January 22, 2009 at 7:00 p.m.The Gorilla Reading Series presents
A RIVER IN THE DESERT
By Mark E. Leib
The Gorilla Reading Series is proud to present a new play by Mark E. Leib in a staged reading.
ABOUT THE PLAY
Summer, 1941. As the German army drives eastward into Russia, a young colonel in the SS discovers that his old philosophy professor has taken refuge in the town that the Nazis have just commandeered. Ten years before, he idolized this professor; now he feels constrained to despise him for being Jewish. Torn between love and hate, he orders the professor to come to him in his makeshift office. And a confrontation unfolds in which life itself is at stake.
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
Mark E. Leib is best known in the Tampa Bay area as theatre critic for Creative Loafing in both the Bay area and Sarasota. But Leib is also a playwright whose work has been produced Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway and at regional theatres. Leib's play Art People ran for three weeks at the Players Theatre in Greenwich Village, and will be produced later this spring at the studio@620 in St. Petersburg. Terry by Terry was produced at the Manhattan Punch Line, the American Repertory Theatre, Cambridge, and the Singapore Theatre Festival, and The Return to Zion was workshopped at Southern Rep in New Orleans and Florida Stage in Manalapan. Leib has also adapted two plays — Beaumarchais' The Marriage of Figaro and Chekhov's Platonov — both of which were produced at the American Repertory Theatre. His other plays have been produced or workshopped at the Edinburgh Festival, Scotland, and at Circle Repertory Theatre and Theatre Off Park, New York. Leib teaches theatre and film-related classes at the University of South Florida and Eckerd College. He's a graduate of Yale School of Drama, where he won the CBS Foundation Prize in Playwriting.
SHOW SCHEDULE:
One performance only, Thursday January 22 at 7:00 p.m.
Talkback with the playwright, Mark E. Leib, and with the director, James Rayfield, after the performance.
Seating is very limited. Reservations are highly recommended. Book online or at 813-879-2914.
WHERE: Gorilla Theatre, 4419 N. Hubert Avenue, Tampa, Florida 33614 "Behind Steinbrenner Field"
TICKET PRICE Free. Donations requested. See ticketing screen for details.
