Luna Theater Company begins their much anticipated 6th season with the world premiere of Catherine Rush’s Backyard Conspiracy. Backyard Conspiracy will be performed during the third annual Spark Showcase Festival at the Painted Bride Art Center located at 230 Vine Street in Philadelphia, with a preview on July 11th, opening on Thursday July 12th and running through July 15, 2007. Tickets range from $10 to $25 and can be purchased by calling the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia at (215) 413-7150 or by visiting www.theatrealliance.org. Media interviews, actor bios and digital photos available upon request.

Story Summary
Backyard Conspiracy: How far will they go at Guantanamo Bay to keep America safe? How about holding a pregnant French national with no recourse to justice? This play may surprise you. Why? It will make you laugh

About the Playwright
CATHERINE RUSH is a theater professional working in New York City and regional theatre as an actor, translator, costume designer, theater interpreter, dramaturg, stage manager, producer and writer. Her plays include: This Island Alone, co-written with Adrian Blue, developed and produced at Vineyard Playhouse, MA; A Nice Place to Live, also co-written with Adrian Blue, commissioned by Wheelock Family Theatre of Boston; Double Helix, winner of the American Theatre Co-op’s Spring 2004 Full-Length Play Contest; Ben, the Mute, performed at the 2005 SUNY Brockport’s Festival of Ten; Slices of Life #1: Sibling Rivalry, a finalist in American Theatre Co-Op’s Winter 2004 One-Act Contest; and simple surrender, a semi-finalist in numerous national playwriting competitions, including the Actor’s Theatre of Louisville’s National Ten-Minute Play Contest and performed at Theatre One in Rhode Island. Her works have been read and “workshopped” in New York City, Martha’s Vineyard, Cape Cod and Philadelphia (Philadelphia Theatre Workshop.) Catherine is a translator of Shakespeare into American Sign Language including Twelfth Night and Much Ado About Nothing. She has lectured on the translation process at Kent State University, Modern Languages Association Conference, Gallaudet University and the Deaf Way II Conference in Washington DC. In 2006, she with Adrian Blue, taught a workshop for actors on working with text in three dimensions at New Zealand Drama School in Wellington, NZ. Last winter, Catherine taught a beginning playwriting class at the Wilma Studio School. Catherine is a graduate of Yale University. She is a member of Actor’s Equity Association, AFTRA, and the Dramatists Guild of America. She can be contacted at WaldronProds@comcast.net

About the Producing Artistic Director
GREGORY SCOTT CAMPBELL is Founder and Producing Artistic Director of the Luna Theater Company. Previously with the Luna, Gregory performed in The Zoo Story, Oleanna, No Exit and Waiting for Godot. He has also directed Fool for Love, The Turn of the Screw, Burn This, Agnes of God, Unwrap Your Candy, Lebensraum and True West. Gregory is the original founder of the Spark 10 Minute Play Festival and is a former board member of the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia and chair of the Spark Small Theatre Committee.

About the Featured Actor
EMMANUELLE DELPHECH-RAMEY (Blanche Neige) was classically trained at the Ecole Superieur d’Art Dramatique de la ville de Paris, and studied physical theatre at Ecole Jacques Lecoq. Besides her current U.S. work with Pig Iron Theatre Company (www.pigiron.org), Emmanuelle has performed in Paris and throughout Europe in such productions as Lettres a Stalingrad (dir. by Laurent Terzieff). A former member of Pig Iron Theatre Company for eight years, Emmanuelle has been a performer and co-creator of such critically acclaimed productions as Gentlemen Volunteers, Flop!, Hell Meets Henry Halfway (Barrymore nomination for best supporting actress) and James Joyce is Dead and So Is Paris, for which she won a Barrymore Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical. She performed in Interact Theatre’s world premier of Feast of the Flying Cow and other Stories of War and co-created and performed Madame Douce-Amere, a wordless duet at the 2005 Lives Arts festival (for which she received an Independent Foundation grant), which has been produced by 1812Productions at the Walnut street theatre in October 2006. Emmanuelle is currently working on her new piece “Oedipus at Colonus”, an urban adaptation of Sophocles Greek tragedy at the FDR Skate park in Philadelphia, which will be presented by the 2008 Live Arts festival and for which she received a grant from the Haas trust Foundation and the Philadelphia Theatre Initiative. Emmanuelle has taught Clown at University of the Arts, Moliere and Racine at Swarthmore College and organizes clown workshops in Philadelphia for professional or non-professional actors. She currently teaches a 2 semester-Lecoq techniques Class at Temple University for undergraduate and graduate students.

About Luna Theater Company
Founded in 2002, the Luna Theater Company is a professional theater company dedicated to presenting thought-provoking works by contemporary and classical playwrights to audiences in both Philadelphia and South Jersey. By producing intense drama that crosses cultural, ethnic and social lines, Luna seeks to attract open-minded theatergoers by delivering performances that are challenging, educational and entertaining. Luna Theater Company is the only professional theater company based in both South Jersey and Philadelphia and is a member of the Theater Alliance of Greater Philadelphia. Funding for Luna’s 2006-2007 Season has been provided in part by the Phoebe W. Haas Charitable Trust and the Samuel S. Fels Fund. For more information on Luna Theater and its upcoming performances, please visit www.lunatheater.org.

Luna’s 2007-2008 Season Announced
The Luna Theater Company’s riveting 6th season will include the U.S Premiere of British playwright, Laura Wade’s Breathing Corpses, the Philadelphia Premiere of Craig Wright’s Grace and will conclude with the revival of Israel Horovitz’s Line. All performances will take place at the Walnut Street Theatre Studio 5 at 825 Walnut St. in Philadelphia. For more information on the upcoming schedule, please visit www.lunatheater.org.

Media Contacts: Gregory Scott Campbell Producing Artistic Director Luna Theater Company 215.704.0033 lunatheatercompany@yahoo.com