” said Scott C. Sickles, Artistic Director of the WorkShop Theater Company whose previous Main Stage Season included Eddie Antar’s The Navigator, a New York Times Critics' Pick that received two Drama Desk Nominations. "This year’s program is a eclectic combination ranging from the profoundly silly to the downright disturbing. It’s a bit of an emotional roller-coaster, so people should bring their families, if only to teach them how good they’ve already got it.”

The plays, all penned by WorkShop Theater Company playwrights, feature the talent of seventeen actors, and noteworthy directors. Rich Orloff’s The Latest News From the Primordial Ooze by Rich Orloff, directed by Wendy Seyb, and Anne Fizzard’s Nine Moons Ago, directed by Gerrianne Raphael, explore the dilemmas faced by primordial creatures and early cavewomen; Robert Strozier’s Now You See It, Now You Don’t, directed by Elena Araoz, and Margo Hammond’s Look Me in the Eyes, directed by Kathryn Long, delicately examine romantic connection and communication at different stages of relationships; the remaining three pieces – Scott C. Sickles’ Sugarplum, directed by Ryan Lee; Bob Manus’ To Live, directed by Daniel Damiano; and Greg Oliver Bodine’s To Build a Fire, based on the Jack London short story and directed by Thomas Coté – tell gripping stories of survival about people trapped in the throes of mental illness, in a Nazi concentration camp, and in the snowy winter wilderness.

To prove they’re not grinches, the WorkShop revives Greg Oliver Bodine’s solo adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol beginning the very next day!

Show Schedule:
Friday, November 30 at 8:00 pm
Saturday, December 1 at 3:00 pm and 8:00 pm
Thursday, December 6 at 7:00 pm
Friday, December 7 at 8:00 pm
Saturday, December 8 at 3:00 pm and 8:00 pm
Monday, December 10 at 7:00 pm
Thursday, December 13 at 7:00 pm
Friday, December 14 at 8:00 pm
Saturday, December 15 at 3:00 pm and 8:00 pm

Tickets are $15–18 and are now available online at workshoptheater.org. Tickets may also be purchased in person at the theater 30 minutes prior to performance. Running Time: 105 minutes.

WorkShop Theater Company's mission is to provide a creative home for a diverse group of playwrights, directors and actors. The WorkShop has developed hundreds of plays, among them Eddie Antar's NY Times Critic's Pick, Drama Desk nominated and NY Innovative Theatre Award-winning hit, The Navigator ("cruises in entertainingly high gear" - NY Times), Ken Jaworowski's Interchange, (NY Times Critic's Pick) and Allan Knee's The Man Who Was Peter Pan, which became the Academy Award-nominated, Finding Neverland, produced by Nellie Bellflower and receiving an Academy Award nomination for the screenplay by David Magee, both of whom are WorkShop Theater Company alumni.

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