PRESS/MEDIA Contact:
MANDEE K. HAMMERSTEIN
908-246-0882
-FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE-
NEW FEATHERS PRODUCTIONS
ANNOUNCES
ALL-FEMALE/FEMALE-IDENTIFYING PLAYWRIGHTS, DIRECTOR AND CAST EXCLUSIVELY FOR “WOMEN OF A CERTAIN AGE, NOT WRITING ABOUT MENOPAUSE”
A THEATRICAL PRODUCTION of ALL-NEW SHORTS & ONE ACTS
TICKETS start at $20 with pre-show reception tickets starting at $30
MORE INFO AT: www.bucks.edu/tickets
NEW HOPE, PA (10/21/21) – New Feathers Productions (NFP) announces their first-ever, all-female theatrical production, WOMEN OF A CERTAIN AGE, NOT TALKING ABOUT MENOPAUSE, set for Thursday, November 11th at the Zlock Performing Arts Center. NFP will exclusively produce the latest scripts by six female/female-identifying select playwrights throughout the NY, NJ, and PA region and will be directed by Sarah LeClair.
WOMEN OF A CERTAIN AGE, NOT TALKING ABOUT MENOPAUSE will take audiences through all aspects of writing and performance development. Some playwrights will be experiencing their first professional reading production, while others have developed their scripts previously, yet making significant enhancements/modifications in preparation for November 11th at Zlock PAC. Various scripts will differ in format, including excerpts extracted from longer bodies of work, through to being originally planned for the screen. By way of narration and professional, live performance, WOMEN OF A CERTAIN AGE will expressly represent each writing woman’s creative “voice” as directed by Sarah LeClair.
WOMEN OF A CERTAIN AGE is part of a monthly series at the Zlock Performing Arts Center, Newtown, PA. As a unique, one-night-only production monthly through January 2022, NFP is pleased to announce the following Playwrights and their work:
“DISAPPEARING IN PLAIN SIGHT” by Mary Carpenter; “YOU CAN KISS ME” by Jan Jalenak;
“IN THE GARDEN” by Kerri Kochanski; “LOVE BAKER” by Meghan Malloy; ”LETTING GO” by Shelli Pentimall; “GAMMA GIRLS TO THE RESCUE” by Julie Zaffarano
”This production event brings together powerful, unforgettable plays from exceptional and award-winning playwrights in our area. As part of showcasing their work, we are also thrilled that the playwrights have generously offered a window into their processes, making the “page to stage” development transparent to us as an audience. We are celebrating every step of creating original written material for the stage.”– stated Sarah LeClair, NFP Director & Producer.
“Sarah LeClair is a true renaissance woman. Equally at home, acting or directing. We’re excited to have her at the helm of our November series of short plays written by six amazing playwrights and nine incredible actors.”– stated John Augustine, NFP Producer
NFP strives to take playwrights, performers, and audience members alike through the latest theatrical work development process, thinking, style, and approach. NFP provides a safe forum for playwrights to have their work publically seen, heard, and responded to by supportive, early-adopting audiences to prepare such new theatrical work for larger audiences and opportunities. NFP and the Zlock PAC highlights talent from the vibrancy and voice of Philadelphia, New York, and surrounding areas. The Cast for Women of a Certain Age, Not Talking About Menopause on November 11th includes:
Cecily Laidman
Nyiema Lunsford
Keith Maliszewski
Jennifer Newby
Susan Pilon
John C. Pinto
Hayden Saunier
Laura Scotti
Nancy Vander Zwan
With all-season shows starting at 7:30 pm, the NFP schedule offers two primary ticketing options, General Admission for $20 and a 6 pm VIP Pre-Show Reception with reserved theater seats for $30. The Pre-Show Reception includes alcohol, non-alcohol beverages, and light-fare. Special discounts include Seniors (65+), Bucks Faculty, Staff, Alumni and Active Military, Veterans, and Bucks County Arts & Cultural Council Members. In addition, current students receive free admission with valid IDs. Skipping December, the month of January, will conclude the NFP season at Zlock PAC with a full-length reading production TBA. Tickets and more info: www.bucks.edu/tickets
DIRECTOR BIO:
Sarah LeClair is a Bucks County-based actor, director, producer, and arts educator. She performed in the New Feather Productions performance of PeopleSpeak as Siobhan in 2018, and joined the team thereafter! Other projects this autumn include playing Myra Bruhl in Deathtrap at Town & Country Players, directing/hosting Murder Manor (an improvised murder mystery) with ComedySportz Philadelphia, and directing Radium Girls at CB South. Since the start of 2021, Sarah has had no shortage of theatrical endeavors, producing events such as staged readings, playwriting festivals, youth improv courses, theater in the park, and a holiday variety show. It is her greatest delight to collaborate on new works in development, and bring together the talents of the area – now live and in-person again!
