Rising Phoenix Repertory, Weathervane Productions &
Rattlestick Playwrights Theater
Present the World Premiere of
Thieves
By Charlotte Miller
Directed by Daniel Talbott
At The Monroe Forum Theatre at the El Portal, North Hollywood
Wednesday, March 18 to Saturday, April 4, 2015

LOS ANGELES, CA – February 4, 2015 – Rising Phoenix Repertory, Weathervane Productions, and Rattlestick Playwrights Theater present the world premiere of Thieves, written by Charlotte Miller and directed by Daniel Talbott, at the Monroe Forum Theatre at the El Portal in North Hollywood. Thieves tells the story of a dysfunctional family in East Texas that descends into chaos when their matriarch dies. Performances begin Wednesday, March 18, 2015. The press opening is Friday, March 20, 2015 with the production running through Saturday, April 4, 2015.

Thieves Director and Rising Phoenix Rep Founder/Artistic Director Daniel Talbott declared, “I love Charlotte and think she has such an insane amount of talent and a beautifully uncompromising voice. I feel so lucky and proud to get to work on this play with her and bring it to Los Angeles.”

The regular performance schedule for Thieves is as follows: Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:00pm, and matinees on Saturdays and Sundays at 2:00pm. Tickets are $25.00 and are available online at www.elportaltheatre.com, by phone at 818-508-4200 or in person 1-hour prior to performances, at the El Portal Box Office, 5269 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood, CA 91601. For more information please visit www.risingphoenixrep.org/upcoming.

Thieves –
Thieves is a gritty portrait of a family in struggle and upheaval. When the family matriarch dies, three wayward children are reunited with their estranged father at their East Texas estate, ready to stake their claim. In the emotional chaos that ensues, Miller exposes the wounds inflicted and the truths ignored in the search for belonging and understanding. Are they really here to say goodbye? Or to plunder what’s left of a past that might be better forgotten?

The cast of Thieves includes MacLeod Andrews, Chris Bellant, Addie Johnson, Sarah Shaefer, Samantha Soule, and John Wojda. Additional credits include scenery by Deb O, costumes by Tristan Raines, lighting by Kia Rogers, sound by Jake Rodriguez, projections designed by Kaitlyn Pietras, and fight choreography by Mike Mahaffey.

Rising Phoenix Repertory & Weathervane Productions New Commissions –
Rising Phoenix Repertory and Weathervane Productions have commissioned new plays from three female playwrights – Charlotte Miller, Jessica Dickey, and Sarah Shaefer. The plays will each be produced over the next two seasons. In championing new work by women writers, Rising Phoenix and Weathervane are establishing extremely rare long form collaborations – from commission to production – with a firm commitment to mount the plays before having read a word. Another unique feature of the commissions is that they are company-based – each play will feature actors from Rising Phoenix Repertory’s company and its artistic director, Daniel Talbott, will direct all three plays. Thieves, written by Charlotte Miller and co-produced by Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, will be the first to premiere. Read the “Three Commissions” press release here.

“One of the most surprising things about the three commissions project from Rising Phoenix Rep/Weathervane is the adaptability. Usually theatre is more prescriptive; the producing entity doesn’t ask what the playwright needs, but tells them what they can have, whether it’s a workshop or a stipend, and it’s so rare to have the guarantee of full production,” says playwright Miller. “There is always a breakneck pace to theatre, an immediate need that gets served, or doesn’t, but with this there’s the safety to fail. The company takes the risk before the playwright; Rising Phoenix took responsibility for my work before I wrote a word, which allowed for a lot of freedom. Thieves follows a family through the wreckage of grief and alienation, a rocky path that hopefully leads to individual freedom, or at least a semblance of hope.”

Charlotte Miller, Playwright –
Charlotte Miller is a Brooklyn-based playwright and performer. Her plays include Barn (Rising Phoenix Repertory), Worst Year Ever (NY Fringe Festival), Joan’s Boutique (The Spectrum), Favorites (Rising Phoenix Repertory), Rocks (Tank Theater), and Raising Jo (PLAYPENN 2010), among others. Her plays have been read/workshopped with Rattlestick, Labyrinth, the Flea, PLAYPENN, and the Peoples Light Theater. She is a proud member of Rising Phoenix Repertory and the Actors Studio Playwrights/Directors Unit.

Daniel Talbott, Director –
Daniel Talbott is an actor, director, writer, literary manager of Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, and the artistic director of the Lucille Lortel and NYIT Award-winning Rising Phoenix Repertory. His plays include Slipping (The Side Project, Rattlestick), Yosemite (Rattlestick), Afghanistan Zimbabwe America Kuwait (Encore/Rattlestick upcoming), What Happened When (Rising Phoenix Rep/HERE), Someone Brought Me (Quince Productions), Mike and Seth (Quince, Encore, The Side Project), Extraordinary Things (Rising Phoenix Rep), and Gray ({YOUR NAME HERE}). Recent directing work includes A Fable (piece by piece/ Rising Phoenix Rep/Rattlestick), Gin Baby (IRT), Scarcity (Rattlestick/Hill Town Plays), Mike and Seth (Encore), Slipping (Rattlestick), Afghanistan Zimbabwe America Kuwait (Rattlestick/Encore), Lake Water (Neighborhood Productions), Eightythree Down (Hard Sparks), Much Ado About Nothing (Boomerang), Squealer (Lesser America), and The Umbrella Plays (the teacup company/FringeNYC – Overall Excellence Award: Outstanding Play). He is a graduate of Juilliard and of Solano College Theatre’s ATP, teaches at Primary Stages/ESPA, and is a proud member of {YOUR NAME HERE}, Iron Crow Theater, and Lesser America.

