Second Stage Uptown series presents two world premiere plays at the McGinn Cazale Theatre

Second Stage Theatre has announced the two plays to be presented as part of the company's sixth Second Stage Uptown Series this summer: Carly Mensch's Len, Asleep in Vinyl, directed by Jackson Gay, and Rajiv Joseph's Animals Out of Paper, directed by Giovanna Sardelli, both at the McGinn Cazale Theatre.

• Len, Asleep in Vinyl
  Playwright: Carly Mensch
  Director: Jackson Gay
  Synopsis: Len, a legendary but disillusioned music producer has retreated to a cabin in the woods, comforted by his mountains of records. When his estranged son and an ambitious but self-destructive pop star both arrive on his doorstep, Len finds himself caught between their dreams and his own demons lurking in the woods.
  Dates: Previews: 13 May 2008, Opens: 2 Jun 2008, Closing: - 22 Jun 2008

  
  

• Animals Out of Paper
  Playwright: Rajiv Joseph
  Director: Giovanna Sardelli
  Synopsis: When a world renowned origami artist opens her studio to a teenage prodigy and his school teacher, she finds that life and love can't be neatly arranged in this drama about finding the perfect fold.
  Dates: Previews: 15 Jul 2008, Opens: 4 Aug 2008, Closing: - 23 Aug 2008

Created as a program to help develop and provide exposure for the voices of a new generation of theatre artists, the Second Stage Uptown Series seeks to develop the skills of emerging playwrights, to provide early-career artists with the support of a major artistic institution, and to create new plays for the American Theatre. Each show has a limited rehearsal period, as well as a streamlined budget.

The series has helped launch and advance the careers of several up-and-coming playwrights, including Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (whose play, Good Boys and True is part of Second Stage's current mainstage season, beginning performances on 23 Apr 2008, Adam Bock ('The Receptionist,' 'The Drunken City'), and Brooke Berman ('Hunting and Gathering').