REALITY by Lia Romeo

Annie and Matt met on ”Looking for Love,” a popular reality dating show. But now that the cameras have stopped rolling, their fairy tale is looking a lot less perfect than it seemed. Add to the mix producer Josh, who will do anything for ratings, and the show runner up Krisandra, an aspring actress who’s desperate to make her mark in Hollywood. Will there be a happy ending or a scandal? In our model society, where everything from breasts to feelings are likely to be fake, playwright Lia Romeo explores what “reality” really means.

Lia Romeo is a playwright, novelist, and humor book author.  She earned her B.A. from Princeton University and her M.F.A in playwriting from Rutgers, ending up with staggering quantities of student loans and no marketable skills whatsoever.   She managed to secure a part-time job writing standardized test questions, and spends the rest of her time writing plays and novels and daydreaming about pretty shoes.  Her play Hungry premiered at Unicorn Theatre in Kansas City in the 2011-2012 season, and was produced by Stillwater Theater subsequently.  Her play Green Whales premiered at Unicorn Theatre in 2010, and was produced by Renegade Theatre Experiment in 2012. Her play Right Place, Right Time premiered at Renegade Theatre Experiment in 2010, and was produced by Stillwater Theatre subsequently.  Her play LoveSick was produced by Project Y Theatre Company at 59E59 in New York in 2012.  Her play Connected will premiere at HotCity Theatre in St. Louis in 2013.  She has been a part of the Forum New Play Reading Series at Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey for the past five years, and her plays have also been developed at the Kennedy Center, Orlando Shakespeare Theatre, New Jersey Repertory Theatre, Kitchen Dog Theatre, HotCity Theatre, Abingdon Theatre, and elsewhere.  She has been a finalist for the O’Neill Playwrights Conference, PlayPenn, WordBridge, the Reva Shiner Comedy Award, and the Heideman Award.  She was the 2008-2009 National New Play Network Emerging Playwright-in-Residence at Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey, and she is currently a member of the New Jersey Women Playwrights’ Project and Boston’s Interim Writers Accomplice. Her humor book, 11,002 Things to Be Miserable About, was published in 2009 by Abrams Image.  It is currently in its second printing, with over 30,000 copies sold, and has earned favorable reviews in the Boston Globe and other national publications.  Her first novel, Dating the Devil, will be published by BelleBooks in 2013, and is in development as a TV movie with Vast Entertainment.

Lia is one of the New Jersey Emerging Women Playwrights.

This reading will be begin at 7:00pm and will be held at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Dreyfuss Theatre, 285 Madison Avenue, Madison, NJ. Click here for directions. Click here for a printable map of the campus (the Dreyfuss Theatre is located in Building 9).

Be sure to check out our 5 Questions with Lia Romeo interview!

Directed by John Pietrowski

Cast:
Krisandra - Jessica O'Hara-Baker*
Annie - Alexandra Rivera
Matt - Christopher Kloko
Josh - Daniel Sullivan*

*Members Actors' Equity Association

This reading made possible in part by funds from the Puffin Foundation. The Puffin Foundation Ltd. has sought to open the doors of artistic expression by providing grants to artists and art organizations who are often excluded from mainstream opportunities due to their race, gender, or social philosophy.  www.puffinfoundation.org    

The New Jersey Emerging Women Playwrights Project (NJEWP) is part of Playwrights Theatre’s larger ongoing effort to provide meaningful support to playwrights through an authentic development process that focuses on the specific and individual needs of the writer. New Jersey has an abundance of talented and committed women playwrights, but there are very few opportunities for these artists to form relationships with organizations that will make a long-term commitment to developing both their work and their presence in the community. The NJEWP  puts into place a process that will identify
writers, provide a long-term writer-driven development process, and provide connections for the writer to other writers, informed audiences, and the larger theatrical community, both in New Jersey and nationwide.   

For the pilot year of NJEWP, Playwrights Theatre has selected four women playwrights for a yearlong development process of a work-in-progress. There is no requirement for what stage the work is in, some writers are starting almost from scratch, some are further along in their writing. None of the plays are commissioned, their future remains in control of the author throughout the process, including the ability to workshop the piece at another theatre at any time.   This evening’s reading is the fourth reading of the play, each writer has had three additional readings over the course of the past year. These plays are probably not yet finished, and we are grateful for your assistance in helping them along.

The writers for 2011-12 were Dominique Cieri, Carrie Louise Nutt, Dania Ramos, and Lia Romeo. Writers for 2012-13 have been selected, they are:
E.M. Lewis, Claire Porter, and Yasmine Rana.

This program is made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.