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This one has gotten some nice notices, and there’s only two more performances. Get out of the heat (oh, nobody told you? It’s really hot) and head on over to this one before it closes.

The Midtown International Theatre Festival in Association with TRU
Presents

THE MATERNAL INSTINCT
A New Play
Written by Monica Bauer
Directed by Melissa Wentworth
At The WorkShop Theatre, 312 W. 36th St., 4th Floor
FINAL PERFORMANCES!!!
SATURDAY, AUG 5TH AT 8:15PM &
SUNDAY, AUG 6TH AT 5:30PM

August 3, 2006

The Midtown International Theatre Festival in association with TRU is proud to present Monica Bauer’s new play, THE MATERNAL INSTINCT, which will be at The Workshop Theatre, 312 West 36th Street. Final performances are Saturday, August 5th at 8:15PM and Sunday, August 6th at 5:30PM.

The Maternal Instinct is a bittersweet drama with comedy about the power and mystery of love, addictions, and conflicting desires. In Boston, a married lesbian couple discovers that “First comes love, then comes marriage, and then comes…” What happens when one spouse feels the pull of the maternal instinct, as the other is repelled by it?

Monica Bauer is an award-winning playwright and composer. A graduate of Brown and Yale, she was the Teaching Fellow in the Graduate Playwriting Program at Boston University in 2004-05, where she studied with Derek Walcott, Kate Snodgrass, and Richard Schotter. She has also studied with Craig Lucas as part of the Pataphysics seminars at The Flea Theater in New York City. Her work has been seen regionally from San Diego to Boston, and off-off Broadway at the HERE Arts Center, the Bowery Poetry Club, and Emerging Artists Theater. The Maternal Instinct was awarded third place in the national New Works for Young Women playwriting competition.

Directing THE MATERNAL INSTINCT is Melissa J. Wentworth, who received her MFA in Directing from Brooklyn College before founding Out of the Blue Theater Company (OOTB) with Karen Woodward Massey in 1992.

Dan Bacalzo of theatermania.com raved, “Bauer’s writing is engaging and witty, prompting plenty of laughter …This instinct is right on target.” And Jack Hanley of nytheatre.com agreed, writing, “I experience that eerily magical feeling of being a voyeur of private lives. … It’s theatre at its best.”

The cast for THE MATERNAL INSTINCT includes Karen Woodward Massey, Rena Baskin, Stephen Cooper, Alisha Jansky and Elise Audrey Manning, who The Boston Globe said was “terrific.”

Reviewers praised the recent production of THE MATERNAL INSTINCT in Boston presented by Out of the Blue Theatre at Boston Playwrights Theater. David Frieze of Backstage said, “… an intelligent and highly entertaining new play… Hilarity often ensues… But for all the laughs, The Maternal Instinct turns out to be a serious play about real people with real conflicts.” He went on to say, “… made me laugh, and moved me close to tears.” And Larry Stark of Theatermirror.com wrote, “Monica Bauer’s writing is compellingly interesting … and funny as hell!”

Final performances of THE MATERNAL INSTINCT are Saturday, August 5th at 8:15PM and Sunday, August 6th. Tickets are $18.00 for all seats. Tickets may be purchased by calling (212) 868-4444 or visit www.smarttix.com. For more information, visit www.thematernalinstinct.org. Photos will be available for download at www.brettsinger.com/clients/maternalinstinct.html.

The Maternal Instinct

Written by Monica Bauer

At The WorkShop Theatre, 312 West 36th Street, 4th Floor

FINAL PERFORMANCES: Saturday, August 5th at 8:15PM and Sunday, August 6th at 5:30PM.

TICKETS: $18.00; Call (212) 868-4444 or visit www.smarttix.com