Berkshire Playwrights Lab June 10 Reading: Bill C. Davis12:32PM / Friday, June 05, 2009
GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. – Berkshire Playwrights Lab announces that Matthew Penn will direct a staged reading workshop production of playwright Bill C. Davis’s new play, Sex King, on Wednesday, June 10 2009, 8pm at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center (14 Castle Street, Great Barrington, Mass.). Admission is free.
Bill C. Davis is the author of Mass Appeal, which premiered at the Manhattan Theatre Club and moved to Broadway, where it received the Outer Critic's Circle Award, as well as subsequent productions in France, Poland, Brazil, Argentina, Sweden, South Africa, Rome, Australia, and in Germany. Davis adapted the play as a screenplay, which was made into a movie starring Jack Lemmon and Charles Durning and chosen as one of the ten best films for that year by The National Board of Review. His play, Dancing in the End-Zone, premiered at the State Theatre in Miami and moved to Broadway and to Los Angeles, where it received a Dramalogue Award and his play, Wrestlers, premiered in Los Angeles and won a Critic's Choice for the LA Times.
Davis directed his play, Spine, in Los Angeles, at the George Street Playhouse, and at the Barrow Group Theatre in New York City. Recently, his drama, Avow, premiered Off-Broadway at the Century Center for the Performing Arts. The play has been translated into French by Dominique Piat, entitled Parcours (Journeys) and into German by Pascal Breuer, entitled Bekenntnisse (Confessions). He is collaborating with composer Brett Boles on an original musical, Austin's Bridge.
His new work-in-progress play, Sex King, is about a character named Jeremiah Rockwell, who emerges as a confounding iconoclast: a sexually liberated pacifist, an activist, a family man, a romantic. Davis says, “I read an article in my local paper that prompted this play. Here in the hills of Connecticut, a man in his mid-sixties ran what he said was an escort service. The state said he was a pimp. During the trial, he was a local media darling who used his platform to express his long held pacifist views by speaking out against the bombing of Iraq in 1998.”
Matthew Penn has had roots in the Berkshires for over 40 years. He began his career as an actor appearing in a half-dozen films and more than 30 plays. He started directing for the stage at Ensemble Studio Theater in NY. Ed Sherin gave Penn the opportunity to direct Law & Order 14 years ago. Since then he has directed over 50 prime time dramas. He directed the 200th episode of Law & Order starring Julia Roberts, for which he was nominated for an Emmy. He subsequently spent four seasons as the Executive Producer of Law & Order, during which time he produced over 90 episodes. His other notable dramatic work has included Damages, The Closer, House, NYPD Blue, and The Sopranos.
The cast of this staged reading workshop production is TBA.
Founded in 2006 by theater professionals Joe Cacaci, Bob Jaffe, Jim Frangione, and Matthew Penn, Berkshire Playwrights Lab is dedicated to encouraging, developing, and presenting new plays. Through readings, workshops, and fully-staged productions, the Lab provides emerging and established writers with a professional and creative environment, while offering audiences the unique and provocative opportunity to share in the dramatic evolution of premiere works. For more information about this new organization, see www.berkshireplaywrightslab.org. |
