NEW MOON READING SERIES RESUMES @ LUNA STAGE

Illuminate Your World New Moon Reading Series FRANCOISE By Suzanne Trauth Directed by Susan Kerner WHEN: Monday, October 3, at 7:30 PM WHERE: Luna Stage, 555 Valley Road, West Orange SUGGESTED DONATION: $5 at the door An ailing Françoise Bollinger, frightened to die with a terrible sin on her conscience, grapples with her past to find forgiveness for her crime. She relives the summer of 1944 in France and struggles to navigate between past and present, as a compassionate doctor and troubled granddaughter witness her search for redemption. Be a part of the process of developing a brand new play! Studio Luna’s New Moon Reading Series allows you to be up close and personal at a script-in-hand reading of new work. (left: playwright Suzanne Trauth) In their intimate space, audience members are feet away from professional actors giving life—often for the first time ever—to a brand-new theater piece that may go on to be performed at Luna Stage or elsewhere! Each reading is followed by a talkback with the playwright. It’s your chance to experience and contribute to the creative process as it evolves right before your eyes and ears. ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT:

Suzanne Trauth is a professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance at Montclair State University where she coordinates the B.F.A. Acting program. She co-created and directed Katrina: the K Word, based on interviews with New Orleans’ survivors of Hurricane Katrina, at Montclair State and directed staged readings of the play at Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey and Drew University. Other productions directed at Montclair State include She Stoops to Conquer, The Grapes of Wrath, Nicholas Nickleby, Picnic, Extremities, Laramie Project, Flyin’ West, and House of Bernarda Alba. For TheatreFest, she directed The Middle Ages, served as Associate Producer, and founded the experimental Next Stage. She co-produced and directed productions at the Ensemble Studio Theatre (NYC), the Whole Theatre, and 12 Miles West. As part of a global initiative for the College of the Arts, she directed The Crucible for the Theatre-on-Podol in the Ukraine. She has co-authored "Sonia Moore and American Acting Training and Producing Musical Theatre", and co-edited "Katrina on Stage: Five Plays". Ms. Trauth served as Assistant Artistic Director and faculty member at the Sonia Moore Studio in NYC and performed for the American Stanislavski Theatre. She has written award-winning screenplays and, most recently, she wrote and directed the short film Jigsaw. Currently, she is working on a new play supported by the National Science Foundation’s STEM initiative on science and technology. Her novel Souvenirs will be published next year.