Worldwide Festival Celebrates CRY HAVOC Company's 15th Anniversary, Nov 2012

Theaters around the world are joining together next month to celebrate the 15th anniversary of The CRY HAVOC Company with performances of plays developed by the New York-based theater. This global festival will span every continent – including Antarctica – throughout the month of November, totaling 39 productions of 25 plays by 12 playwrights in four different languages.

The festival will feature performances in 18 cities around the world, including:

• Beirut, Lebanon
• Budapest, Hungary
• Chicago, IL, USA
• Giessen, Germany
• Ithaca, NY, USA
• Jakarta, Indonesia
• Johannesburg, South Africa
• Lewisburg, PA, USA
• London, England
• Melbourne, Australia
• New York City, NY, USA
• Oslo, Norway
• Princeton, NJ, USA
• Quito, Ecuador
• San Jose, Costa Rica
• Tokyo, Japan
• Whitefish, MT, USA
• Rothera Research Station, Antarctic Peninsula

"We are delighted that so many theaters that share our commitment to championing raw, provocative and humane plays are joining us in this celebration," said Will Clark, the company's literary manager.

Ten plays will also be making world premieres as part of the festival. Three of these plays will be premiering at more than one theater – and in more than one language – on the same evening.

Over the past 15 years, CRY HAVOC has developed more than 350 plays, screenplays and musicals, including the 2011 Theater for the American Musical Prize winner, Kiki Baby by Lonny Price, Kitt Lavoie and Grant Sturiale, the 2009 Samuel French New Play Festival winning realer than that, Samuel French Festival finalists The Cooking King and Good Enough, and the screenplay for the multiple- award-winning film Rainbow Rabbit Reliant.

"CRY HAVOC began 15 years ago in the form that most New York theater companies take: a creative home for a small group of artists," said Lavoie, artistic director of CRY HAVOC since its inception in 1997, "Now, our community reaches around the world. Just last year, our programs supported the development of 112 plays by 48 playwrights."

Lavoie will travel to Oslo to direct Theater Dramadrivhuset's entry in the festival, which will be presented in Norwegian.

CRY HAVOC has also brought more than 25 plays to the New York stage, including the world premieres of more than a dozen new plays and a 2005 production of Romeo & Juliet, which featured a female Romeo and a female Juliet. Projects developed with CRY HAVOC have also been published, made into award-winning films and produced in major venues in New York, across the country and around the world.

For more information, visit www.cryhavoccompany.org.

The CRY HAVOC Company, Inc. is a not-for-profit theater in midtown Manhattan committed to developing quality theater by approaching all plays – both comedy and drama – as conflicts between individuals struggling to do what each desperately believes is right. Led by Lavoie and Managing Director Jerzy Gwiazdowski, CRY HAVOC's artistic community is comprised of more than 250 actors, writers, directors and designers at all levels of training and professional advancement – from college students to seasoned Broadway professionals. The CRY HAVOC Company's rehearsal and performance studio is located on 36th Street in Manhattan. The CRY HAVOC Podcast is available for download on iTunes.

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