PLAYWRIGHT BIOS:
Mary Carpenter has been working in Philadelphia Theatre as a performer, director, teacher, writer, and producer for over twenty years. She has worked with The Second City, 1812 Productions, Act II Playhouse, Philadelphia Theatre Company, the Arden, the Wilma, and Montgomery Theatre Company. Directing credits include Intimate Exchanges and Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe at 1812, On the Road Again, Oh What Fun, Didn’t Your Father Have This Talk with You, Making Spirits Bright, A Few of Our Favorite Things, and Kalamazoo at Act II Playhouse, and I’ll Have What She’s Having at CSZ Philly. She has written and produced two one-woman shows: The New & Improved Stages of Grief and Dot & Me. Mary has been a performing and teaching member of ComedySportz for over twenty-five years where she also served as Artistic Director twice. She holds Theatre degrees from Northwestern University and The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts and has recently published Do Or Do Not: How to Improvise Like a Jedi.
Jan Jalenak grew up in Memphis, TN is a lifetime member of The Actors Studio and New Circle Theater Company, and a graduate of New York University. Her acting training with the inimitable Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse in the ’80s instilled a fearlessness to dig deeper with both her acting and writing. As a playwright, her plays have been featured in venues throughout New York City, including Greenwich Street Theater, Naked Angels, The Gene Frankel Theatre, The Robert Moss Theater, The Ohio Theater, New Georges, UBU Rep, Studio Theater, Playwrights’ Horizons, and The Actors Studio.
Kerri Kochanski is an author and playwright. Her work has been performed throughout the United States and Canada. Her plays include COLLEGEBURG, USA: THE TRUE STORY OF A TOWN IN CRISIS IN THE ADVENT OF A RACIST REGIME, OR PRIVILEGED, OR SUPREME (WE ARE GOING TO HAVE THIS CONVERSATION), CREEP, THE FOOD MONOLOGUES, COMMUNICATING THROUGH THE SUNSET, SPITTING DAISIES, and numerous short plays and monologues. Excerpts from her dramatic work have been performed in various thespian festivals across the United States, and have been published in anthologies by Smith & Kraus, Meriwether, Dramatic Publishing, ICWP, Cengage Learning, and Applause Books. She is the author of the book, QUIRKY AND DRAMATIC MONOLOGUES, and the pop culture/humor book, 1,001 PEOPLE THAT SUCK. She is a resident playwright with Emerging Artists Theatre (NYC), The Witherspoon Circle (Princeton, NJ), and Lancaster Dramatists’ Platform (Lancaster, PA). Her work has received support from the NJ Council for the Humanities and The Puffin Foundation. She received an MFA in Playwriting from Columbia University. She lives in Greater Philadelphia.
Meghan Malloy: Meghan Malloy is a professional actress, director, and teaching artist. BFA in Acting (Point Park Conservatory). Barrymore nominated actress (Wilma Theater’s My Children! My Africa!). Meghan taught and directed for the Walnut Street Theatre for nine years, from adult scene study to children’s musical theater. Locally, Meghan has taught theatre camp for at-risk youth and dialect workshops for The Conservatory in Doylestown. She enjoys private coaching monologues, audition sides, and dialects. Playwriting is her latest adventure after being on an eight-year hiatus with her children. www.meghanmalloy.org.
