It’s 2012, And The Mobtown Players Are Going To Hell!

BALTIMORE, MD- In a new translation of Jean-Paul Sartre’s existential classic, NO EXIT, Mobtown explores the most valuable aspect of the human condition: free will. But with freedom comes great responsibility.

Garcin, Ines, and Estelle are in “Hell,” condemned to spend eternity in one room together, forced to examine the consequences of the choices they made on Earth. The manner in which they will be “tortured” soon becomes clear as truths are revealed.

The production runs January 20 through February 11, with performances Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm. Matinees are scheduled on Sundays, January 29 and February 5, at 4 pm.

After performing on the Mobtown stage many times over the past few years, Brian Kraszewski takes his first turn as director with this production of NO EXIT. He directs a cast and crew comprised of Mobtown board members and members of the Baltimore Rock Opera Society (BROS), many of whom performed various roles in the production of this play.

Michael Baker’s new translation was written expressly for the Mobtown Players. And with contributions from local designers, this production promises to bring exciting new elements to Sartre’s existential masterpiece.

Tickets are $15 (general admission) and $12 (students and seniors). Tickets may be purchased at the door or online at http://www.mobtownplayers.com. The Mobtown Theater is located in the Meadow Mill complex at 3600 Clipper Mill Road in Hampden. Directions to the theater are available on the website.

One of Baltimore’s most popular young theater groups, the Mobtown Players were founded in 1998, finding a permanent home in Hampden in 2003. The non-profit theater company is dedicated to making both classic work and contemporary plays accessible to a wide variety of audiences.

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Mobtown Playwrights Group Announces 2011–2012 Season

BALTIMORE, MD (September 12, 2011) ­– Over six weekends last season, the Mobtown Playwrights Group staged readings of three new plays by writers from Baltimore, Frederick, and the Eastern Shore, including Jessica McHugh, whose dark comedy Fools Call It Fate received a complete production at the Mobtown Theatre this summer. We are now pleased to announce our lineup of readings for the 2011–2012 season:

• October 21–29: BRIGID OF IRELAND: A TRAGEDY, by Patricia Montley
• December 2–10: IN THE RAMBLE, by Mardee Bennett
• February 17–25: COME OUT AND SAY IT, by Erica Smith

All performances will take place at 8 P.M. at the Mobtown Theater, 3600 Clipper Mill Road, Baltimore, MD 21211. An audience “talk back” session with the playwright and cast follows each reading. Attend as many times as you can to experience how the play changes as a result of the workshop process and your feedback.

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What is history and who gets to tell it? What is biography? How does folklore intersect

with fact? with faith? with politics? Brigid of Ireland, once the Celtic Goddess of Fire and Fertility, was co-opted by the Christian church and reduced to saint. Inspired by the mythology and folklore of this remarkable figure, BRIGID OF IRELAND: A TRAGEDY is the imaginable, though not historical, story of why a young druid abandons her heartfelt faith and reluctantly accepts Christianity.

Patricia Montley, a member of the Dramatists Guild, has had twelve plays published. Her plays have been given readings at the Kennedy Center, Baltimore’s CENTERSTAGE, and the Abingdon Theatre, and productions at the Nebraska Repertory Theatre, the Manhattan Theatre Source, the Harold Clurman Theatre, the Nat Horne Theatre, and Baltimore’s Theatre Project. Montley has taught playwriting at Chatham University, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Goucher College, and the Johns Hopkins University Odyssey Program. Her non-fiction book, In Nature’s Honor: Myths and Rituals Celebrating the Earth (Skinner House Books), includes a chapter on Brigid’s feast of Imbolc.

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After leaving home at twenty-three, Chloe’s bond with her mother, Jessica, is stronger than it has been in years. But when she returns to the Upper East Side for a visit, Chloe makes a discovery that will re-ignite long-suppressed tension between Jessica and her sister, Miriam. IN THE RAMBLE asks powerful questions about our attraction to power and what we’re willing to do to stay in its orbit.

