Cino Nights
Featured in The Brooklyn Rail, East Villager, and on Theaterspeak and J.Stephen Brantley’s blog
The Cino Nights series is dedicated to the memory of Doric Wilson and Lanford Wilson
Caffe Cino: We were all very young; we were all innocent; we knew nothing. We lived in a kind of Eden called Greenwich Village–this was a long time ago. Greenwich Village then was the center of all the new arts, and everyone was talented, and no one was famous, and we all spent our time with each other’s work, learning and cribbing. And one of the theatre centers was Caffe Cino, where young playwrights who knew nothing about what they were supposed to be doing made exciting work, and the failures were as exciting as the successes. It was Eden. I miss it. –Edward Albee
At the Caffe Cino, which made its meager living not from public approval of the work it presented, but from selling food and drink, where no one was paid except the police who were paid off, where reviewers seldom came (and reviews were usually published after a show had closed), theatre effectively entered the Modern era which the other arts had entered a hundred years before. …As a novelist has described it: “The first studio of theater where playwrights can experiment as painters and poets have done for a century, free from the tyranny of audience, box-office, church, and criticism.” -excerpted from an article about Joe Cino
BEST SEX EVER
A new play by Gary Sunshine
Directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel
Featuring Stephen Bel Davies, Cathy Curtin, Jimmy Davis, Mike Doyle and Jeffrey Nauman
ONE NIGHT ONLY – October 3, 2010 at 7PM
Seventh Street Small Stage
Unfashionable Jeremy takes his vaguely foreign boyfriend Kraatz on his kindergarten teacher’s wedding cruise, hoping to settle a score with the groom. Secret desires mount on the high seas, while the wedding videographer tries to shoot his dream project on the side. A comedy about trying to top life’s hottest moments.
ARTICLES
Zack Calhoon’s “People You Should Know” Blog
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Rising Phoenix Rep presents the world premiere of
(O)N THE 5:31
Part of the CINO NIGHTS series
(featured in the October issue of The Brooklyn Rail)
A new play by Mando Alvarado
Directed by Taibi Magar
Featuring Jolly Abraham, Sarah Baskin, and Bernardo Cubria
ONE NIGHT ONLY – October 24, 2010 at 7PM
Seventh Street Small Stage
A bar. A blind date. And a deconstruction of how it all began. (O)N THE 5:31 takes a trip into what is remembered and what could have been.
ARTICLES
Zack Calhoon’s “People You Should Know” Blog
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Rising Phoenix Rep presents the world premiere of
HERE I LIE
Part of the CINO NIGHTS series
(featured in the October issue of The Brooklyn Rail)
A new play by Courtney Baron
Directed by Daniel Talbott
Featuring Denis Butkus and Samantha Soule
ONE NIGHT ONLY – November 7th, 2010 at 7PM
Seventh Street Small Stage
Maris and Joseph have made their beds and now have to lie in them. Two people connected by illness, loneliness, and the need to be understood, they navigate the murky waters of subjective truth. If you believe it, can you make it true?
ARTICLES
Courtney Baron in Zack Calhoon’s “People You Should Know” Blog
Samantha Soule in Zack Calhoon’s “People You Should Know” Blog
Denis Butkus in Zack Calhoon’s “People You Should Know” Blog
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Rising Phoenix Rep presents the world premiere of
BUSTED
Part of the CINO NIGHTS series
featured in The Brooklyn Rail and the East Villager
A new play by Florencia Lozano
Directed by Portia Krieger
Featuring Maggie Bofill, Audrey Esparza, Nate Miller, Puy Navarro,
Ana Reeder, and Jeanine Serralles
We’re gunna take you out back and show you from whence you came.
The Sisterhood
ONE NIGHT ONLY – December 12th, 2010 at 10PM
Seventh Street Small Stage
ARTICLES
Florencia Lozano in Zack Calhoon’s “People You Should Know” Blog
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Rising Phoenix Rep presents the world premiere of
THE STRAY DOG
Part of the CINO NIGHTS series
featured in The Brooklyn Rail and the East Villager
A new play by Kristen Palmer
Directed by Julie Kline
with Stephen Brown, Chad Goodridge, Brian Miskell, Laura Ramadei,
Jelena Stupljanin, and Haynes Thigpen
A play obsessed with the great Russian poet Anna Akhmatova and dedicated to any who dare endure in the folly and the imperative that is art.
