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Tue, 06/09/2016 - 10:16pm

Announcing our 45th anniversary season

Since our founding in 1971, the Playwrights’ Center has been imagining theater forward. We'll be celebrating our 45th year all season long, including with a conversation series called #Theater2060 discussing how theater will change over the next 45 years.

The following plays by Playwrights’ Center Core Writers will be featured in the 2016-17 season of staged readings:

PLAYLABS:

RUTH EASTON NEW PLAY SERIES:

These readings are the most public components of the play development work at the Playwrights’ Center, where more than 70 plays are workshopped each year. PlayLabs and the Ruth Easton New Play Series give Core Writers intensive workshop time with collaborators to hone their scripts and see the work on its feet in front of two different audiences. The readings feature top local and national actors and incorporate design elements, giving audience members a unique and immediate way to experience new work and a chance to be part of the creative process. All season events are free and take place at the Playwrights’ Center, located at 2301 E Franklin Avenue in Minneapolis’ Seward neighborhood.

PlayLabs, October 17-23, 2016

The PlayLabs new play festival is now in its 33rd year, and is increasingly becoming a must-attend event for theater leaders and fans both locally and from around the country. In addition to the three plays by Core Writers featured in the festival, audiences are invited to a showcase of scenes by the 2016-17 playwriting fellows, a #Theater2060 conversation with manifestos from socially-engaged playwrights, and a party celebrating the theater community.

PlayLabs 2016 will feature:

The Remains by Ken Urban
Monday, October 17 and Saturday, October 22 at 7 p.m.
Director: Jeremy B. Cohen
Cast includes: Maulik Pancholy* (from TV's 30 Rock and Weeds), Sue Scott*, Bob Rosen*, Mo Perry*

West of Central by Christina Ham
Tuesday, October 18 and Friday, October 21 at 7 p.m.
Director: Hayley Finn
Dramaturg: Michael Kinghorn
Design consultant: Dan Dukich
Cast includes: Juanita Jennings*, Shawn Hamilton*, James A. Williams*, Thomasina Petrus*, Mark Benninghofen*

we, the invisibles by Susan Soon He Stanton
Wednesday, October 19 at 7 p.m. and Saturday, October 22 at 1 p.m.
Director: Dámaso Rodriguez
Dramaturg: Wendy Weckwerth
Design consultant: Joel Sass
Cast includes: Kurt Kwan*, Sara Ochs, Nathan Keepers*, H. Adam Harris*, Adia Morris*, Angela Lin*
*Member of Actors’ Equity

On Sunday, October 23, the Playwriting Fellows Showcase is at noon and the #Theater2060 conversation is at 2:30 p.m.

PlayLabs tickets are available. Details and reservations at pwcenter.org/playlabs.

Ruth Easton New Play Series, December 2016 – April 2017

The Ruth Easton New Play Series is entering its 12th year. Plays recently seen in the Ruth Easton New Play Series that have full productions this theater season include George Brant’s Marie and Rosetta, running Off-Broadway now at Atlantic Theater, and Carlyle Brown’s Finding Fish, which opens October 8 at the Illusion Theater in Minneapolis.

The 2016-17 Ruth Easton New Play Series will feature Wink by Jen Silverman (December 5 & 6), queens by Martyna Majok (January 9 & 10), Eden Prairie, 1971 by Mat Smart (February 6 & 7), The Sea & The Stars by Harrison David Rivers (March 6 & 7), and Minneapolis/St. Paul by Lee Blessing (April 3 & 4).

Details at pwcenter.org/ruth-easton-series.

 

Photo: Sun Mee Chomet and Megan Burns in Rachel Jendrzejewski's ENCYCLOPEDIA, part of the 2015-16 Ruth Easton New Play Series. Photo by Paula Keller.

Sun Mee Chomet and Megan Burns in Rachel Jendrzejewski's ENCYCLOPEDIA, part of the 2015-16 Ruth Easton New Play Series