New City Stage Company is thrilled to announce the 2007-08 season of contemporary works, after an exciting inaugural season featuring the world premiere play “Angel, a Nightmare in Two Acts” by Jo Davidsmeyer. This new season consists of three provocative plays by acclaimed and local playwright William Mastrosimone. This Rutgers M.F.A. graduate has produced a body of work that truly speaks to the local Philadelphia community in addition to modern American society. In keeping with our mission to produce works by local playwrights, we have chosen three of Mr. Mastrosimone’s most provocative plays, including a Philadelphia premiere.
This is what M.E. Comtis, founding head of the Playwriting Program at Rutgers University, has to say about William Mastrosimone:
“William Mastrosimone’s plays are audacious. This is not all they are of course, but they challenge us, sometimes to recoil in shock or at least become unsettled … his grasp of the potential of the stage is clear and masterful … he has an open-eyed and open-hearted vision of humanity.”
We are thrilled to bring this collection of intriguing theatre by one of own local contemporaries this coming season.
Sunshine
Directed By: Neill Hartley
September 18 - October 7, 2007
Walnut Street Theatre, Studio 5
Two lost souls come together in this compelling play from one of America\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s premier playwrights. Sunshine works in a peep show booth. Nelson is a paramedic. Isolated by their professions, they have lost the capacity to care for others and both desperately seek care themselves. When their paths unexpectedly cross, the emotional walls that surround them dissolve in an unexpected and powerful way.
“Sunshine is gutsy, touching and true – a smoothly paced dance of suspicion and attraction.”
-- The New York Times
Extremities
Directed By: William Roudebush
Mumpuppet Theatre
An explosive melodrama about a would-be rape and a woman’s stark revenge.Alone in a rural New Jersey farmhouse, Marjorie is accosted by an intruder but manages to narrowly escape and turn the tables on him.By the time her roommates come home, she has taken the law into her own hands.This Outer Critics Circle Award-winning play deals with the pathology of rape, the inequities of the justice system, and the unlikely relationship between victim and attacker.
“A white knuckle psychological thriller.”-- USA Today
The Woolgatherer
Directed By: Neill Hartley
May 21 – June 1, 2008
Set in South Philadelphia, Mastrosimone’s debut work is about an unlikely couple of half-crazy loners looking for love in a world gone mad.Rose, a shy cashier prone to daydreaming, meets Cliff, a rough-edge trucker with a solitary life.These two lonely souls are drawn to each other despite their mutual fear of commitment.As the skeletons in their closets are revealed, they somehow manage to find comfort in each others’ uniqueness.
“A touching duet that travels from defensiveness and distrust, parrying and deception, to real contact!”--The New York Times
