SALT LAKE CITY, UT— Pioneer Theatre Company announces the last title of its 2020 Play-by-Play Season. SUSAN FERRARA closes the 2020 Play-by-Play Series with  the romantic comedy, The Fall. She has studied with the Kennedy Center Playwright Intensive, as well as had work premiere at the  Alabama Shakespeare Festival and the Festival for the International United Solo Festival, among many others. The Fall readings will be April 17 & 18, 2020.

Previously announced were The Anatomy of Love by playwright TED MALAWER (February 7 & 8, 2020) and The Messenger by JEFF TALBOTT (March 13 & 14, 2020).

In its seventh season, Play-by-Play has nurtured the development of 21 plays, giving opportunities to 93 mostly local actors and directors, leading to seven world premieres, either at PTC or elsewhere. PTC’s mainstage production in March, Ass, began its life as a reading in the Play-by-Play series in 2018.

Tickets for the developmental readings, designed to showcase new works at an affordable price, are available for $10 each or $25 for all three.

The 2019-2020 Play-By-Play Series Readings schedule is as follows:

The Play: The Anatomy of Love

Playwright: Ted Malawer

Director: Karen Azenberg

Synopsis: The comfortable lives of a modern couple and their child come to a halt when their seven-year-old daughter’s teacher, Ms. Spencer, suggests that their child is most likely transgender. What follows is a fierce (and sometimes hostile) battle with the parents and Ms. Spencer for this emotional and heartbreaking story of love and dreaded loss.

When: February 7 & 8, 2020

The Play: The Messenger

Playwright: Jeff Talbott

Director: Wes Grantom

Synopsis: Using Henrik Ibsen’s classic An Enemy of the People as a departure point, this thrilling new play is a roller-coaster ride that examines our relationships with the press, the community, each other, and where to draw the line when deciding the right move to make. A timely story which transcends entertainment and informs our current lives.

When: March 13 & 14, 2020

The Play: The Fall

Playwright: Susan Ferrara

Director: Julie Ann Emery

Holly, an anti-social sci-fi novelist, just needs her laptop, her eighth cup of coffee, and Chinese take-out to finish her book. She doesn’t have time for the young Scottish guy who keeps showing up on her doorstep. The Fall, a romantic comedy about love, expectation and better vision.

When: April 17 & 18, 2020.

The February reading will be held in Dumke Auditorium at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts (UMFA); the March and April readings will take place at the Babcock Theatre, in the lower level of Simmons Pioneer Memorial Theatre.

Sponsors for Play-by-Play include Salt Lake County Zoo, Arts and Parks Fund, The Bireley Endowment, Susan Stoddard Heiner and Blake T. Heiner, and Lee and Audrey Hollaar.

PIONEER THEATRE COMPANY (PTC): Now celebrating its 58th season, the award-winning PTC is Utah’s Premiere Professional Theatre and a leading arts organization of the West. Led by Artistic Director Karen Azenberg and Managing Director Christopher Massimine, PTC promotes community-building and education through presenting world-class productions; developing new socially resonant and universal work; hosting, talks, lectures, and workshops that engage a versatile and inclusive demographic, while celebrating diversity in culture and society; and serving as the connecting bridge between art and scholarship as an affiliate of the University of Utah.

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WHAT:

Play-By-Play New Play Reading Series

DATES:

The Anatomy of Love by Ted Malawer, February 7 & 8, 2020

The Messenger by Jeff Talbott, March 13 & 14, 2020

The Fall by Susan Ferrara, April 17 & 18, 2020

TIMES:

Fridays at 7:30 p.m.

Saturdays at 2:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

WHERE:

The February reading, The Anatomy of Love, will be held in Dumke Auditorium at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts (UMFA).

The March and April readings (The Messenger and The Fall) will be held in the Babcock Theatre, in the lower level of Simmons Pioneer Memorial Theatre, 300 South 1400 East, Salt Lake City, UT 84112

PRICE:

$5 each for current PTC Season Ticket Holders

$10 each for general public, or all three for $25

MORE INFO:

Box Office 801-581-6961

Open 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Monday – Friday

http://www.pioneertheatre.org/play-play/

Playwright Biographies

TED MALAWER (Playwright, The Anatomy of Love) is a recent graduate of the Juilliard Playwriting Program. He has received Lincoln Center’s Lecomte du Nouy Prize and The Kennedy Center’s Blanche and Irving Laurie Award, and his theatrical work has been developed and commissioned by T Magazine/The New York Times, The Public, NYTW, Atlantic Theater Company, MCC, and others. TV writer-producer credits include shows for Netflix, Hulu, Showtime, NBC, Freeform and Disney+, where he developed an original pilot. Malawer has also written several novels, including the Mystic City series for Penguin Random House. A former opera singer, Malawer is a Presidential Scholar in the Arts, a graduate of The Juilliard School-Columbia University Exchange Program, and received his master’s from Fordham University. He is currently adapting the novel Red, White & Royal Blue into a film for Amazon, and writing an original musical with Kate Nash and Andy Blankenbuehler.

JEFF TALBOTT (Playwright, The Messenger) Jeff Talbott’s play “i” was developed in Pioneer Theatre Company’s Play-by-Play Series and subsequently produced by PTC in 2018. His play A Public Education was also seen in Play-by-Play and was a finalist for the 2015 O’Neill Playwrights Conference. His play The Submission was the inaugural recipient of the Laurents/Hatcher Award and was produced off-Broadway by MCC Theater; it went on to receive the Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Award for New American Play and was published and licensed by Samuel French. Other produced works: The Gravedigger’s Lullaby (off-Broadway – TACT/Theatre Row; published and licensed by Dramatic Publishing) and Civics and Humanities for Non-Majors (2018 O’Neill Finalist; commissioned and produced by Montclair State University). Other plays: Joseph Cook (2019 O’Neill Finalist), Three Rules for the Dragon (2017 O’Neill Finalist, workshops – Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Colt Coeur and Premiere Stages), How to Build a City (workshops – TACT, Route 66), Elliot, and All the Stars in the Midnight Sky. He writes musicals with composer Will Van Dyke; as a musical theatre writing team, they were finalists for the 2019 Fred Ebb Award. Talbott graduated with honors from the Yale School of Drama.

SUSAN FERRARA (Playwright, The Fall) Award-winning playwright and actor, Susan’s plays include Buzz (Dir – Carrie Preston; World Premiere, Alabama Shakespeare Festival; Nominated for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize; Winner, Hidden River Playwriting Award and Reverie Next Generation Playwriting Award; developmental readings at the Atlantic Theater Company and New York Theatre Workshop; Finalist, Baltic Writing Residency; Honorable Mention, Jane Chambers Award); The Machine (Global Age Finalist); The Wonder (Writer/Actor, Directors – Julie Ann Emery and Kevin Earley; Winner, Best Production/Best of the Festival for the International United Solo Festival; Nominated for both the Doric Wilson Independent Playwright Award and the William Saroyan Human Rights/Social Justice Award); The Fall (Pioneer Theatre’s Play-by-Play Series; The Blank Theatre’s Living Room Series; Finalist, Seven Devils Playwrights Conference); The Is That Should and DISCO/REAGAN, among many. Her TV pilots include “Mean Secretary” (cowritten with Zack Calhoon) and “Half Light.” terraNova Groundbreakers alumna; Kennedy Center Playwriting Intensive alumna and Rattestick Theater’s Actors Who Write alumna. AEA, SAG/AFTRA, DG susanferrara.com