Naked Angels & Furious Theatre to host Monday play readings

Naked Angels is collaborating with the Furious Theatre Company in Pasadena, CA to bring its unique 3-Step Formula for creative development to the West Coast and expand its programming to feature works for film and television in addition to the stage. Located on opposite sides of the country, Naked Angels and Furious Theatre Company share a mission to empower fresh voices through the development of provocative new work. Together the two companies will produce Mondays LA: Naked and Furious, the West Coast equivalent of the second step in Naked Angels’ New York-based 3-Step Formula, 1st Mondays. The first step in the development program, Tuesdays@9 – a cold reading program, has been in practice in West Hollywood for the past eight years.

Beginning this month, on the last Monday of the month, a new play, screenplay, or TV pilot is given its first-ever public reading. Audiences are invited to attend free of charge and writers are able to hear their work performed live for the first time. Upon selecting a new piece, Naked Angels and Furious Theatre Company provide a space, director, cast, and brief rehearsal period, bringing the play, screenplay or TV pilot to life for the author and audience alike. A simple yet vital program, “Mondays” gives the writer the essential opportunity to experience his or her words lifted from the page into a performance setting and receive early feedback.

The New York edition, 1st Mondays, has read new works by Theresa Rebeck, Warren Leight and David Marshall Grant among many others, and brings in over one hundred devoted audience members each month.

Mondays LA: Naked and Furious will take place on the last Monday of every month of the year except for a summer hiatus during the months of June – August. The readings will be upstairs at St. Nick’s Pub in West Hollywood (8450 West 3rd Street – LA).

The first two installments of Mondays LA: Naked and Furious will be in January and February, directed by Andy Donald, incoming Artistic Director of Naked Angels, and Dámaso Rodriguez, Co-artistic Director of Furious Theatre Company, respectively.

Monday, January 31, 2011 at 8 PM
THE SEDUCTION COMMUNITY
A new play by Greg Keller
Directed by Andy Donald

Monday, February 28, 2011 at 8 PM
SHATTER STREET
A screenplay by Matt Pelfrey
Directed by Dámaso Rodriguez

Andy Donald, Naked Angels’ incoming Artistic Director, said, “Naked Angels has been unofficially bi-coastal for years. For the last two decades, we’ve followed many of our founding company members out West, producing the Los Angeles premiere of Stephen Belber’s TAPE, several original one-act festivals, and our signature Issues Project. Now, paired with our popular Tuesdays@9 cold reading program already in its eighth year in West Hollywood, we hope the introduction of our new multi-disciplinary development series with the extraordinary Furious Theatre Company will help us begin to establish a permanent and unique presence on the West Coast.”

Dámaso Rodriguez, Co-artistic Director of Furious Theatre Company, said, "We believe this bi-coastal collaboration is an exciting and logical way for both of our companies to expand upon our individual missions, while collectively providing a new creative outlet for our ensembles and larger community. While there are many new play development programs around Los Angeles, we hope Mondays LA: Naked and Furious will offer an alternative for local theatre artists working in the film and TV business: a reading series that welcomes everything from screenplays to stage plays, focusing on fostering connections between New York and Los Angeles-based writers, directors and actors.”


For more information about Naked Angels’ 3-Step Formula and other Naked Angels programs and productions, visit www.NakedAngels.com.


For more info visit www.furioustheatre.org.