Mardee Bennett is a writer and an actor whose play Falling Debris was a finalist in the CENTERSTAGE Young Playwrights Festival, where it received a workshop.  Other plays include A Pleasant Place To Be and When The Baby Comes. As an actor, his regional credits include The Studio Theatre, Signature Theatre, CENTERSTAGE, Baltimore Shakespeare Festival, and Olney Theatre Center. Awards: Two Helen Hayes nominations. Education:  NYU/Tisch School of the Arts, Playwrights Horizons Theater School, and The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. He is a proud member of Actors Equity. He currently resides in Baltimore.

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Five people. Four pros. Three murderers. Two lovers. One miscalculation. Vale’s day just got complicated. As he deals with the aftermath of a heist gone wrong, he sees his plans—and his life—fall apart before his eyes. In COME OUT AND SAY IT, forgiveness is not quite as simple as it seems.

Erica Smith has a B.A. in Theater from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Her one-act plays about robots, sex, and the end of the world (though not all at the same time) have been performed at the Laurel Mill Playhouse, Greenbelt Arts Center, and the Vagabond Theater in Fells Point. Her short play “Making Your Rage Work for You” (formerly titled “Not One Single Thing”) was selected for the MCTFA competition, and from there went on to the ESTA Regional Festival in Delaware.

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The Mobtown Playwrights Group is dedicated to giving playwrights an opportunity and a venue in which to workshop and produce new plays for an audience committed to the process of new play development. Each season, three playwrights receive staged readings of a play they are in the process of developing. Each summer, one play that has received a staged reading will be selected to receive a full production at the Mobtown Theater in Baltimore.

BREAKING NEWS:  Judas Charged with Treason; Trial Set for March 25

Baltimore, MD — Divine intent versus human free will – that is the issue when the Bible’s most notorious traitor goes on trial in Hampden this month. In the Mobtown Players’ new production of The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, a court is convened in downtown Purgatory, and defendant Judas faces testimony from a parade of witnesses that includes Mother Teresa, Mary Magdalene, Sigmund Freud, and Satan.

The production runs March 25 through April 16, with performances Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm. Matinees are scheduled on Sundays, March 27 and April 3, at 4 pm.  The matinees will be followed by talkback sessions which allow the audience to discuss the play with the director and the cast.

The Last Days of Judas Iscariot marks Mark C. Franceschini’s first turn as director at Mobtown.  He oversees an extensive cast of Baltimore actors, some playing dual roles. They take on playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis’s rich dialogue, spoken in today’s street English, which fluctuates between humorous, shocking, elegant, and thought-provoking as it leads the audience to question the nature of Heaven and Hell.

Tickets are $15 (general admission) and $12 (students and seniors). Tickets may be purchased at the door or online at http://www.mobtownplayers.com. The Mobtown Theater is located in the Meadow Mill complex at 3600 Clipper Mill Road in Hampden.  Directions to the theater are available on the website.

Please note that the use of language in this play may be considered inappropriate for children under 16.

One of Baltimore’s most popular young theater groups, the Mobtown Players were founded in 1998, finding a permanent home in Hampden in 2003. The non-profit theater company is dedicated to making both classic work and contemporary plays accessible to a wide variety of audiences.

THE MOBTOWN PLAYERS KICK OFF 2011 WITH “SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER”
Classic comedy opens Friday, January 14 
 
Finding true love has never been easy.  It’s hard enough to meet a nice guy without the added complications of meddling parents, mistaken identity, and priceless family heirlooms.  A group of young lovers must overcome these challenges, and more, in the Mobtown Players’ production of She Stoops to Conquer, the hilarious period comedy by Oliver Goldsmith.  The production runs January 14 through February 5, with performances Friday and Saturdays at 8 pm.  There will be two matinees, on Sundays January 23 and 30 at 4 pm.
 
Kate’s father plans to introduce her to his good friend’s son Charles Marlow in hopes that they will want to marry. Kate is interested in Marlow, but there is a problem.  Among upper-class ladies, Marlow is a shy, bumbling fool.   Surround him with women of a lower class, however, and he exudes confidence and charm.  To win his heart, Kate takes matters into her own hands, posing as barmaid.   
 
