On May 7, the not-for-profit Off-Broadway company devoted to writers and new works announced that Mason ("The Goodbye Girl," "Cinderella Liberty," "Only When I Laugh" and "Chapter Two" and Broadway's The Good Doctor and Steel Magnolias) will star in the world premiere of A Feminine Ending by Sarah Treem. As previously announced, Tony Award winner Blair Brown will direct.
According to PH, "Having recently graduated from a major conservatory, and with a rocker boyfriend on the brink of stardom, aspiring composer Amanda Blue's 'extraordinary life' seems to be all mapped out. But when she's called home to answer a distress call from her mother (Marsha Mason) about a marital crisis, Amanda's grand plan starts to unravel. A Feminine Ending is a bittersweet new play about dreams deferred, loves lost, and learning to trust a woman's voice in a man's world."
Performances will begin at the intimate Peter Jay Sharp Theater in the PH complex on West 42nd Street in October 2007.
Obie Award winner Anne Bogart (artistic director of SITI Company) will direct the New York premiere of Dead Man's Cell Phone, a new play by Pulitzer Prize finalist Sarah Ruhl (The Clean House). Performances will begin in winter/spring 2008 at PH's Mainstage Theater.
In Dead Man's Cell Phone, "Gordon is dead, but his cell phone lives on. When Jean, an empathetic museum worker, answers his ringing phone beside her in a café, she is soon playing unwitting comforter and confessor to the man's grieving friends and family. Before she knows it, Jean's ensnarled in the underbelly of the dead man's bizarre life. A wildly imaginative new comedy, Dead Man's Cell Phone is the odyssey of a woman forced to confront her assumptions about morality, redemption and the need to connect in a technology-obsessed world." PH also confirmed what was reported in the New York Times in recent days: Tony Award nominee Celia Keenan-Bolger (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee) will star in the previously reported world premiere of Saved, a new musical with music and lyrics by Michael Friedman and book and lyrics by two-time Olivier Award nominee John Dempsey and Obie Award winner Rinne Groff.
Gary Griffin (The Color Purple) directs the satire about teens in a Christian high school. Performances will begin in spring 2008 at the Mainstage Theater.
Additional casting for the season will be announced in the coming months.
The 2007-08 season will launch Aug. 24 with the world premiere of a new play by Kate Fodor, 100 Saints You Should Know, directed by Ethan McSweeny.
For more information, visit www.playwrightshorizons.com.
