THE LINGERING LIFE and More Set for Playwrights Foundation's 2013 Winter Rough Readings, 1/14-3/12

The Playwrights Foundation announces the 2013 Winter Rough Readings Series, January 14 - March 12, 2013 at Stanford University and in San Francisco. The winter readings series features: Chiori Miyagawa's This Lingering Life, January 14 & 15; Jonathan Spector's In From the Cold February 11 & 12 and Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig's The World of Extreme Happiness March 11 & 12. The 2013 Winter Rough Readings Series (10/1-12/13, 2012) are presented on Mondays in Roble Hall at Stanford University and Tuesdays at NOH Space and A.C.T.'s Costume Shop in San Francisco.

The Winter series features a dynamic group of playwrights tackling issues of life and death zooming in on character, global perspectives, and forgiveness. Chiori Miyagawa's This Lingering Life calls forth a parade of characters - performed in Japanese Noh style theater, who are haplessly negotiating the bardo, Jonathan Spector's In From The Cold explores the secret life of a Russian spy turned CIA operative, and Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig's The World of Extreme Happiness deadlocks two kids from a rural Chinese village between familial duty and Americanized ambitions of consumer driven happiness.

The Rough Readings Series is like a professional playwriting gym. Selected writers are assigned a stellar cast and director drawn from the 'A' list of local talent, and eight hours in our studio to work out with a new play in its early development,. The plays are then subject to two open rehearsal sessions in front of audiences who are eager to hear this rough work. The results are often extraordinary. Many of these plays and playwrights are first introduced to the Bay Area theaters through the series, or are presented in collaboration with theaters interested in producing the work.. Some illustrious examples from previous Rough Readings Series are Katori Hall (The Mountaintop), Rajiv Joseph (Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo) and Peter Nachtrieb (Bob).

The Playwrights Foundation's 2013 Winter Rough Readings Series will take place from January 14- March 12, 2013 at Stanford University on Mondays and in San Francisco on Tuesdays. (*see schedule for times and locations) Readings are 100% FREE of charge. A $20 donation in advance comes with a reserved seat & a drink! To RSVP, email rsvp@playwrightsfoundation.org or call 415.626.2176.

Getting to the Shows: Stanford University - Roble Hall, Stanford University; NOH Space - 2840 Mariposa Street, SF; A.C.T.'s Costume Shop - 1119 Market Street San Francisco

Chiori Miyagawa's This Lingering Life January 14 & 15
Directed by Jublith Moore
Monday, January 14, 7:30pm at Roble Hall, Stanford University
Tuesday, January 15, 7pm. NOH Space, San Francisco

Jonathan Spector's In From the Cold February 11 & 12
This Reading is produced in partnership with Aurora Theatre Company
Directed by Josh Costello
Monday, February 11, 7:30 pm at Roble Hall, Stanford University
Tuesday, February 12, 7pm at A.C.T. Costume Shop, San Francisco

Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig The World of Extreme Happiness March 11 & 12
Directed by Desdemona Chiang
Monday, March 11, 7:30pm at Roble Hall, Stanford University
Tuesday, March 12, 7pm. Location TBD

*THE PLAYS, PLAYWRIGHTS, DATES & TIMES:

Chiori Miyagawa's This Lingering Life
Directed by Jublith Moore
Monday, January 14, 7:30pm at Roble Hall, Stanford University
Tuesday, January 15, 7pm. NOH Space, San Francisco

This Lingering Life is a tragicomedy that takes place in life and in Bardo (a place in between life and death) where we meet a woman with tragic hair, feudal warriors, a mother whose son was kidnapped, a blind beggar, dead lovers, a pathetic old man in love with a teenager, a boy whose father is an arrow, and many other sentient beings. It all happens in the present time, except when it happens in an ancient era. As in the Japanese Noh plays from the fourteenth century that inspired it, this new play looks at the human condition through the Buddhist concept of Karma.

Chiori Miyagawa is a NYC-based playwright and a resident playwright at New Dramatists. Her plays plays have been produced off-Broadway (Vineyard Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, Women's Project, Culture Project), at renowned performance houses in NYC (HERE Arts Center, Performance Space 122, Ohio Theater) and regionally. A collection of seven of her plays, Thousand Years Waiting and Other Plays, is published by Seagull Books; and another collection of five plays, America Dreaming and Other Plays is published by NoPassport Press.She is a recipient of many fellowships including a New York Foundation for the Arts Playwriting Fellowship, a McKnight Playwriting Fellowship, a Van Lier Playwriting Fellowship, an Asian Cultural Council Fellowship, a Rockefeller Bellagio Residency Fellowship, and a Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Fellowship at Harvard University. She is a member of Lark Play Development Center and a Usual Suspect of New York Theatre Workshop. Chiori teaches playwriting at Bard College where she created an undergraduate playwriting program under the chair JoAnne Akalaitis. She was an Associate Artist at The Public Theater during Ms. Akalaitis' artistic directorship.