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Mile Square Theatre Launches Given Circumstance: New Plays in the Virtual World

originally published: 08/26/2020

Mile Square Theatre Launches Given Circumstance: New Plays in the Virtual World(HOBOKEN, NJ) -- Mile Square Theatre has commissioned seven new plays written specifically for the Zoom format. The four-part series begins September 18, and runs every weekend through October 11. The series begins with Lia Romeo’s charming, deeply heartfelt play Sitting and Talking, which follows a man and woman in their 60s as they navigate the vulnerable, awkward, and sometimes hilarious path to companionship via online dating during quarantine. Film star Dan Lauria, who played the titular role in Broadway’s Lombardi, is joined by Emmy- and Golden Globe-nominated actress Wendie Malick, and the piece is directed by James Glossman.

While Romeo’s play stands alone, the rest of the Given Circumstances lineup is paired off, providing audiences with two different short plays when they tune in. The weekend of September 25, viewers will be treated to new plays by Nandita Shenoy and Kevin R. Free; October 2 brings plays by Audley Puglisi and Cary Gitter; and the series commences the weekend of October 9 with work by Dustin Chinn and Chris O’Connor. Directors and casts of these other six plays will be announced at a later date.

Mile Square Theatre Artistic Director Chris O’Connor says, “The term ‘given circumstance’ is a theatrical term used by practitioners to describe the circumstances defined by the playwright, which frames the play. We thought the term was apt to describe the circumstances that are defining theatre in the time of COVID. A monumental circumstance these days is that we now live in a digital world, chiefly defined by Zoom calls. All of these commissions have asked the playwrights to set their plays on the Zoom platform as a central ‘given circumstance.’ We are thrilled to have this impressive lineup of writers and theatre collaborators.”

Tickets are $15-$20, available at: www.milesquaretheatre.org.  Once purchased, audience members will be emailed a link through which the stream may be accessed.

This program is made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts; and by funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, administered by the Hudson County Office of Cultural & Heritage Affairs, Thomas A. Degise, County Executive, and the Board of Chosen Freeholders. 

Mile Square Theatre’s Given Circumstance: New Plays in the Virtual World

September 18-20:  Sitting and Talking by Lia Romeo

September 25-27:  New Plays by Nandita Shenoy and Kevin R. Free

October 2-4: New Plays by Audley Puglisi and Cary Gitter

October 9-11: New Plays by Dustin Chinn and Chris O’Connor



 
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Bios:

Dustin H. Chinn (Playwright) is a Seattle native whose plays include the Ensemble Studio Theatre/Sloan Commission Herschel: Portrait of a Killer; Colonialism is Terrible, but Pho is Delicious; and Snowflakes, or Rare White People.  He’s worked with the Ma-Yi Writers Lab, Ars Nova Play Group, Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep Summer Residency Lab, A.C.T.’s New Strands Festival, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, the University of Washington via a Mellon Creative Fellowship, UC Berkeley, SPACE on Ryder Farm, UMass at Amherst New Play Lab and Vampire Cowboys.

Kevin R. Free  (Playwright) is a multi-disciplinary Artist. Actor in over 100 professional productions. Most recently for MST: Director of Pipeline. Former Education Director at Queens Theatre in the Park; Former Artistic Director of the Obie Award-Winning Fire This Time Festival.  NYTheatre.com Person of the Year, 2010; SemiFinalist, Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, 2013; Doric A. Wilson Independent Playwright Award, 2014; Flux Forward Commission 2015; Project Y Writers Group 2016; FringeNYC Overall Excellence in Playwriting Award, 2016; Current, Curator of the QUEERLY Festival. Narrator of over 350 Audiobooks; voice of Kevin on “Welcome To Night Vale”; Co-Creator of Award-winning web series “Gemma & The Bear!”  & “Beckys Through History,” and currently, producer of “The Reparations Show.”   

Cary Gitter (Playwright) is a playwright and screenwriter. His play The Sabbath Girl ran Off Broadway at 59E59 Theaters in 2020, following its premiere at Penguin Rep Theatre in Stony Point, NY, in 2019. His play How My Grandparents Fell in Love was a New York Times Critic’s Pick as part of the Ensemble Studio Theatre’s 36th Marathon of One-Act Plays and aired on public radio's Playing on Air. His plays have also been developed at the Berkshire Playwrights Lab, the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, the Jewish Ensemble Theatre, and New Jersey Repertory Company. He has received commissions from the EST/Sloan Project and West of 10th. He is a two-time O’Neill semifinalist and Jewish Plays Project finalist, and an alumnus of the Obie Award-winning EST/Youngblood playwrights’ group. His dramatic work has been published in anthologies from Smith & Kraus and Applause Books, and his fiction has appeared in JewishFiction.Net, Newtown Literary, and the Jewish Literary Journal. BFA, MA: NYU.  

