Critically acclaimed PENNY PENNIWORTH: A Story of Great Good Fortune is upping the ante this Leap Year with a special performance benefiting the Drama Desk-Nominated, Emerging Artists Theatre’s New Work Series.
With two successful Off-Broadway runs in 2010 and 2012, award-winning playwright Chris Weikel’s comedy garnered rave reviews and played to packed houses. Directed by Mark Finley (Street Theater, The Secretaries for TOSOS) PENNY PENNIWORTH returns to TADA Theater with the original company of the Off-Broadway production..
Proceeds will support Emerging Artists’ New Work Series, a three-week developmental intensive that provides artists of different disciplines the opportunity to present a “work in progress” with audience feedback. Works developed in the series have gone on to successful runs at FringeNY, NYMF, and Off-Broadway shows. The next New Work Series is scheduled for February 29th – March 20th and will take place at TADA! Theater.
PENNY PENNIWORTH is Charles Dickens’ “lost” epic- as mounted by a short-staffed theatre troupe with Royal Shakespeare Company aspirations. Set in Victorian England, it tells the story of young Penny Penniworth whose childhood love is driven out of town after nearly killing a wealthy businessman. Soon, Penny finds herself penniless, left alone to make her way through a convoluted maze of strange relationships, anonymous benefactors and ultimate justice.
The 70-minute farce features Christopher Borg, Jamie Heinlein, Lee Kaplan, and Ellen Reilly.
Performance takes place at TADA! Theater, 15 West 28th Street, 2nd Floor (Between Broadway & 5th Avenue). Tickets are $75.00 which includes a post-show mingle with the cast, hors d’oeuvres and a special “Penny” cocktail. Tickets are available at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2491752.
More info is available at www.newworkseries.com and www.emergingartiststheatre.org.
Playwright Chris Weikel‘s PENNY PENNIWORTH, was produced Off-Broadway by Emerging Artists Theatre Company (EAT). Weikel is a member of TOSOS which presented his PIG TALE: AN URBAN FAERIE STORY in New York as well as at the Absolut Dublin International Gay Theatre Festival. Weikel was commissioned by American Stage Company to write an adaptation of Dylan Thomas’s A CHILD’S CHRISTMAS IN WALES for the company’s 2000 season. Chris is a judge-at-large for the New York Innovative Theatre Awards and a regular contributor to Drunken! Careening! Writers! at KGB. Weikel received an MFA in playwriting from Hunter College in New York City. His work has been developed at The Lark as well as the Kennedy Center ACTF/NNPN MFA Playwrights workshop. Weikel was a 2008-09 Dramatist Guild Fellow, the 2007 recipient of the Robert Chesley Award for emerging gay playwrights, the 2008 recipient of the Irv Zarkower Award, and he is a 2011 Recipient of the Rita and Burton Goldberg Award. He was a 2013 NYFA Fellow, and the 2013 Recipient of the Smith Prize Commission for Political Theatre.
Director Mark Finley made his Off-Broadway directorial debut with Chris Weikel’s PENNY PENNIWORTH. His work as a director has been seen off-off Broadway (OOBR award for A PERFECT RELATIONSHIP, HX Award Nomination for STREET THEATER) regionally and internationally. Most recently, he revived the iconic TOSOS production of Doric Wilson’s STREET THEATER at the Eagle and appeared in Kathleen Warnock’s THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF… both in NYC and at the Dublin International Gay Theater Festival. He is the artistic director of TOSOS—New York City’s original LGBT theater company–and has directed many of its notable and award winning productions. He is also an author and a graduate of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.