Seven Plays Featured in 2013 Pacific Playwrights Festival Lineup

Five new play readings and two world premiere productions make up South Coast Repertory's 2013 Pacific Playwrights Festival. The offerings range from a story about a family of grifters to the tale of a high school reunion gone horribly wrong.

"In terms of subject matter and style, the Pacific Playwrights Festival this year features a nicely rounded slate of plays," said John Glore, festival co-director and SCR associate artistic director. "We've got a good blend of exciting young playwriting talent and well-established playwrights. We're pleased to be able to share such great work with our local audience and the many National Theatre professionals who'll be joining us for the festival."

This year's festival, which takes place April 26-28, features, staged readings of new works by Carla Ching, Jordan Harrison, Michael Hollinger, Zoe Kazan and Gregory S Moss.

The two full productions - world premieres - will anchor PPF: Smokefall by Noah Haidle and The Parisian Woman by Beau Willimon.

Smokefall tells the story of three generations of an eccentric Midwestern family on the verge of big changes. Magical and tragic, funny and fascinating, with surprises at every turn, Haidle's tale offers a lyrical meditation on the mystery and fragility of life. Smokefall runs on the Segerstrom Stage March 29-April 28.

Willimon sets The Parisian Woman on Capitol Hill, where powerful friends are the only kind worth having-and scandal is a way of life. An intriguing new play by the writer-producer of "House of Cards" and the Oscar-nominated film The Ides of March. The Parisian Woman runs on the Julianne Argyros Stage April 14-May 5.

"The plays of the 2013 festival are powerful and stylistically diverse," said Kelly Miller, festival co-director and literary director, "They include a new romantic drama by Zoe Kazan, a speculative drama by Jordan Harrison, inventive comedies by Michael Hollinger and Carla Ching, and Gregory S Moss' darkly comic play about the fallout following a high school reunion."

The readings slated for the 2013 Pacific Playwrights Festival are listed below. Full playwright bios are available online:http://www.scr.org/press/12-13press/ppf13press.aspx.

Trudy and Max in Love (or That Forever Feeling)
By Zoe Kazan
WHEN: Friday, April 26, at 1 p.m., on the Julianne Argyros Stage
The spark of love sometimes sets unexpected fires. Trudy and Max have no business falling for each other, but once they do, their lives get very hot and very complicated in a New York minute.

Kazan is an award-winning stage and film actress, who recently wrote her first screenplay, Ruby Sparks, in which she stars opposite Paul Dano, Chris Messina, Annette Bening and Antonio Banderas. Her work as a playwright includes her family drama, Absalom, which was produced at the Humana Festival at the Actor's Theatre of Louisville in 2009. Her second play, We Live Here, was produced off-Broadway by the Manhattan Theatre Club in the fall of 2011.

Hope and Gravity
by Michael Hollinger
WHEN: Friday, April 26, at 3:30 p.m., on the Segerstrom Stage
When an elevator crashes in a major city, ten lives intersect in surprising ways -through love and sex, poetry and dentistry, in offices, backyards and hotel rooms-revealing the barely perceivable threads that connect us all.

Hollinger's works - including Ghost-Writer, Opus, Tooth and Claw, Red Herring, Incorruptible, Tiny Island and An Empty Plate in the Café Du Grand Boeuf - have premiered at Philadelphia's Arden Theatre Company. His plays have enjoyed numerous productions around the country, in New York City, London, Paris, Athens and elsewhere in Europe. His new translation of Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac, co-adapted with Aaron Posner, premiered in 2011 at the Folger Theatre in Washington, D.C.

Fast Company
by Carla Ching
WHEN: Friday, April 26, at 8 p.m.; Saturday, April 27, at 2:30 p.m. and 8 p.m.; and Sunday, April 28, at 2:30 p.m., in the Nicholas Studio.
They're a family. Sort of. They're grifters. For sure. But when the biggest con of a lifetime comes along, will money trump loyalty or will they finally settle down for more than a card game?

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