Tues, May 10 @ 6.00 P.M: FREE READING: MCC Theater presents excerpts from Michael Weller’s trio of plays at The Drama Book Shop

FREE READING: MCC Theater presents excerpts from Michael Weller’s trio of plays about modern marriage, “Do Not Disturb”, “Fifty Words,” and “Side Effects.”

In anticipation of MCC Theater’s world premiere production of Michael Weller’s “Side Effects,” four actors will read scenes from Weller’s three loosely-related plays on modern marriage: “Do Not Disturb,” MCC’s previously produced “Fifty Words,” and the upcoming “Side Effects.” Weller and David Auburn will answer audience questions after the reading, and Weller will sign copies of his plays.

MICHAEL WELLER (Playwright) studied music composition at Brandeis University with Irving Fine, Harold Shapiro and Martin Boykin, then worked as a jazz pianist before taking his graduate degree in theater at the University of Manchester, England. His best known are Moonchildren, Fishing, Loose Ends and Spoils of War. His films include Hair and Ragtime (for Milos Forman) and Lost Angels (for Hugh Hudson) and a teleplay of his Broadway drama “Spoils of War,” starring Kate Nelligan. He co-founded (with Angelina Fiordelissi and Suzanne Brinkley) and serves now as supervising mentor of the Mentor Project of the Cherry Lane Theatre, currently in its tenth season. Dr. Zhivago (from the novel by Boris Pasternak, for which he wrote the book) - Des McAnuff to direct, Lucy Simon music, Amy Powers and Michael Korie lyrics – will open in London’s West End in 2009 prior to its Broadway premiere. He is currently writing the book for a Broadway musical “Rumors” about the making of Fleetwood Mac’s two legendary breakthrough albums, to be directed by Taylor Hackford. His work has received an Academy Award nomination, an N.A.A.C.P. Outstanding Contribution Award, Critics Outer Circle Award, a Rockefeller Foundation Grant and a Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays Award, and has been honored by The Broken Watch Theatre Company which gave their playhouse his name. He is on the counsel of the Writer’s Guild Fund, and the Dramatists Guild of America.

DAVID AUBURN (Director) Recent directing credits include A Delicate Balance (Berkshire Theatre Festival), Zayd Dohrn's Sick (BTF), and work at The Juilliard School and Lincoln Center Director's Lab. Plays include Proof (MTC/Broadway), An Upset and Amateurs (EST Marathon) and The Journals of Mihail Sebastian (Keen Co.). Films include The Girl in the Park (writer/director).

About the Play:
MCC Theater’s 2008 hit Fifty Words (with acclaimed performances by Norbert Leo Butz and Elizabeth Marvel) culminated in one desperate phone call. Side Effects is the story of what happened on the other end of the line, expertly plotted by playwright Michael Weller, who is noted for Loose Ends and Moonchildren, a seminal work for the American stage. Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning writer-director, David Auburn (Proof, The New York Idea), will direct Joely Richardson ("Nip/Tuck," "The Tudors") and Cotter Smith (Kin, Next Fall) in this harrowing and unique journey.

Hugh and Lindy’s marriage seems picture-perfect, a beacon in their microcosmic Midwestern world of dinner parties and fundraisers. But, behind closed doors - doors they can barely keep shut - they’re falling apart, and Hugh’s rising political star is suddenly imperiled.