James Glossman (Director, Sitting and Talking) Most recently directed the East Coast premiere of Jeff Daniels’s Flint at Shadowland Stages (NY), and DW Gregory’s Memoirs of a Forgotten Man at NJRep, where he has also directed (among other projects) Circumference of a Squirrel, Two Jews Walk Into a War, and Tour De Farce. Other recent: American premiere of Bang Bang!, new farce byJohn Cleese; co-wrote & directed the music-theatre piece Shostakovich and the Black Monk: A Russian Fantasy, with multiple-Grammy-winning Emerson String Quartet and a rotating cast including Sean Astin, David Strathairn, Len Cariou, Jay O. Sanders, Jeffrey DeMunn, and Richard Thomas, in concert and festival halls around the world including Tanglewood, Ravinia, Wolf Trap, Los Angeles, and Seoul, South Korea. Adapted/Directed world premieres of Raymond Chandler’s Trouble Is My Business (Portland Stage), Kate Atkinson’s Behind the Scenes at the Museum (Luna Stage), and Jim Lehrer’s Kick the Can, The Special Prisoner (with William Schallert), and Flying Crows (available from Dramatic Publishing). Directed East Coast premieres of Jeff Daniels’s Guest Artist and Jeffrey Sweet’s Bluff (both with John Astin), Los Angeles premiere of Noël Coward’s A Song at Twilight (with Orson Bean & Alley Mills), first NYC revival of Sheldon Harnick’s Smiling, the Boy Fell Dead (w/ Judy Kaye & Tony Roberts–York Theatre), and productions around the country of The Value of Names with Jack Klugman (opposite Dan Lauria & Liz Larsen, and earlier Louis Zorich & Megan Muckelmann). Earlier this year, James directed a workshop reading of his stage adaptation of Robert Heinlein’s science fiction classic, The Door Into Summer (w/ Jeff DeMunn, Evelyn McGee Colbert & Stephen Colbert), and completed his adaptation of three short stories by Tom Hanks. Graduate of Northwestern University, ACT, BADA-Oxford, and Yale School of Drama. Lecturer in Directing, Voice/Speech, and Shakespeare, Johns Hopkins University. Associate Artist, Shadowland Stages.

Dan Lauria (Charles, Sitting and Talking) has appeared as a guest star in over seventy television episodic programs and more than twenty Movie of the Week productions, plus a score of motion picture credits.  Dan is a very familiar face to the off-off, off, and regional theatre scene, having performed, written, or directed over 50 professional stage productions.  In 2010/2011, Dan was seen on Broadways as the legendary coach Vince Lombardi in the long-running production of Lombardi, with the beautiful and talented Judith Light, directed by Thomas Kail of Hamilton fame.  Dan returned to Broadway in the 2013 and 2014 productions of the Tony nominated A Christmas Story: The Musical directed by John Rando.  However, Dan is most recognized as the Dad on the highly acclaimed Emmy-winning ABC television show, “The Wonder Years.”  Dan and his dear friend, the lovely and talented Ms. Wendie Malick, have performed the play The Guys by Anne Nelson (about our first responders) for numerous theatres and fire departments around the country.  Wendie and Dan also perform Love Letters as a fundraiser for regional theatres, for the development of new plays.  Dan was recently on the TBS show “Sullivan & Son” for three seasons.  Dan also played manager Al Loungo on “Pitch” about the first woman pitcher in Major League Baseball and has recently joined the family on “This is Us,” both shows written by Dan Fogelman.  Two years ago, Dan wrote and starred in the Off-Broadway production of Dinner with the Boys, produced by the one and only Pat Addis and the NJ Rep.  This was followed by an Off-Broadway production of The Stone Witch by Shem Bitterman and upcoming regional production of Lee Blessing’s new play, Tea with the Boss, with Gwenn and Wendie Malcik.  Dan and Ms. Malick are the co-creators of the Durango Play Festival for the development of new plays.  Dan and his Godson Julian Farnsworth also write children’s books--go online and check them out: The Godfather Tales.

Wendie Malick (Enid, Sitting and Talking) gaining prominence on the small screen as Nina Van Horn in “Just Shoot Me” which earned her 1 Golden Globe and 2 Emmy nominations. Wendie also starred in “Hot in Cleveland,” earning a People’s Choice Award and SAG nomination for Best Ensemble as well as “Dream On,” earning 4 Cable Ace Awards. Other television credits include, “Frasier,” “Big Day,” “Good Company,” “Rush Hour,” with recurring arcs on “This Is Us,” “The Ranch,” “American Housewife,” “Pitch,” “Darrow and Darrow,” and “NYPD Blue.” Wendie’s television guest appearances include “Seinfeld,” “Grace and Frankie,” “Mom,” “CSI,” “NCIS: New Orleans,” “LA Law,” and “The X-Files.” Animated television credits include appearances on “Jimmy Neutron,” Spongebob Squarepants,” and “Bojack Horseman” which received an Annie Nomination.  Her career on the big screen includes credits such as “Adventureland,” “Fifty-Nothing,” “Jerome,” “Confessions of a Shopaholic,” “Waiting,” “Racing Stripes,” “The American President,” “On Edge,” “Trojan Wars,” “Raising Genius,” “Mr. Mikes Mondo Video,” “A Little Sex,” “The Goods,” “Bugsy,” “Funny About Love,” “The Emperor’s New Groove” and “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel.”  Wendie’s theatre credits include Off-Broadway renditions of Burleigh Grimes, North Shore Fish, and Big Night at the Kirk Douglas Theater; The Underpants at the Geffen; Don’t Blame Me, I Voted For Helen Gahagan Douglas at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company; The Santaland Diaries at the Coast Playhouse; Love Letters at the Laguna Playhouse; The Guys at the Studio Arena and Columbia University; Blithe Spirit and What Is The Cause Of Thunder at the Williamstown Theatre Festival; as well as Closure at the New Jersey Repertory Theatre.  Malick’s passion for animal and humanitarian efforts is shown through her work on the Board of The Environmental Media Association, as well as being a spokesperson for The Humane Society of the United States and Return to Freedom, a wild horse sanctuary and advocacy group.