Meanwhile, Marlow’s friend George Hastings is in love with Constance Neville.  But her aunt, Mrs. Hardcastle, wants her own son to marry Constance so that her inheritance will remain within the family.  Fearing that they will never be allowed to marry, Hastings and Constance hatch a plan to run off together. Tony is more than happy to help them finance their plan by stealing the inheritance from his mother.  Over the course of the evening pratical jokes are played, identities are mistaken and lovers consipire, spurring an absurd chain of events that will keep you laughing until the very end!
 
Goldsmith wrote She Stoops to Conquer in 1773 and it is one of the few 18th century plays that remains popular with modern American audiences.  It is performed regularly all over the country. Usually considered a ‘Laughing Comedy’ or ‘Comedy of Manners,’ the play derives its humor from the characters’ upper-class pretensions, which stand in contrast to their deceitful actions.
 
In Mobtown’s production, director Caitlin Bouxsein’s cast of thirteen actors includes several veterans and six who are making their Mobtown debut.  Bouxsein last directed Mobtown’s June 2010 production of Duranged Nights and previously directed Sylvia and Three Days of Rain at Mobtown.

Tickets are $15 for adults and $12 for students and seniors. The Mobtown Theater is located in the Meadow Mill complex, 3600 Clipper Mill Road in Hampden. To purchase tickets or find directions to the Mobtown Theater, please visit www.mobtownplayers.com.
 
One of Baltimore’s most popular young theater groups, the Mobtown Players were founded in 1998, finding a permanent home in Hampden in 2003. The non-profit theater company is dedicated to making both classic work and contemporary plays accessible to a wide variety of audiences. 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Brent Englar,
Director,
Mobtown Playwrights Group
mobtownplaywrights@gmail.com

Fools Call It Fate …
Sex, Coincidence, and an Electronic Cigarette

BALTIMORE, MD (November 28, 2010) – The Mobtown Playwrights Group is proud to continue its 2010–2011 season this December with Fools Call It Fate, a reading of a new full-length play by Jessica McHugh, featuring Jeb Beard, Cheryl Campo, Timothy Elliott, Jessica Gartner, Deva Holub, and Jonathan Sachsman.

Six characters find themselves entwined in each other’s lives, sharing each other’s secrets, and enacting each other’s darkest fantasies of revenge. Will Gabby prevent Sophie from stealing her husband, Richard, or will Sophie free Richard to follow his heart? (Does Richard even have a heart?) Will Ash allow Danny to victimize his new girlfriend, Tara? Will Tara allow Richard to shut down her muffin shop? Will No One win in the end? These and other questions will be answered in Jessica McHugh’s dark comedy.

Fools Call It Fate will take place December 10, 11, 17, and 18 at The Mobtown Theater, 3600 Clipper Mill Road, Baltimore, MD 21211. All performances are at 8 P.M. Tickets are $10 and may be purchased at the door or online through Brown Paper Tickets.

One ticket grants access to all four performances. An audience “talk back” session follows each reading. Attend as many times as you can to experience how the play changes as a result of the workshop process and your feedback.

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Jessica McHugh is an author of speculative fiction that spans the genre from horror and alternate history to epic fantasy. Along with short stories appearing online and in print, she has six published novels, including the critically acclaimed “The Sky: The World” and the first book in her “Tales of Dominhydor” fantasy series. In 2011, she is due to have four more books released. This is Jessica’s first foray into playwriting, and she would like to thank everyone involved in aiding this fantastic adventure. A special thanks to Dave McHugh, who lovingly supports the weirdness, and to the Mobtown Players and Playwrights Group for the amazing opportunity. For more information on upcoming releases, please visit HYPERLINK “http://www.JessicaMcHughBooks.com/”www.JessicaMcHughBooks.com.

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The Mobtown Playwrights Group is dedicated to giving playwrights an opportunity and a venue in which to workshop and produce new plays for an audience committed to the process of new play development.

Each fall, three playwrights receive staged readings of a play they are in the process of developing. Each spring, one play that has received a staged reading—either the previous fall or during a previous season—will be selected to receive a full production at the Mobtown Theater in Baltimore.