THU, JAN 31 @7:30PM :: NAC Ballroom
FORGOTTEN KINGDOMS
Written by Randy Baker
Directed by Tom Slot

On a small island in Indonesia, Reverend David Holiday lives with his wife and young son, preaching the word of God and trying to convert locals. When the son of a spiritual town leader comes to visit one evening with a mission of his own, the Reverends world is turned on its head. Is his son truly suffering from neurological damage, or is the spirit of the town working its way through him? His beliefs are questioned and family ripped apart as he struggles to maintain his beliefs while forcing others to change theirs.

FRI, FEB 1 @7:30PM :: NAC Lecture Hall
GREEN EDEN
Written by Noah Mease
Directed by Joan Kane

Philip Cummings welcomes a young poet to his cold farmhouse on a winter?s night, but this is not the first Spanish poet to find him in the solitude of Vermont. Philip spends their one night together chasing the memory of a long-ago August when Federico Garc?a Lorca visited him on the shores of Lake Eden. The play flows back and forth through time and memory from that winter night to the August of 1929 ? at least half a century earlier – and the rented cabin in Eden. Philip doesn?t know how exactly he wants Lorca and their confused attraction is diverted into the task of translating Lorca?s poems into English, and hikes in search for talc mine abandoned somewhere in Eden?s hills. Like the impossibility of a true translation of poetry, their relationship becomes something else entirely, and Philip, now older, is at a loss to explain it to the young poet, or to himself.

SAT, FEB 2 @7:30PM :: NAC Lecture Hall
Resident Reading
DARK WATER
Written by David Stallings
Directed by Heather Cohn

The swampland of Louisiana is hit with the most massive oil spill known to history. Barnacle, an old sea turtle, fights against man?s destruction, nature?s wrath, and her enemies of the wild to save her children trapped in the spill. Poetry, allegory, and movement, take this magical whimsy to tragedy.

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All readings are followed by Question & Answer sessions.

Now on its seventh year the National NewBorn Festival is MTWorks? playwriting competition and flagship program created to find talented emerging playwrights from across the US, introduce their work to the New York community, and open new doors to regional voices.

MTWorks mission is to present plays that do not take place in New York City, many of the past selections from the festival have had productions by MTWorks and other notable companies. Readings are free and open to the public. This is the third year the festival is proudly sponsored by the Psychology Club and Psychology Department of the City College of New York.

The winning plays (with the exception of the resident reading) are eligible for two other awards:

o The Audience Favorite Award: voted upon by the audience attending the festival.

o The Excellence in Playwriting Award: bestowed by the MTWorks? Board of Directors. The board selects the winner before the festival takes place and is not influenced by the work the director and actors are achieving at the readings. Winner this year is Ann Magaha with her play “Outside Daughter”

Sponsored by the Psychology Club and Psychology Department of the City College of New York (160 Convent Avenue New York, NY)

The 2013 National NewBorn Festival is developed in The Living Room Series sponsored by The Duo Multicultural Arts Center.

FREE
All readings will take place at the The City College of New York (160 Convent Avenue, New York, NY 10031) at the North Academic Center (First Floor).

Readings on Wed & Thu will take place in the Ballroom.
Readings on Fri & Sat in the Lecture Hall.