Lineup For Tribeca Theater Festival Announced

NEW YORK -- A Wendy Wasserstein playlet about a bat mitzvah and a Kenneth Lonergan work about a businessman about to be indicted for fraud are among the nine short plays that will anchor the Tribeca Theater Festival, organizers announced Wednesday.

The festival, sister to the successful Tribeca Film Festival, runs Oct. 19-31 and will also include free readings and panel discussions as well as screenings of movies about the theater such as "All About Eve."

"You may ask, why a theater festival?" said Jane Rosenthal, who founded the Tribeca Film Festival with her business partners, Craig Hatkoff and actor Robert De Niro, to promote the neighborhood after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

"There are nearly 70 theater companies south of 14th Street and since 9/11, many of them have struggled to stay on their feet. We saw the huge economic impact that our first three Tribeca Film Festivals have had on our neighborhood, so we thought, why not a theater festival?"

The theater festival will be produced by the film festival founders in association with the off-Broadway theater company Drama Dept.

Gov. George Pataki and several of the playwrights whose work will be showcased joined the organizers for a news conference announcing the lineup.

Playwright and screenwriter Paul Rudnick is contributing "Pride and Joy," about a parents' support group, to the program of short plays.

"I am so excited to be here because my two favorite things, probably, in the whole world are theater and my American Express card. And I use them both constantly," said Rudnick, sneaking in a plug for the corporate sponsor.

Pataki said, "We're going to make sure lower Manhattan stays the financial center of the world, but we're also the center of creativity, whether it's theater or film or art, and we're just so proud of that."

De Niro, whose less-than-chatty demeanor at news conferences evokes his tough-guy on-screen persona, said, "We're excited about creating a new kind of theater festival experience that will appeal to everyone and bring new audiences to the theater."

Asked about his own long-ago stage work, he added, "I love movies, and I love the theater of course ... and I haven't done a play for a long time but I might do one after seeing some of these plays. You never know."

The short theater works, "The Downtown Plays," will be presented at the Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts at Pace University. Celebrity hosts including Ben Stiller, Tony Danza and Christopher Walken will introduce the performances.

There will also be a staged reading of "Stuff Happens," David Hare's play now running in London in which actors playing President Bush, Prime Minister Tony Blair and other U.S. and British officials press for the invasion of Iraq.

There will be readings of works by minority playwrights, and panels including an Oct. 22 session in which Wasserstein will join director Michael Kahn and actors Ethan Hawke and Ben Gazzara for a discussion of Tennessee Williams' lasting influence.

There will be free performances of works in development by several downtown theater groups including the Vineyard Theater, the Culture Project and Naked Angels.

In addition to "All About Eve," the "Stage on Screen" series will include "Waiting for Guffman" and the documentary "Broadway: The Golden Age."

The readings, panel discussions and film screenings will be held at Tribeca Cinemas -- formerly the Screening Room -- on Varick Street.