November 3, 2006

Free staged reading of playwright Joe Musso's recent work about cryptic messages on abandoned refrigerators in post-Katrina New Orleans

(Columbia, MD) - Rep Stage, the professional theatre in residence at Howard Community College (HCC), presents a free public reading of "Voodoo Today Here Now 5" by Joe Musso on Monday, November 27, 2006 at 7 p.m. in the Monteabaro Recital Hall of the Peter & Elizabeth Horowitz Visual & Performing Arts Center on the HCC campus located at 10901 Little Patuxent Parkway, Columbia, MD  21044.  For more information and directions to the campus, visit the website at www.repstage.org or call the Box Office at 410-772-4900.

Why are cryptic messages appearing on abandoned refrigerators in New Orleans?  Two couples struggle to decipher the future in the emotional aftershocks of Hurricane Katrina in the recent play by Alabama-based Joe Musso, who will be present for the Rep Stage reading.  Musso's "Electra Orleans"  and "White Pearl in Red Dragon’s Mouth" have received staged readings at the New Jersey Repertory Theater and the Inside Out Theater in Ft. Lauderdale. His other short plays have received productions or staged readings in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Ohio, Delaware and New York.

This script is the second featured offering in Rep Stage’s Play Reading Series this season and will be directed by literary manager/resident dramaturg Lisa A. Wilde.  Featured actors include Peter Boyer, Felicia Curry, Leo Erickson and Yvonne Erickson. 

Through the Play Reading Series, Rep Stage brings a variety of plays – both new and rarely produced—to local audiences and the HCC learning community.  Rep Stage chooses plays that address current social, artistic and political concerns.  The readings are done with minimal staging to emphasize the writing, and are followed by an open discussion with the director, actors and, when possible, the playwright.