The Society Hill New Works Festival will feature two weeks of new play readings and a workshop of an original musical. Works include Concrete Dinosaur by Main Line playwright Nicholas Wardigo, Skimming Through and Primary Sources by University of Virginia professor Doug Grissom, award winning television writer Richard Raskind's The Bridge Club and the new musical, Some Assembly Required by Kate Brennan.

The Festival will feature twelve Philadelphia talents.

Main Line playwright and 2004 Pew Fellow for Literature and Scriptworks, Nicholas Wardigo, produced The Do's and Don'ts of Time Travel with Straw Flower Productions this past fall and is currently mounting another premiere, Exit, Corpse at Plays and Players this winter. This will be the first public reading of his work Concrete Dinosaur. Other Wardigo plays include Chessboard Heroes, The Biggest Box of Crayons, and Editorial Decisions. He has enjoyed productions and/or staged readings with Theatre Exile, Flashpoint Theatre Company, Philadelphia Theatre Workshop, The Brick Playhouse, and InterAct Theatre Company. Additional awards include the Roger Cornish Award as well as fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.

Head of the playwrighting program at The University of Virginia, Doug Grissom's plays have been produced in many regional theatres including INTAR in New York City, TheatreVirginia, the Source Theatre in Washington D.C. and Mill Mountain Theatre. His playwrighting accolades include: the Virginia Playwriting Award, Mill Mountain New Play Competition and the Outstanding New Play Award at the Washington Theatre Festival. His educational theatre piece on acquaintance rape, But I Said No (co-written with Margaret Baldwin), has received national acclaim and has toured extensively on college campuses around the country. His play Deep Down was produced Off-Broadway at the INTAR Theatre and went on to be successfully produced at the Venture Theatre in Philadelphia and the Main Street Theatre in Houston. In 2002 his one-acts Contact and Undress Me Clarence were published by Dramatic Publishing Company in an anthology of new American playwriting titled 25 IN 10. His play Fish Kill on Maria Sanchez has recently been published by Playscripts, Inc. Grissom has twice been the Chair of the Playwriting Division of the Southeastern Theatre Conference, and has been the Regional Playwriting Chair and the National Playwriting Vice Chair for the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. He is a co-founder of Offstage Theatre in Charlottesville, Virginia, a theatre devoted to the performance of original works in site-specific venues.

Conceived and written by Kate Brennan, Some Assembly Required is the result of a grant from the University of Virginia for the study of Laurie Anderson as well as a continuous outreach project entitled Alternative Theatre Project. The musical had a reading and a workshop at the University last spring and has since been expanded to a full one act musical. A native Philadelphian, Brennan holds an MFA in acting from the University of Virginia. In town, she has worked with Arden Theatre Company, Walnut Street Theatre, Straw Flower Productions and Philadelphia Theatre Workshop. She is literary manager, casting director, and education director for BCKSEET Productions. Brennan has been on faculty with Walnut Street Theatre, The University of Virginia, BCKSEET Productions, Iron Age Theatre, Merion Mercy Academy and Waldron Mercy Academy.

The Bridge Club marks Richard Raskind's return to theatre having written a total of twenty-one produced television episodes including such classics as "Fantasy Island," "Family Ties," "ER," and an award winning episode of "Coach." This Tufts University graduate is a member of the Writers Guild of America West, the Dramatists Guild, and his latest play Newtonville Weekly won three DramaLogue awards. Having relocated from the Boston Mr. Raskind will be joining us from his new home in the San Francisco Bay area.

Each performance will have a post-show talkback with the playwright and the cast and a pre-show of art from local professional and student artists. Purchase one ticket for $5 or an entire festival pass for $15.

Call the Society Hill Playhouse now to make reservations: 215.923.0210.

The festival line up is as follows:
Concrete Dinosaur by Nick Wardigo: Friday, January 16th @ 8pm
Two by Grissom - Skimming Through & Primary Sources: Saturday, January 17th @ 8pm
The Bridge Club by Richard Raskind: Friday, January 23rd @ 8pm & Saturday, January 24th @ 3pm
Some Assembly Required by Kate Brennan: Saturday, Jan. 24th @ 8pm & Sunday, Jan. 25th @ 3pm

ABOUT SOCIETY HILL PLAYHOUSE
Housed in the Historic David Garrick Hall, the Society Hill Playhouse (SHP) has played a pioneering role in the Philadelphia's theatre community since its inception in 1960. As Philadelphia's first professionally operated theater to bring both American and European premieres to the area, SHP has laid the groundwork for younger theatres throughout the Delaware Valley. During its forty-seven year history, SHP has produced hundreds of area premieres on its Main Stage: from Brecht/Weill's Threepenny Opera in 1962 to Rachel Wyatt's Crackpot in 1996. The second stage "Red Room" opened in 1986 with William Gibson's Handy Dandy, and saw premeries of Manual Puig's political drama Kiss Of The Spider Woman in 1987, and Christopher Durang's Laughing Wild in 1988. Long-running "popular theatre" pieces include Nunsense and Menopause the Musical. Most recently onstage at the Playhouse: She Loves You, a musical tribute to the Beatles' through an audio visual 60s retrospective. www.societyhillplayhouse.org

ABOUT BCKSEET PRODUCTIONS
Founded in 2000 at Emerson College in Boston, BCKSEET Productions burst onto the Philadelphia theatre scene three years ago as the resident theatre company of the Red Room at the historic Society Hill Playhouse. An active member of the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia, BCKSEET has participated in the Philly Fringe/ Live Arts Festival, Free Night of Theatre, and SPARK Showcase Festival. BCKSEET continually strives to "entertain, educate and enlighten" its audiences with exciting world premieres and innovative explorations of classic works. BCKSEET Productions is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization.

Visit www.bckseet.com for more show info.