[NEohioPAL] The Douglas Tree by Michael Sepesy at CSU Factory Theatre: Feb 29--March 2

[CSU Theatre]

Cleveland State University Dramatic Arts Program 

presents

The Douglas Tree

a new play by Michael D. Sepesy

 

The Cleveland State University Factory Theater and CSU graduate student
Michael D. Sepesy will present a new play entitled The Douglas Tree in a
workshop production as part of the author's thesis project for his Master of
Fine Arts (MFA) degree in Creative Writing.

Cleveland State's MFA program is part of the Northeast Ohio MFA (NEOMFA)
consortium begun in 2005 between four Northeast Ohio universities: Cleveland
State, Kent State, Youngstown State and the University of Akron.  The
alliance is the only program of its type in the United States and one of
only a handful of MFA curricula nationally to offer a concentration in
playwriting.

In a blend of realism and surrealism, The Douglas Tree tells the story of an
emotionally damaged middle-aged man haunted by a love from his his youth.
The girl he knew at 16 re-enters his life at 40 bearing a secret that forces
him to confront his past.


The cast features Allen Branstein, Donald Prather, Molly McGinnis, Virginia
Konchan, and James Kosmatka.

Sepesy has been a local fixture in Cleveland's theater scene as both an
actor and playwright for 18 years.  He holds a B.A. in English and Art from
Cleveland State University as well as a certificate in graphic design.  His
plays have been seen at Cleveland Public Theatre (Renfield, A Devil in the
Head), Detroit Avenue Arts (Holiday Hotline), and the New York International
Fringe Festival (Loserville).  His play Lady Justice received an Ohio Arts
Council Individual Artist Fellowship and won the Dorothy Silver Playwriting
Competition.  His work has been published in The Best Women's Stage
Monologues of 1998 (Smith & Kraus) and Cleveland in Prose and Poetry (League
Books).

The production is directed by Yale University graduate Lisa Siciliano
(www.lisasiciliano.com), a Cleveland and New York based actress, director,
producer, playwright, and educator.  She recently co-founded a theater
company, Lively Productions (www.livelyproductions.org), whose mission is to
support emerging theater artists.   Lisa has been seen as Kate in the
Cleveland Shakespeare Festival's production of The Taming of the Shrew,
Lorena in Holy Ghosts at the Beck Center, as Cassie in her own play, When
the Wind Blows, as part of Cleveland Public Theatre's Big [BOX] series, and
as Reggie in Labute's Some Girl(s) for the Bang and Clatter Theatre Company,
a role which she originated. Lisa recently returned from a fall session in
New York where she studied Viewpoints with the SITI company and produced and
directed Everaftering and Other Tales for Lively Productions.  She graduated
cum laude in theatre studies from Yale University in 2005.


The play will open on Friday, February 29th at 8 p.m. in the Studio Theater.
Additional performances are on Saturday, March 1st at 8 p.m. and Sunday,
March 2nd at 3 p.m. Admission is free. The Factory Theater is located at the
corner of East 24th Street and Chester Ave.  Free parking is located off of
East 24th Street between Chester and Payne avenues.  Call 216.687.2113 for
more information.

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