Songs will be sung.
Poems read.
Dreams dashed.
Vodka drunk.
These are dangerous times.
ONE NIGHT ONLY - January 23rd, 2011 at 7 p.m.
Seventh Street Small Stage
ARTICLES
Kristen Palmer on Zack Calhoon’s People You Should Know blog
Julie Kline on Zack Calhoon’s People You Should Know blog
This show is dedicated to David Townsend and feel better soon! 
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Rising Phoenix Rep presents the world premiere of
THE UPSTART
Part of the CINO NIGHTS series
featured in The Brooklyn Rail and the East Villager
A new play by Emily DeVoti
Directed by Taibi Magar
with Edward Carnevale, Julie Kline, and Anne O’Sullivan
A Brooklyn butcher.
A young writer, looking for a place of her own.
Brigid Hitler. Of Long Island.
How do we become who we are? A series of little, tiny choices.
ONE NIGHT ONLY – February 13th, 2011 at 7 p.m.
Seventh Street Small Stage
ARTICLES
Emily DeVoti on Zack Calhoon’s Visible Soul blog
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Rising Phoenix Rep presents the world premiere of
NAMED
Part of the CINO NIGHTS series
featured in The Brooklyn Rail and the East Villager
A new play by Lucy Thurber
Directed by Jenna Worsham
Fight Director Kathryn Ekblad
with Lila Dupree, Ronete Levenson, Katie Meister, and Sarah Tolan-Mee
College student Cora wakes in the middle of the night to find her best friend Emily gone. When Emily returns it looks as though the night will go like any other, except that tonight the girls are not alone–something, or someone, has come to visit. In a life experienced through the twin lenses of our physical reality and the reality in our minds, we hide our desire, our shame, and our longing. But what happens when the world inside Cora’s head comes to life and enters the room? Is she brave enough to admit what she sees, to give it a name?
Seventh Street Small Stage
ARTICLES
Lucy Thurber interview on Visible Soul blog
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Rising Phoenix Rep presents the world premiere of
ROW AFTER ROW
by Jessica Dickey
directed by Stephen Brackett
with Sevrin Anne Mason, Mike Kingsbaker, and Bjorn Thorstad
When two civil war re-enactors arrive for their annual Gettysburg beer only to find a stranger sitting at their table, their time-honored traditions are called into question. A play about the past and the future.
ONE NIGHT ONLY: Sunday, May 22 at 7 p.m.
Seventh Street Small Stage
ARTICLES
Jessica Dickey on Visible Soul blog
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Rising Phoenix Rep presents the world premiere of
CLOWN BAR
by Adam Szymkowicz
directed by Kip Fagan
Lyrics by Adam Szymkowicz and Adam Overett
Music by Adam Overett
with Alex Anfanger, Brett Aresco, Stephen Bel Davies, Sam Breslin Wright, Jamie Effros, Jessy Hodges, Beth Hoyt, Jessica Pohly, Dominic Spillane, and Stephen Stout
Long ago Happy left the Clown Bar and the organized clown crime world to work for the good guys. Now his junkie brother Timmy has been murdered, and Happy returns to his old life to ask a few questions. Can he go home again without getting sucked into the seedy clown underbelly of vice and violence? And will he survive the gun toting clowns who used to be his friends? Or Blinky, the lady clown he left behind?
ONE NIGHT ONLY: Sunday, June 19 at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.
Seventh Street Small Stage
ARTICLES
Adam Szymkowicz on Visible Soul blog
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Rising Phoenix Rep presents the world premiere of
THE UNDENIABLE SOUND OF RIGHT NOW
By Laura Eason
Directed by Laura Eason and Kirsten Kelly
Assistant Director Chinasa Ogbuagu
with Daniel Abeles, Estelle Collins Bajou, Jimmy Davis, Jeff Still, and Lusia Strus
It’s 1991. Hank is struggling to keep his legendary rock club going amid changing times and changing tastes. When his beloved daughter Lena starts dating a rising star DJ, Hank comes face-to-face with the cruel vitality of youth and the destructive power of the next big thing.
ONE NIGHT ONLY: Wednesday, September 7th at 7 p.m.
