Luna Theater Company opens their critically acclaimed sixth season with the U.S. Premiere of BREATHING CORPSES by Laura Wade. BREATHING CORPSES will be performed at the Walnut Street Theatre Studio 5 located at 825 Walnut Street in Philadelphia, previewing October 12 - 19; opening Saturday October 20 and running through November 10, 2007. Tickets range from $10 to $30 and can be purchased by calling Luna Theater Company's Box Office at (215) 704-0033 or by visiting www.LunaTheater.org. Media interviews, actor bios and digital photos available upon request.

Story Summary
Amy has discovered another body at work. Jim is puzzled by a sinister smell emanating from one of his storage units. Kate's losing it after spending all day with the police. There's no going back after what they've seen. Breathing Corpses is a darkly humorous examination of sadness and death in contemporary suburbia. As the heat rises and the bodies pile up, Wade's plot unfolds in a Memento-style backtrack, bringing the characters face to face with their own mortality. Breathing Corpses premiered at London's Royal Court Theatre and was the winner of three major awards. Luna Theater Company is proud to present the United States premiere of this startling new play from one of the UK's most exciting new writers.

About the Playwright
LAURA WADE Previous plays include Catch (Royal Court Theatre, collectively-written with April de Angelis, Stella Feehily, Tanika Gupta and Chloe Moss), Other Hands (Soho Theatre), Colder Than Here (Soho Theatre and subsequently off-Broadway at MCC Theater New York), Breathing Corpses (Royal Court Theatre), Young Emma (Finborough Theatre), 16 Winters (Bristol Old Vic Basement), The Wild Swans, TwelveMachine and The Last Child (Playbox Theatre at the Dream Factory, Warwick) and Limbo (Crucible Studio Theatre, Sheffield). Laura was awarded the 2005 Critics Circle Award for Most Promising Playwright, and she was also nominated for an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre. Breathing Corpses earned Laura the 2005 Pearson Best Play Award and she was joint winner of the 2005 George Devine Award. Radio plays include Good Times Roll (broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 as part of the Royal Court 50th Birthday celebrations) and Otherkin (BBC Radio 4).

Death becomes her (From The Guardian; Feb 2005) Laura Wade's plays are riddled with corpses and coffins. And the UK's leading theatres can't get enough of them. By Lyn Gardner

For two days this month, Laura Wade will enjoy a unique double. She will have her first and second plays running simultaneously at two of Britain's leading new-writing venues. As her debut, Colder Than Here, draws to a close at the Soho Theatre in London, her second, Breathing Corpses, will just begin its season at the Royal Court. "It is," says Wade, "a bit like having Christmas happen twice over."

Maybe a slightly depressing Christmas, given the plays' subject matter. Breathing Corpses is a veritable Pandora's box of accidentally discovered dead bodies. And Colder Than Here is the story of Myra, a dying woman who sets about planning her funeral with the same energy one might expend on organising the perfect wedding. Wade, it turns out, is something of an expert on coffins. "You don't have to have a traditional casket. If you want, you can have a coffin made out of cardboard or wicker or papier maché. There's one like a seed pod, or you could buy one that doubles as both a bookcase and a coffin. During your life, you stand it in your living room, and then after you die the books are taken out and your body put in their place and the whole thing buried. I think that's wonderful, don't you?"

At just 27, Wade has gone from the playwriting equivalent of 0 to 90 in what seems like seconds. She began writing full-time only a year ago. Having two premieres in one month is, she admits, exciting and scary, but at least it relieves her of the burden that faces all first-time playwrights: of following their debut with another corker. In fact, Wade has already delivered her third play, a commission for Soho Theatre.

Soho and the Royal Court clearly believe they have a major new talent on their hands. Abigail Morris, Soho's artistic director, raves about the "precision" of Wade's writing. Anna Mackmin, who is directing Breathing Corpses, says it is rare to find a young playwright with such a refreshing approach to form (the play is an intriguing, slippery thriller, written, says Wade, as "a perfect circle"). "When you discover a writer like Laura," says Mackmin, "there is part of you that wants to shout it from the rooftops and part of you that wants to keep her a secret so the talent doesn't get spoiled. The nurturing of a new writer is such a delicate thing."

Wade, though, is taking the attention in her stride. She also looks robustly healthy for one whose work is so centred on death. "I really don't know where my interest in death comes from," she says. Her family, like herself, are all fighting fit. "Maybe I've just got a twisted imagination. The truth is, I haven't had a hugely eventful life - maybe I'm compensating in my creative life. Or maybe I'm just a bit sick."

But Wade also points out that while both plays are suffused by death, they are actually about the art of living. Breathing Corpses takes its title from Sophocles' assertion: "When a man has lost all happiness, he's not alive. Call him a breathing corpse."

"It is about people trying to live and deal with what life throws at them - the desperate fight for happiness," says Wade. "I've always been fascinated by those newspaper reports about people out walking the dog who discover a body in the bushes. For a short time they are at the heart of the story, and then what happened to the corpse becomes the focus and the person who found the body passes into obscurity. But they have to live every day with the knowledge of what they found. It's the idea that once you've lifted the lid and looked inside the box, what you've seen stays with you. You can't unsee what you have witnessed."

About the Producing Artistic Director
GREGORY SCOTT CAMPBELL is Founder and Producing Artistic Director of the Luna Theater Company. Previously with the Luna, Gregory performed in The Zoo Story, Oleanna, No Exit and Waiting for Godot. He has also directed Fool for Love, The Turn of the Screw, Burn This, Agnes of God, Unwrap Your Candy, Lebensraum and True West. Gregory is the original founder of the Spark 10 Minute Play Festival and a former board member of the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia and chair of the Spark Small Theatre Committee.

About the Featured Actor
SALLY MERCER (Elaine) has lived and worked in the Philadelphia area for the past 25 years. Her credits include Queen Elizabeth in Richard III and Margrethe in Copenhagen at the Lantern Theater, Claire in The Visit at Mum Puppettheatre, Laramie Project at Philadelphia Theatre Company and Bella in Gaslight at the Walnut Street Theatre. She was nominated for the Barrymore Award for best actress for her portrayal of Evelyn in Kindertransport at the Cheltenham Theatre, Deborah in A Kind of Alaska at the Walnut Street Studio and Julie in Lovers and Executioners at the Lantern Theater. She won the Barrymore Award in 1997 for her work as Amanda in The Glass Menagerie at the Cheltenham Theatre.

About Luna Theater Company
Founded in 2002, the Luna Theater Company is dedicated to presenting the Philadelphia area with thought-provoking works by contemporary and classical playwrights. We seek to develop an audience of open-minded theatergoers that cross cultural, ethnic and social lines by producing drama that is intense, challenging, educational and entertaining. . Funding for Luna's 2006-2007 Season has been provided in part by the Phoebe W. Haas Charitable Trust and the Samuel S. Fels Fund. For more information on Luna Theater and its upcoming performances, please visit www.LunaTheater.org.

Luna's 2007-2008 Season Announced
The Luna Theater Company's riveting 6th season will include the United States premiere of British playwright, Laura Wade's BREATHING CORPSES, the Philadelphia premiere of Craig Wright's GRACE and will conclude with the revival of Israel Horovitz's LINE. All performances will take place at the Walnut Street Theatre Studio 5 at 825 Walnut St. in Philadelphia. For more information on the upcoming schedule, please visit www.LunaTheater.org.