Road Less Traveled Productions Announces Guirgis 2011 American Theatre Master

Road Less Traveled Productions (RLTP) has announced that playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis will be the company's American Theatre Master for 2011.

Guirgis, the author of controversial plays such as The Last Days Of Judas Iscariot and Jesus Hopped The "A" Train, will appear at the Road Less Traveled Theater and at RLTP's 2011 Spring Gala, in support of the company's Western New York premiere production of The Last Days Of Judas Iscariot.

In addition to attending a performance of his play and RLTP's Spring Gala, Guirgis will also spend time sharing artistic insights and tall tales from his career with local students and playwrights from RLTP's Emanuel Fried New Play Workshop.

Guirgis will be RLTP's fourth American Theatre Master, following a highly publicized visit by American Theatre Master (and Pulitzer Prize winning playwright) Edward Albee in May of 2010. RLTP began its annual celebration of theatre artists of stature in 2008, with acclaimed playwright and actor Eric Bogosian; the company's 2009 Master was actor James Rebhorn. Both artists are now members of RLTP's National Advisory Board along with Alec Baldwin, Scott Ellis, and Stephen McKinley Henderson.

Guirgis' play The Last Days Of Judas Iscariot premiered Off-Broadway at The Public Theater in 2005, in a production directed by Phillip Seymour Hoffman and starring Sam Rockwell, Eric Bogosian, Jeffrey DeMunn, and Buffalo resident (and recent Tony Award nominee) Stephen McKinley Henderson. RLTP's production of The Last Days Of Judas Iscariot will star Stephen McKinley Henderson in his original role as Pontius Pilate, supported by Matt Witten, Lisa Vitrano, Rolando Gomez, Jay Pichardo, David Oliver, Jim Maloy, and an all-star ensemble. RLTP Artistic Director Scott Behrend will direct. Mr. Henderson recently wrapped a critically acclaimed and Tony-nominated run in Broadway's smash hit revival of August Wilson's Fences, opposite Denzel Washington, Viola Davis, and Mykelti Williamson.

RLTP's production of The Last Days Of Judas Iscariot will run Friday, April 22, 2011, through Sunday, May 22, 2011.

Stephen Adly Guirgis is the author of eight plays, including The Last Days Of Judas Iscariot, Jesus Hopped The ‘A' Train, Little Flower Of East Orange, In Arabia We'd All Be Kings, Our Lady Of 121st Street, Den Of Thieves, Dominica The Fat Ugly Ho, and the forthcoming The Motherfucker With The Hat. He has won the LA Drama Critics awards for Best Play and Best Writing and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival First Award; and has been nominated for Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, Outer Critics' Circle, and London's Lawrence Olivier awards. Mr. Guirgis is the co-Artistic Director of New York City's LAByrinth Theater Company, where most of his plays were developed and premiered in productions directed by Oscar-winning actor/director Philip Seymour Hoffman. Mr. Giurgis has also written for The Sopranos and NYPD Blue, and acted in Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche New York, Todd Solondz' Palindromes, and TV's Law And Order.

Please stay tuned at www.roadlesstraveledproductions.org for further information on Mr. Guirgis' visit to Western New York, for more information about The Last Days Of Judas Iscariot, and for ticket sale information.

Road Less Traveled Productions (RLTP) is a professional theatre company dedicated to the development and production of new theatrical works by Western New York playwrights, as well as presentations of esteemed modern dramas of outstanding literary merit. RLTP is located in the Market Arcade Film & Arts Center in the theater district of downtown Buffalo. For ticketing information call 1-800-745-3000 or visit www.RoadLessTraveledProductions.org. RLTP's work is made possible through public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.