Shelli Pentimall Bookler holds an M.F.A. in Playwriting from Temple University and an M.A. in Theatre Arts from Eastern Michigan University. Productions of her full-length plays include the musical Snyder v Phelps, based on the controversial Supreme Court decision in the case against the Westboro Baptist Church, Addicted about young adults in recovery for drug addiction, All the Dead Biddles, a dark comedy that takes a unique view of how we grieve after a significant loss, and Bird in the Window, the story of a young woman who develops an eating disorder after a traumatic event. Short plays featured in play festivals include Committed (Montgomery Theatre, the Brick Playhouse), Decision (Village Players of Hatboro), Jugs (Colonial Playhouse), Global (Heartlande Theatre Company), and Vanity, featured in Seeds of Spring, A Night of Feminist Performance Art. She was the New American Voices Playwriting Series finalist (Pieces of the Pie), Midwest Dramatist Center’s Playwriting Conference finalist (The Interview), American Association of Community Theatre semi-finalist (Bird in the Window and Pieces of thePie), and her play Captive was featured in Panglossian Production’s Weekend of Women Playwriting Series in Williamsburg, Virginia. She is a member of The Dramatist Guild, Philadelphia Dramatist Center, and the Witherspoon Circle, a playwriting group based in Princeton, New Jersey, as well as an actor, director, dramaturg, and choreographer in Philadelphia.
Julie Zaffarano is a Philadelphia area playwright who believes everyone’s lives are made of a myriad of stories. Her award-winning scripts have been produced and performed throughout the United States. While her work spans multiple genres and forms, as well as varied characters, she loves creating strong roles for women, with a special focus on women of mature age. Upcoming: Above the Fold, readings (Artemisia Theatre and Allens Lane Theatre); Kentucky Lemonade (Everybody’s Theatre Company). Most recent: Destiny is a Careless Waiter and Other Plays produced by Juniper Productions, Philadelphia Fringe Festival; The PlayMakers, produced by Rover Dramawerks and by What If? Productions, South Carolina, (Winner in the What If? Productions Playwrights Festival Best New Work); Destiny is a Careless Waiter, Pittsburgh New Work Festival (Winner, Best Production); Naughty Marietta (Revised 2018), Rose Valley Chorus and Orchestra: Turkey Baby with Juniper Productions (reading); Sweet Revenge, Dramatist Guild Philadelphia Footlights and PlayPenn Foundry Reading Series (readings); Not So Charming, R-Act Productions; Inside Out, ReVamp Collective. Recent recognitions and readings: Semi-Finalist, O’Neill National Playwrights Conference (Kentucky Lemonade); Winner, Maryland Ensemble Theatre (METLab) Festival; Winner Best Production, Pittsburgh New Works Festival; Finalist, First Works, Boston; “Playwright of the Month,” A Work in Progress Theatre, Baltimore; “Readings at the Drake” PlayPenn (Wilma Theatre, Philadelphia); More at: www.juliezaffarano.com or new play exchange: https://newplayexchange.org/users/12137/julie-zaffarano.
About New Feathers:
New Feathers Productions is a professionally produced, ever-expanding playwright and performance reading series exclusively devoted to new theatrical works. NFP purposefully presents an edgy, industry-inside view to the creative development process with skilled performers, playwrights, and directors. NFP founded by Mandee K. Hammerstein in 2017, aims to deliver a delightful and memorable mix of emotion-flexing, brain-teasing comedy, frank thought, and post-conversation dialog while immersing participants in the experimental, theatrical process. From its wildly-celebrated inception in 2017 at the famed Raven Resort through to the James A. Michener Art Museum and now newly nested at the Zlock Performing Arts Center, NFP promises to showcase the latest theatrical works by Award-winning playwrights and emerging talent throughout the region. With inimitable content, NFP strives to positively impact, inspire, and bond audiences and artists alike. For the latest NFP updates, please visit the New Feathers Facebook page at Facebook/NewFeathersProductions or email: NewFeathersProductions@gmail.com.
About the ZLOCK Performing Arts Center: The Kevin and Sima Zlock Performing Arts Center hosts musical and theatrical performances, business conferences, and educational events throughout the year. The Zlock Performing Arts Center offers exceptional staging, lighting, and acoustics in an intimate 339-seat theater. The venue is located on the Bucks County Community College Newtown Campus, just 45-minutes north of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Built in 1971 and upgraded in 2000, the Zlock Performing Arts Center is also available for rent on a limited basis to external for-profit and non-profit groups and organizations.
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https://www.facebook.com/NewFeathersProductions
*Additional high-resolution images and interviews are available upon request
*Photos attached:
Playwright and Director Photos Attached – all contributed: Playwright Julie Zaffarano, Playwright and Performer, Meghan Malloy, Director Sarah LeClair.
