the Ring kicks off Late Night series with “Evening Broadcasts II”

The Players’ Ring in Portsmouth will launch its 2009 Late Night summer season with a one-weekend staging of “Evening Broadcasts II” from Friday to Sunday, July 10 to 12. The production promises bullet wounds, plane crashes and blunt instrument damage, but it’s not as violent as it sounds.

The play, a follow-up to last year’s “Evening Broadcasts,” includes three short works for two characters and a corpse. Director G. Matthew Gaskell shared writing duties with fellow local playwrights Jacquelyn Benson and Michael Kimball. Gaskell instructed each writer to come up with a story involving two men and one woman—with the stipulation that one of the characters had to be dead.

The show begins with Benson’s “Articulo Mortis,” a “Poe-like tale of horror” involving a reporter who requests to be hypnotized at the moment of her death. Next comes Gaskell’s “Hunger Strike,” about a pair of plane crash victims debating what their survival is worth. The evening concludes with Kimball’s “The Brownwater Legend,” a comedy involving cowboys and gunfights. All three plays star local actors Gaskell, Matthew Schofield and Tana Sirois.

The Ring’s Late Night series continues with “Late Night Confessions” (July 17-19), “Last Week of the Torrero” (July 24-26), “Improv Comedy Clash” (July 31-Aug. 2), “The Trial of Christopher Walken” (Aug. 7-9), “Life Is Short” (Aug. 14-16), and “The Hat” (Aug. 21-23). The summer season also includes “Tuesday Night Improv” from comedy troupe Stranger than Fiction every Tuesday night through Aug. 25.

The Players’ Ring is at 105 Marcy St., Portsmouth, 603-436-8123. Show times are 10:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and 9:30 p.m. on Sundays. Tickets are $8 for general admission. For more information, visit www.playersring.org.

NHTP presents New Works Festival

The New Hampshire Theatre Project will host its first ever New Works Festival in Portsmouth on Saturday and Sunday, July 11 and 12. The event will present live scenes and monologues from new works by four area playwrights.

Directed by N.H. Theatre Project’s artistic director Genevieve Aichele, the festival will include excerpts from new plays by Scarlett Ridgway Savage, of Exeter; Dana Biscotti Myskowski, of Henniker; Kevin Carey, of Beverly, Mass.; and Genevieve Aichele, of Portsmouth. A Q&A session with the playwrights will follow the show on Sunday.

The festival takes place at West End Studio Theatre, 959 Islington St., Portsmouth. Performances will be held at 8 p.m. on Saturday and 2 p.m. on Sunday. A donation of $5 is suggested. For more information, call 603-431-6644 or visit www.nhtheatreproject.org.