Kellie Overbey, Quentin Mare and More Set for SLEEPING ROUGH Off-Broadway

Casting has been announced for the world-premiere of Kara Manning's play SLEEPING ROUGH, directed by Tony Award nominee Sam Buntrock and presented Off-Broadway at the Wild Project (195 East 3rd Street) by Page 73 Productions, currently celebrating its 15th season presenting works by up-and-coming playwrights in New York. Performances of SLEEPING ROUGH will begin April 3 prior to an official press opening of April 11. Tickets for SLEEPING ROUGH are now on sale.

The cast of SLEEPING ROUGH will feature Lucille Lortel Award nominee Kellie Overbey ("The Coast of Utopia," "Twentieth Century," "The Savannah Disputation," "Rapture, Blister, Burn"), Quentin Mare ("The Philanthropist," "Rock 'n' Roll," "Happy Now?," "Burn This") and Renata Friedman ("The K of D," "A Doctor in Spite of Himself").

Sam Buntrock, who received a 2008 Tony Award nomination for directing the award-winning revival of SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE will helm the World-Premiere of SLEEPING ROUGH, the first professional production in New York by playwright Kara Manning (recipient of the 2007 Princess Grace Playwriting Award). "We are so excited to have the opportunity to present Kara Manning's professional premiere in New York, and are equally thrilled to have Sam Buntrock helm this exceptional new play," said Page 73 Executive Directors Liz Jones and Asher Richelli. "We've long been fans of Kara's work. Sleeping Rough is a remarkable piece and Kara is a writer whose voice deserves to be heard."

It's December 2008, and an American woman flees to London despite the pleas of her daughter and ex-husband. Unable to forgive her country for a grave offense, she seeks refuge in the city of her youth. As America broadcasts news of financial crisis and political change, a fractured family roams the London streets trying to understand what sparked a fatal decision.

Design team for SLEEPING ROUGH is Kris Stone (set design), Kaye Voyce (costume design), Brian Tovar (lighting design), and Jill BC Du Boff (sound design).

Kara Manning's plays include "Sleeping Rough," "Mind the Gap," "Killing Swans," "Proposed Closure (totalshambles)" and "afterdark". Her plays have been performed or developed via The Royal Court Theatre, Out of Joint, Hampstead Theatre, the O'Neill Playwrights Conference, Manhattan Theater Club, Atlantic Theater, Playwrights Horizons, MCC Theater, Page 73 Productions, Women's Project, NYTW, High Tide Festival Productions and others. SLEEPING ROUGH was also developed at Theatreworks Silicon Valley as part of its 2012 New Works Festival. Kara is the 2007 recipient of the Princess Grace Award in playwriting. She is a MacDowell Colony Fellow and recipient of a 2010-2011 Princess Grace Special Projects grant and a 2011 EST/Sloan Foundation commission. She is a member of MCC Theater's Playwrights Coalition and an alumnus of the Royal Court's International Residency and Women's Project Playwrights Lab. Kara has written for Rolling Stone, MTV News and NPR. She presently works for WFUV/The Alternate Side and is the literary manager of the Irish Repertory Theatre. Graduate of Columbia University's M.F.A. program in playwriting.

Sam Buntrock (director) credits include; "Sunday in the Park With George" (Broadway, West End, Menier and 5th Avenue Seattle - 5 Olivier Awards including Outstanding Musical Production, Olivier Nomination for Best Director, 9 Tony Nominations including Best Director and Drama Desk Nomination for Best Director), "The Turn of the Screw" for New York City Opera (BAM), the World Premiere of John Guare's "Are You There, McPhee?" and "Travesties" (both McCarter, as Director in Residence 2011/2012), "Ed, Downloaded" by Michael Mitnick (Denver Center), "Much Ado About Nothing" (Two River), "A Maze" (New York Stage & Film), "Cradle and All" (MTC), "McReele" (Juilliard) "Cradle to Rave" (UK & Australian National Tours), "God Collar" (Edinburgh, UK National Tour and West End), the World and American Premieres of "Take Flight" (Menier and McCarter), the current European tour of "The Rocky Horror Show" (since 2008), the first London revival of "Assassins" (New End), "Get a Life and Help Yourself" (both Edinburgh and UK tour). He has also worked as an Animation Director on numerous projects, including the feature film Stuart, A Life Backwards for Neal Street Productions, HBO and the BBC. He trained at Bristol University and as Resident Assistant Director at the Donmar Warehouse.

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