Seventh Street Small Stage
ARTICLES
Zack Calhoon’s Visible Soul blog – Laura Eason
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Rising Phoenix Rep presents the world premiere of
BLOOD STROKES
Written and directed by Daniel Reitz
Assistant Director Dan Shaked
With Tom Bozell, Joel Johnstone, and Chet Siegel
Faggot is the newest, most inflammatory, most polarizing in-yer-face-queer iTunes sensation. His concerts are getting bigger, the uproar louder, the costumes more outlandish, the “fans” more thuggish. Homo hero? Cynical instigator? Political activist? Performance artist? Tonight, the unwelcome truth waits in the dressing room.
ONE NIGHT ONLY: Sunday, September 25th at 7 p.m.
Seventh Street Small Stage
ARTICLES
Daniel Reitz interview on Visible Soul
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Rising Phoenix Rep presents the world premiere of
EDIE & ALEXANDER
Written by Megan Mostyn-Brown
Directed by Mia Rovegno
with Erin Gann and Molly Ward
Edie and Alexander are so glad you moved in next door. So very glad. They’d like to invite you over for dinner. They promise it will be an evening to remember.
ONE NIGHT ONLY: Sunday, November 13th at 7 p.m.
Seventh Street Small Stage
ARTICLES
Zack Calhoon’s “People You Should Know” Blog
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Rising Phoenix Rep presents the world premiere of
KILLING FLOOR
by Dael Orlandersmith
directed by Christian Parker
with Jack Gwaltney and Steve Payne
History catches up with the present when an estranged father and son have to comb through the detritus of their lives…literally. With her characteristically charged, visceral language, Dael Orlandersmith gives us a short sharp shock of a play – two men seeking redemption and truth who will resort to whatever it takes to get it.
ONE NIGHT ONLY: January 15th at 7pm
Seventh Street Small Stage
ARTICLES
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Rising Phoenix Rep presents the world premiere of
SOLITARY MAN
by Keith Reddin
directed by Meg Gibson
with Sam Breslin Wright, Katie Kreisler, Stephen Park, and Mandy Siegfried
It’s the end of an era, as Jimmy’s has been sold. In its place, a new tenant sure to cause controversy. A comedy about siblings, gentrification, and Neil Diamond.
ONE NIGHT ONLY: January 29th at 7pm
Seventh Street Small Stage
ARTICLES
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Rising Phoenix Rep presents the world premiere of
SEX AND DEATH IN LONDON
by Crystal Skillman
directed by Michael Padden
with Shyko Amos, Megan Hill, Nathan Hinton and James Leighton
ONE NIGHT ONLY: February 12th at 7pm
Seventh Street Small Stage
In the South London pub they have broken into during the riots, two girls find themselves confronted by their worst fear as the violence mounts around them: their best friend’s father looking for his missing daughter.
ARTICLES
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Rising Phoenix Rep presents the world premiere of
favorites
by Charlotte Miller
directed by John Michael DiResta
with J.Stephen Brantley, Jimmy Davis, Seth Numrich, Amelia Pedlow, and Addie Johnson-Talbott
Margaret returns home to help her brother Travis clear out of their recently deceased mother’s home, but finds it all but impossible when their shared memories spring to life and draw them back in time, trapping them in the sparkling delight and nightmarish terror of childhood.
ONE NIGHT ONLY: March 25th at 7pm
Seventh Street Small Stage
ARTICLES
Zack Calhoon’s “People You Should Know” Blog
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Rising Phoenix Rep presents the world premiere of
CASUAL ENCOUNTERS
by Brooke Berman
directed by Josh Hecht
with Aaron Michael Davies, Harris Doran, Sean Dugan, Shannon Esper, Maggie Lacey, and Jesse Pennington.
Jamie and Austin, best friends since college, open their laptops like Pandora’s box and peer into the seductive world of no-strings-attached sex. But is any encounter ever *really* casual?
ONE NIGHT ONLY: April 22nd at 7pm
Seventh Street Small Stage
ARTICLES
Zack Calhoon’s “People You Should Know” Blog
*Casual Encounters was developed with Trip Cullman through New Dramatists’s Creativity Fund and at IAMA Theater Company in Los Angeles.
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Rising Phoenix Rep presents the world premiere of
RADIANCE
by Cusi Cram
directed by Suzanne Agins
with J. Eric Cook, Peter Hirsch, Ana Reeder, and Kohl Sudduth
1955. A dive bar around the the corner form the El Capital Theater. A man. A woman. And the kind of secrets that glow brighter with time and whiskey.