Rising Phoenix Repertory –
Caffe Cino Fellowship and New York Innovative Theatre Award-winning Rising Phoenix Repertory was founded in 1999 by Artistic Director Daniel Talbott, and produces primarily new plays – both in the Indie Theatre and Off-Broadway – in traditional spaces and site-specifically around New York City. Recent productions include A Fable (co-produced with piece by piece productions and Rattlestick Playwrights Theater), the Lucille Lortel Award-winning Off-Broadway run of All the Rage (co-produced with piece by piece and The Barrow Group), Elective Affinities (co-produced site-specifically with piece by piece and Soho Rep), Slipping (produced with piece by piece and Rattlestick), and Too Much Memory (also with piece by piece), which transferred to the New York Theatre Workshop’s Fourth Street Theatre after winning the Fringe NYC award for Outstanding Play in 2008. Rising Phoenix Repertory produces an ongoing series called Cino Nights, inspired by Joe Cino and his Caffe Cino – one of the original birthplaces of Off-Off-Broadway theatre – for which the company has commissioned over twenty playwrights to write new, full -length plays, which are fully produced site-specifically in the intimate back room of East Village restaurant Jimmy’s No. 43 on a shoestring budget. Two volumes of Cino Nights plays have been published by The New York Theatre Experience and are available in stores and online at Indie Theater Now. Rising Phoenix Rep serves as a home base for a company of theatre professionals that encourages an open exchange of work and ideas within the greater theatre community.

Weathervane Productions –
Created in 2014 by Wendy vanden Heuvel, Weathervane Productions is dedicated to nurturing and supporting playwrights and their work from development to production, and it also supports and develops devised and collaborative theater. vanden Heuvel is also the artistic director of piece by piece productions, a not for profit organization whose productions have included Medea directed by Deborah Warner with Fiona Shaw on Broadway (associate producer, Wendy vanden Heuvel), The Tricky Part (2004 Obie Award and two Drama Desk nominations including Best Play), All The Rage (Lucille Lortel Award, Outstanding Solo Show 2013) by Martin Moran, and several productions with Rising Phoenix Repertory and Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. Since 2010, piece by piece has been a producer on The Lake Lucille Chekhov Project (Ivanov, Seagull), which was created by Brian Mertes and Melissa Kievmann, and in winter 2013 co-produced Lee Breuer’s La Divina Caricatura in association with St. Ann’s Warehouse, La Mama ETC, Mabou Mines, and Dovetail Productions, as well as 100 Days, conceived by the indie rock couple The Bengsons, in association with Z Space.

Rattlestick Playwrights Theater –
Rattlestick Playwrights Theater is an award-winning company that has produced over sixty world premieres in the past nineteen seasons and was the recipient of the 2007 Ross Wetzsteon Memorial OBIE Award for developing new and innovative work. Previous plays include Boise, That Pretty Pretty; or, The Rape Play, Miss Julie, Rag and Bone, War, Geometry of Fire, Killers and Other Family, Post No Bills, Blind, underneathmybed, The Hallway Trilogy, Asuncion, Horsedreams, Yosemite, Through the Yellow Hour, A Summer Day, The Revisionist starring Vanessa Redgrave and Jesse Eisenberg, Buyer & Cellar (2013 Drama Desk and Outer Critic Circle Awards for Outstanding Solo Performance), Basilica, Charles Ives Take Me Home, How to Make Friends and then Kill Them, The Correspondent, Ode to Joy, The Few, A FABLE, the Off-Broadway GLAAD Award-nominated hit The Last Sunday in June, Craig Wright’s The Pavilion (Drama Desk nominee – Outstanding Play of 2005) and Lady (Drama Desk nominee – Outstanding Play of 2008), The Aliens by Annie Baker (2010 Obie Award winner for Best New American Play), as well as The Hilltown Plays (2014 OBIE Award).

Rattlestick, Rising Phoenix Rep, and Weathervane’s vanden Heuvel – who have collaborated on many productions over the past decade – all share a deep desire to support playwrights. Talbott declares, “Building on the work that Rising Phoenix Rep has done on new plays over the past 15 years in New York, notably through our Cino Nights series, we are continuing to look at how to build a deeper, stronger bridge between development and production with a commitment to see a new play through the process from start to finish with full support of the writer and their voice.”

Links –
• Rising Phoenix Rep Official Site – http://www.risingphoenixrep.org
• Tickets – http://www.elportaltheatre.com/events.html
• Rising Phoenix on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/RisingPhoenixRep
• Rattlestick Official Site – http://www.rattlestick.org
• Rattlestick on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/RattlestickPlaywrightsTheater
• Rattlestick on Twitter – https://twitter.com/RattlestickNY

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For more information, photos, to schedule an interview, or to request complimentary press tickets, please contact Green Galactic’s Lynn Tejada at 213-840-1201 or lynn@greengalactic.com.