PRESS RELEASE

Press Contact: Liam Joynt

646.489.8278

Quick Facts:

Event Date/Time: March 13th, 8 p.m. Reception to follow

Event Cost: $25; $20 for students/seniors

Event Place: DeBaun Auditorium at 5th & Hudson in Hoboken

Event Description: 7 10-minute plays about baseball, an annual fundraiser for Mile Square Theatre. Evening will also feature a silent auction and raffle.

Event Title: The 8th Annual 7th Inning Stretch: 7 10-minute plays about baseball

Playwrights:

Constance Congdon NEA Playwriting Fellow, 2 Rockefeller Playwriting Awards, Guggenheim Award Andrew Dolan NY Stage and Film, rUDE mECHANICALS Richard Dresser O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, The Job w/ Denis Leary,

Johnny Baseball upcoming at A.R.T Lisa Huberman 2010 Mason Gross School of the Arts MFA Playwright

David Magee Oscar and Golden Globe nominee for Finding Neverland w/ Johnny Depp, Life of Pi with Ang Lee (upcoming) Itamar Moses Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons, McCarter Theater Chris O’Connor Mile Square Theatre Artistic Director

Reception: Free wine and light fare following the event, with silent auction. Play Ball!!

This year, Mile Square Theatre’s production of its annual fundraiser 7th

Inning Stretch

features a selection of seven 10-minute plays from some of America’s finest writers. From established playwrights Constance Congdon and Richard Dresser, to new star Itamar Moses, to Academy Award nominated David Magee, to urgent new voices Andrew Dolan, Lisa Huberman, and our own Chris O`Connor, this year`s Stretch offers a veritable Murderers Row of talent. Loaded with humor, pathos and just good ole baseball chatter, this evening will remind you of the many magical ways baseball touches our lives—and make you forget, at least for a few hours, about the cold, hard winter. This year’s event also celebrates the publishing of The Baseball Plays, an anthology of 11 7th

Inning Stretch favorites from previous years, published by Playscripts, Inc. This fantastic compilation includes nominees for the Pulitzer Prize, Tony and Olivier Awards.

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And Here’s the Lineup: HOME IS AN IRREGULAR PENTAGON by Constance Congdon Moe Berg—former major leaguer, quiz show champion, and international spy— re-experiences his life while hospitalized in Belleville, New Jersey.

CONSTANCE CONGDON has been called "one of the best playwrights our country and our language has ever produced" by playwright Tony Kushner in Kushner's introduction to her collection Tales of the Lost Formicans and Other Plays. In addition to Tales of the

Lost Formicans, which has had more than 200 productions, world-wide, Congdon's plays include: Casanova, Dog Opera, both produced at the Public Theatre, Losing Father’s

Body (Portland Stage (Maine), Lips, (Primary Stages), Native American, (Portland Stage (Maine), (Lyric Hammersmith Studio). Her latest play, Paradise Street, is being developed at New York Theatre Workshop. A Mother, starring Olympia Dukakis, and a new verse version of The Misanthrope, both commissioned and produced by American Conservatory Theater. Also at ACT: Moontel Six, a commission by the A.C.T. Young Conservatory and subsequently performed at London's National Theatre, followed by another production of the two-act version at San Francisco’s Zeum and directed by Young Conservatory Director, Craig Slaight. The Automata Pietà, another YC commission, received its world premiere at San Francisco's Magic Theatre in 2002; Nightingales went to the Theatre Royale Bath’s Youth Theatre. Congdon’s No Mercy, and its companion piece, One Day Earlier; were part of the 2000 season devoted to Congdon at the Profile Theatre. She has also written a number of opera libretti and seven plays for the Children's Theatre Company of Minneapolis. Congdon's plays have been produced throughout the world, including Cairo and Berlin. Her plays are published, mainly, by Broadway Plays Publishing. Samuel French published Dog Opera. A collection of four of her plays has been published by TCG, Inc. Her new verse version of Tartuffe will be included in the next Norton Anthology of Drama, and is already out in a single-volume Norton Critical edition. Currently, she has two commissions: TAKE ME

TO THE RIVER at the Denver Theater Center and a play about Robert Mapplethorpe commissioned by Primary Stages in New York. She’s been writing a long time and can thank the NEA, the Rockefeller Foundation, the W. Alton Jones Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Arnold Weisberger Award, the Berilla Kerr Award, and, most recently, The Helen Merrill Award for making this more possible. Congdon was just honored with an award "for distinguished service to the American theater" at the Great Plains Theater Conference. She’s an alum of New Dramatists, member of The Dramatists Guild and of PEN. Congdon has been teaching playwriting at Amherst College for fifteen years.

O4: A MUSE OF FIRE by Andrew Dolan

A man seeks comfort from his divorce attorney as he re-counts the impact his beloved`04 Red Sox have had on his life and family. Andrew Dolan’s first play, That Good Night, was performed at New York Stage & Film’s Reading Series this past summer with a cast that included Reg Rogers, Marin Ireland, Bruce Norris and Sheri Graubert. He has optioned several screenplays and was a co-writer the award winning short film Weekend Getaway. As an actor he has worked on and off Broadway, at various regional theatres and at The National Theatre in London. He

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studied at Bowdoin College and The American Conservatory Theatre where he was a company member for 5 seasons. He hates the Yankees. An excerpt from ROUNDING THIRD by Richard Dresser

