New York, NY – Rattlestick Playwrights Theater (David van Asselt, Artistic Director and Sandra Coudert, Managing Director) continues its 12th season with the New York Premiere of DARK MATTERS, a new play by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, directed by Trip Cullman. Performances begin on Friday, November 10, 2006. Opening night is Monday, November 20, 2006. The show is scheduled to run through December 22, 2006.

In a house at the end of a cornfield, something almost beyond belief is happening to the Cleary family. A woman disappears, then returns talking of otherworldly beings. Is she lying? Or are even darker forces at work, threatening to destroy a family already on the brink of falling apart?

The cast includes: Reed Birney (Texas Homos, The Volunteer Man), Justin Chatwin (NY stage debut, “War of the Worlds” and the upcoming “The Invisible” ), Michael Cullen (Cobb, Cyclone) and Elizabeth Marvel (Seascape, Hedda Gabler).

The creative team is comprised of Wilson Chin (sets), Matt Richards (lights), Michael Friedman and Shane Rettig (sound and music) and Katherine Roth (costumes). Steve Henry is Production Stage Manager.

DARK MATTERS will have the following performance schedule: Tuesday – Saturday at 8pm, and Sunday at 3pm. Tickets are $40.00 and are available through SmartTix (212-868-4444) or www.smarttix.com. Rattlestick Playwrights Theater is located at 224 Waverly Place (off Seventh Avenue South – between West 11th & Perry Streets).

Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (Playwright) has written many plays, including Based on a Totally True Story (Manhattan Theatre Club), The Muckle Man (upcoming, City Theatre in Pittsburgh), The Mystery Plays (2econd Stage Theatre in NYC), Rough Magic (Hangar Theatre in Ithaca), The Weird (an evening of short pulp plays, premiered at Dad’s Garage Theatre in Atlanta) and The Velvet Sky (Woolly Mammoth in DC). His comedies Golden Age and Say You Love Satan were both nominated for GLAAD Media Awards. His new plays include: Good Boys and True, a drama set at a prep school; King of Shadows, an urban thriller; and commissions for both Arena Stage and 2econd Stage. For Marvel Comics, he is the Harvey Award-winning author of The Sensational Spider-man. For Warner Brothers, he is writing a horror screenplay entitled The Night People.

Trip Cullman (Director) NY credits include: Roland Schimmelpfennig’s Arabian Night (The Play Company), Bert V. Royal’s Dog Sees God (The Century Center), Glen Berger’s The Wooden Breeks (MCC Theater), Sarah Schulman’s Manic Flight Reaction (Playwrights Horizons), Adam Bock’s Swimming in the Shallows (2econd Stage), Paul Weitz’s Roulette (EST), Jonathan Tolin’s The Last Sunday in June (Century Center and Rattlestick Theater), Brooke Berman’s Smashing (The Play Company), Rinne Groff’s Of A White Christmas (Clubbed Thumb), Gary Sunshine’s Sweetness and Brooke Berman’s Sam and Lucy (both at Summer Play Festival ’04), The Wau Sisters (Ars Nova). Regional credits include: Keith Huff’s A Steady Rain and The Petersons Project (both at New York Stage and Film), Lauren Weedman’s Rash (The Empty Space, Seattle). Associate Director, Take Me Out (Walter Kerr, Donmar, Public). Creative Assistant to Mike Nichols on both Angels in America (HBO) and The Seagull (Public/NYSF). Training: Yale School of Drama. Upcoming: Terrence McNally’s Some Men (2econd Stage).

RATTLESTICK PLAYWRIGHTS THEATER is an Obie Award-winning company, which has produced over thirty-five world premieres in the past eleven years. Now in its 12h season, Rattlestick has introduced new writers and received critical acclaim for its innovative work. Rattlestick’s Advisory Board participates in The Emerging Playwrights Project, which matches a new playwright with an established artist for an experienced eye and creative support. Playwright and artist mentors have included Edward Albee, Jon Robin Baitz, Zoe Caldwell, Arthur Kopit, Craig Lucas, Joe Mantello, Terrence McNally and Marsha Norman.

Previous plays include Two Boys in a Bed, Message to Michael, Carpool, Volunteer Man, A Trip to the Beach, Ascendancy, Stuck, Vick’s Boy, The Messenger, Saved or Destroyed, Neil’s Garden, My Special Friend, Faster, Bliss, St. Crispin’s Day, Where We’re Born, Five Flights, Boise, Finer Noble Gases, God Hates The Irish: The Ballad of Armless Johnny, Miss Julie, Acts of Mercy: passion-play, Cagelove, It Goes Without Saying, the Off-Broadway GLAAD Award-nominated hit The Last Sunday in June and Craig Wright’s The Pavilion, which received a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Play of 2005.