Join us for readings 
of the new play that’s already in the news*
     

         
The Sweet, Sweet Motherhood
by Jeremy Kareken
written in collaboration with Professor Lee M. Silver
     

     
featuring Richard Masur & Caroline Cooney

directed by Julie Hamberg

Shelley’s been partying a bit much to have stellar grades, 
so she proposes a senior thesis to dazzle – 
Fertilize one of her eggs with the sperm 
from a furry beastie from the animal kingdom
and carry the hybrid to term – in her own womb.
Professor Stein must do all he can to stop her, 
without losing his mind, or something just as precious. 
Inspired by a true event, it examines the ethical implications
of the mind-bending, up-to-the-minute biotechnology.

Winner of the Guthrie Theatre/Playwrights’ Center 
Two-Headed Challenge  .  Received a workshop & reading 
in The Playwrights’ Center annual PlayLabs Festival (2007)

Three chances to enjoy the madness…

         
MONDAY . MAY 12

2pm . Manhattan Theatre Club
A more casual Warm-Up Reading . at MTC Offices . Studio 2
311 W 43rd Street . 8th floor . b/w 8th & 9th Avenues

6pm . Ensemble Studio Theatre Playwright's Unit
EST . 549 W 52nd Street . b/w 10th & 11th Avenues

RSVP here for Monday's Readings
          

          
TUESDAY . MAY 13

7pm . The Actors Studio 
          Playwrights Directors Workshop Festival 2008
featuring Jeremy Kareken** & Caroline Cooney
Actors Studio . 432 W 44th Street . b/w 9th & 10th Avenues

RSVP 212-757-0870 for Actor's Studio Reading or RSVP here

PDW Festival .  May 13 –  May 21 (Tuesday – Wednesday)

9 new plays in 9 days

May 13 . 7pm . The Sweet, Sweet Motherhood . by Jeremy Kareken

May 14 . 7pm . The Nature of Captivity . by Matthew Paul Olmos

May 15 . 7pm . Comes a Pause . by Gayle Greene

May 16 . 7pm . The Low Road . by David Libman

May 17 . 7pm . Painting Corpses . by Mark Brokowski

May 18 . 7pm . The Horizon . by Chuck Maryan

May 19 . 3pm . The Real Tabasco . by Deborah Grace Winer

May 20 . 7pm . The Squeezed and the Squeezer . by Jeremy Wine

May 21 . 7pm . Dead Lucy .  by Suzanne Bradbeer (don't miss this one!)

Festival Executive Producer  . Carline Glynn

Festival Producer .  Billie Roe
Festival Stage Manager .  Hillary Makatura

** Actors Studio Member

.  .  .  .  . 

In the News*

Silver & Kareken featured on NYC's RadioLab Series April, 2008

“And then [Lee Silver] tells us about a very disturbing real-life 
incident that playwright Jeremy Kareken, in collaboration with 
Dr. Silver, turned into a play about the implications of combining
humans and other animals.”

Article in Princeton Alumni Weekly October 20, 2007
(scroll down, 2nd article)  "Joining Science and Art - 
Professor Lee Silver Collaborates on a Provocative Play."  

Just a darned fun article on Jeremy Kareken March 2008

Sunnyside Insider of the Month - March 2008

Silver, left, and Kareken at 
the PlayLabs Festival in 2007. 
(Kevin McLaughlin)
          

Collaborators

Playwright Jeremy Kareken received the William Inge, Next Step and Walter Dakin Fellowships at the William Inge Center for the Arts, Ensemble Studio Theatre, and the Sewanee Writers Conference, respectively. He has been nominated three times for the Actors Theatre of Louisville's Heidemann Award and won the Hamptons Int’l. Film Festival's Screenwriters' Conference. His plays have been performed in Dublin, Ireland; Melbourne, Australia; NYC; Chicago and at the Actors Theatre of Louisville. Kareken is also an actor and a lifetime member of the Actors Studio. He is the researcher for Inside the Actors Studio on Bravo as well as a moderator for the Actors Studio's PD Workshop.  He earned his BA from University of Chicago and MFA from the Actors Studio Drama School.

Writing collaborator Dr. Lee M. Silver is a Princeton University professor of molecular biology and public policy in the Woodrow Wilson school of Public & International Affairs. He has published five books (most recently, Challenging Nature: The Clash of Science and Spirituality at the New Frontiers of Life) and over 180 scientific articles on subjects at the interface between biotechnology, law, ethics, and religion. Silver is regularly sought out for radio and TV, appearing on NOVA, NIGHTLINE, CHARLIE ROSE and 20/20 while his op-eds, reviews and essays are featured in such publications as Time, Nature and The New York Times, among many others. 

Richard Masur will play the role of Professor Henry Stein.  Masur is a theatre and film actor and director. Broadway credits include Democracy and The Changing Room. Recently active in the Off-Broadway scene, he was featured in Mike Leigh's Two Thousand Years (New Group), Sarah Treem’s A Feminine Ending (Playwrights Horizons) as well as Rinne Groff’s The Ruby Sunrise (The Public/NYSF). In addition, Masur has numerous regional theatre credits. Having starred in more than 45 films, over 40 television movies and on several television series, he has been nominated for an Emmy and an Oscar.

Actor Caroline Cooney comes to NYC for these developmental readings to reprise her roll as Shelley McAnn in The Sweet, Sweet Motherhood that she played in the workshop at the Guthrie/ Playwright’s Center last year. Cooney is fresh from being featured in the Guthrie’s successful Jane Eyre. She has a BFA in Theater from the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater Program where she starred as Hedda in Hedda Gabler and in appeared in such pieces as Medea, Macbeth, and Bus Stop as well as the Feydeau Farce Festival.

Director Julie Hamberg's most recent credits include the premiere of Madonna and Child and Other Divas (Cherry Lane Mainstage/FringeNYC); Drexler & Carmine’s Home Movies as part of the OBIE-winning The West Village Fragments (Peculiar Works Project); and the premiere of Shawn Hirabayashi’s Poor Ophelia (Drama League/Vital). Hamberg's work has also been seen at The Public, New Georges, Lincoln Center Theatre Directors Lab and many OOB stages, most new plays. She directed five Vital Theatre mainstage pieces while associate artistic director there. She has assisted on Broadway and Off, is a Drama League Fellow, and an LCT Directors Lab alumnus.
                   
Intern Doug Lavanture is assisting with these readings.  I don't yet have Doug's bio, but extend my great thanks for his help with this process.  He's already read stage directions for a reading held out at Princeton, as well as assisted the playwright with various developmental tasks.