Living the Dream: Play Reading on January 19 -

Mark Roberts’ new comedic play, Living the Dream, is receiving a reading on January 19th at 3 PM and 7 PM at the 52nd Street Project’s New Angels Theatre, 789 10th Avenue. The play is characterized by actor Elizabeth Aspenlieder, who appears in the work, as “timely but necessary, especially during these tumultuous political times.”

Living the Dream follows a day and night in the life of Dale and Louie – two retirees who have known each other all their lives. Now most days are spent perched in Dale’s driveway, waxing nostalgic about their glory years or shaking their heads in disgust at the stupidity and ambiguity of anything or anybody under forty. As they desperately cling to “all the old songs” and the other familiar symbols of their youth, the world outside shows them that the times really are changing and this is no longer the America they thought they knew. The play’s director, Matthew Penn, adds that, beyond the laughs, “We also find ourselves wondering if our own lives are being lived in the fullest way. Should we all be doing more to move the world in a better direction?”

Playwright Roberts began his career as a stand-up comedian in the early 1980s. He was eventually cast as a series regular on The Naked Truth starring Tea Leoni. Simultaneously, he was writing stage plays, one of which caught the attention of producer Chuck Lorre, which turned into a seven-year stint as the head writer of Two and a Half Men, executive consultant on The Big Bang Theory and creator, executive producer and occasional director of Mike and Molly. Roberts’ stage plays, which include Parasite Drag, Rantoul And Die, Where The Great Ones Run and New Country, are published by Dramatists Play Service.