Maple & Vine: Playwright Horizons: 2011 - 2012 season

Playwrights Horizons has announceed the sixth and final production of its upcoming 2011/2012 Season. Completing the theater company's line-up is the New York premiere of Maple & Vine, a new play by Jordan Harrison ('Doris to Darlene' at Playwrights Horizons, 'Act a Lady,' 'Amazons and Their Men'), directed by Obie Award winner Anne Kauffman ('The Thugs,' 'Stunning,' Naked Angels' 'This Wide Night,' Harrison's 'Act a Lady').

Maple & Vine will be presented at Playwrights Horizons' Mainstage Theater as the third production of the season. The play had its World Premiere this March, also directed by Kauffman, as part of The Humana Festival of New American Plays. In his review of that production, Charles Isherwood of The New York Times called it, "Piquantly funny, cleverly executed and darkly playful."

Playwright Horizons 2011 - 2012 season will present five New York premieres and one World premiere: in season order the works are:

New York Premiere
Completeness
by Itamar Moses
Directed by Pam MacKinnon
Cast: Etba
Venue: Playwrights Horizons' Mainstage
Date: Will begin previews in Aug 2011.

Synopsis: How does a computer scientist hook up with a molecular biologist? He blinds her with science, of course. When Elliot builds a computer program to help Molly with her research project, the variables in their evolving relationship shift as rapidly as the terms of their experiment.

Itamar Moses (Playwright) is the author of the full-length plays 'Outrage,' 'Bach at Leipzig,' 'Celebrity Row,' 'The Four of Us,' 'Yellowjackets,' 'Back Back Back' and 'Completeness' and various short plays and one-acts. He is presently adapting Jonathan Lethem's 'The Fortress of Solitude.'

Pam MacKinnon (Director) returns to Playwrights Horizons, where she won an Obie Award for her direction of Bruce Norris' 'Clybourne Park.' She most recently directed the critically-acclaimed production of Edward Albee's 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf' at Steppenwolf, currently at Arena Stage.

New York Premiere
Milk Like Sugar
by Kirsten Greenidge
Directed by Rebecca Taichman
Venue: Playwrights Horizons' Peter Jay Sharp Theater
Dates: tba

Synopsis: With potential for more but nowhere to put it, sixteen-year-old Annie's got a choice: honor the pregnancy pact she made with her friends, or find the path to a brighter future. In this searing, sharply observant new play, Kirsten Greenidge finds savage humor and gritty poetry in one inner-city girl's struggle to carve out a life beyond the only one she knows.

Kirsten Greenidge's (Playwright) work includes 'Milk Like Sugar' (commissioned by La Jolla Playhouse/TheatreMasters), 'Bossa Nova' (world premiere at Yale Rep and recipient of a 2010 Edgerton Foundation New American Plays Award), 'The Luck of the Irish' (world premiere at Huntington in 2012, originally commissioned by South Coast Rep and recommissioned by Huntington), 'Rust' (Magic Theatre Company) and 'Sans Culottes in the Promised Land' (Humana Festival).

Rebecca Taichman (Director). Off-Broadway: 'Orlando '(adaptation by Sarah Ruhl, CSC), Second Stage: 'The Scene' by Theresa Rebeck (starring Tony Shalhoub and Patricia Heaton); The Ohio Theatre: 'Menopausal Gentleman' (Special Citation Obie Award).

New York Premiere
Maple & Vine
by Jordan Harrison
Directed by Anne Kauffman
Venue: Playwrights Horizons' Main Stage
Dates: tba

Synopsis: Katha and Ryu have become allergic to their 21st-century lives. After they meet a charismatic man from a community of 1950s re-enactors, they forsake cell phones and sushi for cigarettes and Tupperware parties. In this compulsively authentic world, Katha and Ryu are surprised by what their new neighbors - and they themselves - are willing to sacrifice for happiness.

Jordan Harrison (Playwright) was last represented at Playwrights Horizons with his play 'Doris to Darlene.' His other plays include 'Futura,' 'Act a Lady' (2006 Humana Festival), 'Finn in the Underworld' (Berkeley Repertory Theatre), 'Amazons and their Men' (Clubbed Thumb), 'Kid-Simple' (2004 Humana Festival), 'The Museum Play' (Washington Ensemble Theatre), and 'Fit for Feet' (2003 Humana Festival). He is currently working on a musical for Ars Nova, a children's play for the Arden Theatre, as well as a play for Actors Theatre of Louisville/Berkeley Rep.

