Olympia Dukakis in MDR's ABSENCE reading

MIDTOWN DIRECT REP (MDR), the resident theater company at South Orange Performing Arts Center (SOPAC), is pleased to announce that Academy Award®-winner Olympia Dukakis will be joined by Midtown Direct Rep company members SEBASTIAN ARCELUS, JENNY BACON, EMILY BAUER and STEPHANIE KURTZUBA plus special guests KENDRA JAIN and DAN ZISKIE in a one-night-only staged reading of ABSENCE, a new play about memory loss. Former-actress turned director Margaret Whitton stages this new work by emerging playwright Peter M. Floyd that was honored by the Kennedy Center’s 2012 Jean Kennedy Smith Award and the 2012 Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Competition. The performance, part of MDR’s Theatre in the Loft series focusing on new and innovative American theatre, is Sunday, January 5, 2014 at 7 pm at SOPAC (One SOPAC Way, South Orange, NJ, 07079). Tickets, which are $15, are available at http://www.sopacnow.org/673/MDR-in-the-Loft-Jan5 or by calling 973-313-ARTS (2787). The performance will be followed by a discussion with the playwright, the cast and creative team. In ABSENCE, an excitingly theatrical play about aging, power, grace and imagination, Olympia Dukakis plays Helen, an iron-willed woman who suffers from memory loss. As her sense of self dissolves with her memories, she struggles to find meaning in her new existence. The reading of ABSENCE stars Sebastian Arcelus (House of Cards), Jenny Bacon (My Name is Asher Lev), Olympia Dukakis (Academy Award®/Golden Globe for Moonstruck), Kendra Jain (New Year’s Eve), Stephanie Kurtzuba (The Wolf of Wall Street) and Dan Ziskie (Treme). Emily Bauer reads stage directions and James Latus is the stage manager.