Chris O’Connor (MST Artistic Director; Playwright) is Founding Artistic Director of Mile Square Theatre in Hoboken, NJ. In 2017 he received an Award of Excellence from the New Jersey Theatre Alliance for his stewardship of MST. He conceived and produces MST’s annual 10-minute play festival 7th Inning Stretch. He has directed over 20 productions at MST, and has directed at theatres and universities all over America, most recently Franklin Stage Company, where he directed Billy Bishop Goes to War. His recent work at MST includes I and You, Betrayal, Circle Mirror Transformation and the world premiere of Long Gone Daddy by Joseph Gallo. As an actor, Chris has performed in such theatres as Maltz Jupiter Theatre, Franklin Stage Company, Seattle’s A Contemporary Theatre, The Culture Project, Soho Rep, Center Theatre Group, Gloucester Stage, Provisional Theatre of Los Angeles, The Bathhouse Theatre, Seattle Children's Theatre, and City Theatre in Pittsburgh, where he originated the role of Peter in Craig Wright’s The Pavilion. Recent TV/film credits include Magic City, Burn Notice, and the indie thriller Depraved. His plays for young people have been produced at Seattle Children's Theatre, his short baseball play The Mascots is published in Smith & Kraus’s 2011 Best 10-Minute Plays and his play Miss Ring Has Lost Her Phone was a finalist in the 2016 City Theatre National Short Play Competition. He has taught at SUNY Purchase, Rutgers University, University of Miami, and is proud to be Assistant Professor on the Theatre Arts faculty at Molloy College/CAP21. BFA, Carnegie-Mellon University and MFA, Rutgers University. 

Audley Puglisi (Playwright) is a playwright and poet. Audley has been a 2015 VONA/Voices Playwriting Fellow as well as a 2016 Lambda Literary Playwriting Fellow. Audley has been a resident artist at Blue Mountain Center and has worked with St. Paul's Penumbra Theatre. Plays include The Salt Women (Carlotta Festival of New Plays); The Two Sisters (SipFest @ The Wild Project); blues for miss lucille (Lorraine Hansberry Award, finalist); and Home on High (Yale School of Drama). Audley received a B.A. in Africana Studies from Oberlin College and is a recent M.F.A. Graduate from the Yale School of Drama.

Lia Romeo’s (Playwright, Sitting and Talking) play The Forest was selected for the O’Neill Playwrights Conference, and was scheduled to receive a National New Play Network rolling world premiere in the upcoming season (cancelled due to the coronavirus). This and three of her other plays have been recognized by the Kilroys List. Her plays have been produced at 59E59, Unicorn Theatre, Project Y Theatre Company, Dreamcatcher Rep, HotCity Theatre, and many other companies. She was the winner of City Theatre’s 2019 National Short Playwriting Award, and was a 2018 Individual Artist Fellowship winner in playwriting from the New Jersey State Council for the Arts.  Her plays are published by Broadway Play Publishing, Playscripts, Dramatists Play Service, and Smith & Kraus. 



 
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Nandita Shenoy (Playwright) is a New York-based writer-actor. Her Rage Play was recently named to the Kilroys List 2020. Her play Washer/Dryer has been produced multiple times nationally after its world premier at LA’s East West Players and an Off-Broadway production in which she also starred. Her first full-length, LymePark: An Austonian Romance of an Indian Nature, was produced by the Hegira in Washington, DC. Her one-acts have been produced in New York City and regionally. Nandita won the 2014 Father Hamblin Award in Playwriting and a 2018 Mellon Creative Research Fellowship at the University of Washington School of Drama in partnership with Ma-Yi Theater Company. She is a proud member of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab, the Dorset Theatre Festival’s Women Artists Working Group, and the Dramatists Guild. As an actor, Nandita frequently works on new plays by living writers such as Madhuri Shekar, Adam Szymkowicz, Chelsea Marcentel, Eric Pfeffinger, and Richard Dresser, though she has also been a repertory company member at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. Nandita holds a BA in English literature from Yale University.   


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