ONE NIGHT ONLY: June 10th at 7pm
Seventh Street Small Stage
ARTICLES
Broadway World Photo Flash
Playbill
TheaterMania
Theaterspeak Interview with Cusi Cram
People You Should Know
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Rising Phoenix Rep presents the world premiere of
BREAK MY FACE ON YOUR HAND
by Daniel Talbott
directed by Portia Krieger
with Noah Galvin, Seth Numrich, Jelena Stupljanin, and Sanford Wilson
Flashes of violence have slammed high schoolers Bear and Trev into one another, and now they have to sit together in the afternoons at Bear’s grandmother’s kitchen table, their shared history and peach cobbler between them.
ONE NIGHT ONLY: June 17th at 7pm
Seventh Street Small Stage
ARTICLES
Playbill
TheaterMania
Broadway World
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Rising Phoenix Rep’s CINO NIGHTS series continues with the world premiere of
EAST COLFAX
by Diana Stahl
directed by Pirronne Yousefzadeh
with Clea Alsip, Joby Earle, Lesley Shires, and Micah Stock
Two pen pals discuss soul mates, Kerouac, Miller, food, and marriage in a Colorado basement.
ONE NIGHT ONLY: January 27th at 7:00 pm
Seventh Street Small Stage
ARTICLES
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Rising Phoenix Rep’s CINO NIGHTS series continues with the world premiere of
UNTITLED DEGRADATION PLAY
by Micheline Auger
directed by Kel Haney
assistant directed by Nora Ives
with Dawn McGee, Peter O’Connor,
Stephen Stout, and Anna Van Valin
Girl wants boy. Girl gets boy.
Girl turns into a pig.
ONE NIGHT ONLY: Saturday, Feb 23 at 7pm & 10pm
The Seventh Street Small Stage
ARTICLES
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Rising Phoenix Rep’s CINO NIGHTS series continues with the world premiere of
A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY
TO THE GYNECOLOGIC ONCOLOGY UNIT
AT MEMORIAL SLOAN-KETTERING
CANCER CENTER OF NEW YORK CITY
A new play by Halley Feiffer
Directed by Kip Fagan
with Laura Esterman, Danielle Slavick, Jacqueline Sydney, CJ Wilson, and Aaron Wright
An unlikely pair of strangers – a twentysomething foul-mouthed comedienne and a world-weary middle-aged millionaire – are brought together unexpectedly when their cancer-stricken mothers become roommates in the hospital. Together, these two very lost people must negotiate some of life’s heaviest problems — and make some of the world’s more inappropriate jokes — as they learn to laugh through their pain and to lean on each other when all they want to do is run away.
ONE NIGHT ONLY: Sunday, May 12th at 7PM
Seventh Street Small Stage
ARTICLES
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Rising Phoenix Rep’s CINO NIGHTS series continues with the world premiere of
Middle Voice Cino: 4 New Short Plays
by Steve DiUbaldo, Catya McMullen, Alec Silberblatt, and Emily Zemba
Directed by John Michael DiResta and Jenna Worsham
Featuring Julissa Contreras, Emily Daly, Kristopher Dean, Alexander Lambie, Nick Lawson, Ren Santiago, Sanford Wilson, and George West Carruth
ONE NIGHT ONLY: Sunday, September 29th at 8 p.m.
Seventh Street Small Stage
The Middle Voice Theater Company is the apprentice company of Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. A group of young artists; a mix of actors, directors, designers, and playwrights from diverse backgrounds. Their mission is two-fold: to create theater that embraces risk, encourages ensemble, and starts a conversation. And to reach out to different class segments in American society through the work, believing that conversations have the power to breed mutual understanding.
ARTICLES
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Rising Phoenix Rep’s CINO NIGHTS series continues with the world premiere of
I CAN’T EXPLAIN IT BETTER THAN THAT
A new play by Sarah Shaefer
Directed by Evan Caccioppoli
with Nic Grelli, Sevrin Anne Mason, and Briana Packen
Jessica walks in on what everyone knows is a big fat transgression. Not able to deal, she escapes the dreaded truth by heading out to grab some carryout, but when she returns, she brings back a little something more.
ONE NIGHT ONLY: Tuesday, November 26th at 8PM
Seventh Street Small Stage
ARTICLES