Is winning the only thing that matters, or is it how you play the game? For Michael and Don, two coaches of the same Little League baseball team, their answers are clear – and completely opposite. ROUNDING THIRD is a hilarious look at how our culture teaches our kids - and parents - to deal with ruthless competition and define success. NOTE: Mile Square Theatre’s production of Rounding Third opens April 1 at the Monroe Theatrespace in Hoboken

RICHARD DRESSER’S plays have been produced in New York, regional theater, and Europe. His recently published trilogy of plays about happiness in America includes AUGUSTA (working class), THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS (middle class), and A VIEW OF THE HARBOR (upper class). Other plays are: ROUNDING THIRD, which started in Chicago and appeared off-Broadway and has had over one hundred productions, BELOW THE BELT and GUN-SHY, both of which started at the Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville before moving off-Broadway. Also, SOMETHING IN THE AIR, THE DOWNSIDE, ALONE AT THE BEACH, WONDERFUL WORLD, and BETTER DAYS, plus many short plays. His most recent projects include a musical, JOHNNY BASEBALL, which opens in May at A.R.T. in Cambridge, and a new play THE LAST DAYS OF MICKEY & JEAN, about a notorious Boston gangster in early retirement, which premieres in March at Merrimack Rep. He is a former member of New Dramatists, twice attended the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference and is currently teaching at Rutgers University.

HIGH AND UPTIGHT by Lisa Huberman (2010 Stretch MFA Playwright) A father and daughter help each other hold on to, and let go of, the past. LISA HUBERMAN is originally from Youngstown, Ohio. She received a BA in theatre performance from Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois and has held internships at Chicago Dramatists and the APA Talent and Literary Agency. Currently, she is pursuing an MFA in playwriting at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. Lisa is thrilled to be making her Mile Square debut with Seventh Inning Stretch. She is a Cleveland Indians fan. THE DESIGNATED HITTER by David Magee

A reunion between old teammates takes a personal turn when the subject of the Designated Hitter rule comes into play. DAVID MAGEE's first screenplay, Finding Neverland, starring Johnny Depp, went on to be nominated for seven Academy Awards, including one for Best Adapted Screenplay. Magee’s script was also nominated for eight other notable awards, including the Golden Globe, the Broadcast Film Critics Award, the BAFTA and the London Film Critics Award. Since then, Magee has written thirteen screenplays, including Miss Pettigrew

Lives for a Day with Simon Beaufoy ("Slumdog Millionaire"), starring Amy Adams and Frances McDormand. He is currently re-imagining the Roger's and Hammerstein classic

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Carousel for Fox Films with Hugh Jackman playing the role of Billy Bigelow, and adapting the novel The Life of Pi with director Ang Lee. Magee began his career as a stage actor, working in various regional theatres and writing the abridgements of over 80 novels to make his living. He subsequently wrote and performed his first play Buying the

Farm at Guild Hall in East Hampton, which led directly to his opportunity to write Finding Neverland. This short piece marks his first return to writing for the stage since. BOTTOM OF THE NINTH by Itamar Moses

During breaks in the action, radio partners at different points in their career sort out their feelings on marriage.

Itamar Moses is the author of the full-length plays OUTRAGE, BACH AT LEIPZIG, CELEBRITY ROW, THE FOUR OF US, YELLOWJACKETS, BACK BACK BACK, and COMPLETENESS, the musicals REALITY! (with Gaby Alter), and FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE (with Michael Friedman and Daniel Aukin), and various short plays and one-acts, several of which are collected in the complete evening LOVE/STORIES (OR BUT YOU WILL GET USED TO IT). His work has appeared Off-Broadway and elsewhere in New York, at regional theatres across the country and in Canada, and is published by Faber & Faber and Samuel French. He has received new play commissions from The McCarter Theater, Playwrights Horizons, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, The Wilma Theater, South Coast Rep, Manhattan Theatre Club, Lincoln Center, and The Goodman Theatre. Itamar holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU and has taught playwriting at Yale and NYU. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, MCC Playwrights Coalition, and is a New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect. He was born in Berkeley, CA and now lives in Brooklyn, NY. THE MASCOTS by Chris O’Connor

In a seedy New York casting office, two men vie for the job of the Springfield Dodger's stadium mascot. Who will prevail; the jaded pro or the idealistic rookie? Chris founded Mile Square Theatre in 2002. He conceived and produces the annual 10-minute play festival 7th Inning Stretch. His MST directing credits include St. Columba

and the River, The Souls of Black Folk, John Redding Goes to the Sea, Charlie Peter's Striking Out the Babe for the 2003 7th Inning Stretch, Warren Leight's The Love of the

Game for the 2004 Stretch, Jenny Levison's Homefield Advantage for the 2006 Stretch, the inaugural MST Mainstage production, Cyrano, he co-directed (with Jeff Steitzer) The

Scams of Scapin, for which he played the title role, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and

Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse. As an actor, Chris has been associated with 12 Miles West, A Contemporary Theatre, The Culture Project, Soho Rep, the 78th Street Theatre Lab, Target Margin, Gloucester Stage, Book-It Repertory, City Theatre in Pittsburgh, Provisional Theatre of Los Angeles, The Bathhouse, Seattle Children's Theatre, among others. His plays for young people have been produced at The Seattle Children's Theatre. He has taught theatre at Colgate University and Fairleigh Dickinson University, as well as schools in Hoboken. He is on the faculty at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. He holds a BFA in acting from Carnegie-Mellon University and an MFA in Directing from Rutgers University and lives in Hoboken with his wife Annie McAdams and their daughters Willa Jean and Mae Rose.

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