Anne Kauffman (Director) won an Obie Award for her work on 'The Thugs' by Adam Bock (SoHo Rep). She previously collaborated with Jordan Harrison on the World Premieres of Maple & Vine (Humana Festival, 2011) and 'Act a Lady' (Humana Festival, 2006). Other New York credits include 'This Wide Night' with Edie Falco and Alison Pill (Naked Angels), 'Stunning' by David Adjmi (Lincoln Center Theater 3), Dan LeFranc's 'Sixty Miles to Silver Lake' (SoHo Rep/Page 73), 'God's Ear' by Jenny Schwartz (Vineyard/New Georges), 'The Loyal Opposition' by Jorge Ignacio Cortinas (NYTW), 'Hang Ten' by Karen Hartman (Women's Project), 'The Ladies' by Anne Washburn (The Civilians), 'Dot' (Clubbed Thumb) and 'Sides: The Fear Is Real' (Culture Project). In 2011, she will also be directing Harrison's 'The Flea and the Professor' as well as The Civilians' 'You Better Sit Down: tales from my parents' divorce' (this summer at Williamstown).

World Premiere
Rapture, Blister, Burn
by Gina Gionfriddo
Directed by Peter DuBois
Venue: Playwrights Horizons' Main Stage
Dates: tba

Synopsis: After grad school, Catherine and Gwen chose polar opposite paths. Catherine built a career as a rockstar academic, while Gwen built a home with her husband and children. Decades later, unfulfilled in polar opposite ways, each woman covets the other's life, commencing a dangerous game of musical chairs - the prize being Gwen's husband.

Gina Gionfriddo (Playwright) was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for 'Becky Shaw,' which had its world premiere at the Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville and its New York premiere Off-Broadway at Second Stage. In 2011, the play opened in London at The Almeida Theatre.

Peter DuBois (Director) is the Artistic Director of the Huntington Theatre Company, where he most recently directed Craig Lucas's 'Prelude to a Kiss' and Gina Gionfriddo's 'Becky Shaw,' as well as the world premiere of David Grimm's 'The Miracle at Naples.' He also recently directed the Off-Broadway run of Becky Shaw at Second Stage Theatre and its world premiere at The Humana Festival.

New York Premiere
Assistance
by Leslye Headland
Directed by Trip Cullman
Venue: Playwrights Horizons' Main Stage
Dates: tba

Synopsis: For these young assistants, life is an endless series of humiliations at the hands of their hellacious boss, a powerful uber-magnate. In rare moments of calm when the phone calls stop rolling, Nick and Nora and their traumatized co-workers question whether all their work will lead to success — or just more work.

Leslye Headland (Playwright) is the writer/director of the 'Seven Deadly Plays' series, which was produced by and premiered at the IAMA Theatre Company in Los Angeles. The series includes 'Cinephilia' (lust), 'Bachelorette' (gluttony), 'Assistance' (greed), 'Surfer Girl' (sloth), 'Reverb' (wrath) and 'The Accidental Blonde' (envy). Bachelorette also enjoyed a sold-out, extended run at Second Stage Theatre Uptown in July 2010.

Trip Cullman (Director) returns to Playwrights Horizons after most recently directing Adam Bock's 'A Small Fire' and previously directing Bock's 'The Drunken City' and Sarah Schulman's 'Manic Flight Reaction.' He also recently directed Adam Rapp's 'Nursing' (part of The Hallway Trilogy at Rattlestick), Leslye Headland's 'Bachelorette' (Second Stage) and Eli Clark's 'Edgewise' (p73/The Play Company).

New York Premiere
The Big Meal
By Dan LeFranc
Directed by Sam Gold
Venue: Playwrights Horizons' Peter Jay Sharp Theater
Dates: tba

Synopsis: Somewhere in America, in a typical suburban restaurant on a typical night, Sam and Nicole meet. And sparks fly, setting in motion an expansive tale that traverses five generations of a modern family, from first kiss to final goodbye.

Dan LeFranc (Playwright) received the 2010 New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award for 'Sixty Miles to Silver Lake,' premiered by Page 73 Productions and SoHo Rep. His other plays include 'Origin Story,'' Bruise Easy,' 'Night Surf,' 'In The Labyrinth,' 'The Big Meal,' 'The Fishbone Fables,' 'Backyard,' 'Kill The Keepers' and' Catgut.' His most recent play, 'The Big Meal,' received its world premiere at American Theater Company in Chicago.

Sam Gold (Director) is currently represented at Playwrights Horizons with his production of Kin by Bathsheba Doran. Also at Playwrights, he won an Obie Award last season for his direction of Annie Baker's 'Circle Mirror Transformation', as well as for his direction of Baker's 'The Aliens' at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. He's recently directed 'The Coward' by Nick Jones at Lincoln Center Theater's LCT3 and 'Tigers be Still' by Kim Rosenstock at Roundabout Theatre Company.