Rapp (Red Light Winter) will direct his own world premiere that begins previews May 4 toward a May 19 opening night.
In his latest work, Rapp pens a "timely drama about a New York writer (Crudup) and his explosive encounter with a small American town that he travels to in order to defend one of his young adult novels, which has been banned by the local school board," according to Vineyard. "The controversy ignites heated emotions over religious beliefs and censorship."
Boyd (August: Osage County), Greenspan (The Royal Family), Gross (Hurlyburly) and Strole (Spring Awakening) will be featured in a cast that also includes Betsy Aidem (A Lie of the Mind), Connor Barrett (Finer Noble Gases), Susan Blommaert (Grease) and Jessy Hodges ("Anyone but Me").
Crudup returns to the Vineyard Theatre where he made his professional stage debut in Chiori Miyagawa's play America Dreaming in 1994. The star known for his film work in "Almost Famous," "Big Fish," "Watchmen" and "Public Enemies," has continued to pepper his film career with stage turns. The Tony Award winner for Tom Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia has also starred on Broadway in The Pillowman, The Elephant Man and Arcadia as well as stints in The 24 Hour Plays.
Michael Shannon and Katherine Waterston starred in a June 2008 developmental run of the work at Vineyard. Current cast members Boyd, Greenspan, Gross, Aidem and Barrett were also featured. Rapp made his Off-Broadway directorial debut with his own Red Light Winter (a 2006 Pulitzer Prize finalist) and has also staged his own Bingo with the Indians as well as Christopher Denham's cagelove and Julian Sheppard's Los Angeles. As a playwright, Rapp is known for such gritty dramas as Nocturne, Stone Cold Dead Serious, Finer Noble Gases, American Sligo, Blackbird, Essential Self Defense, Gompers, Trueblinka and Faster.
Vineyard currently presents the world-premiere musical The Scottsboro Boys (through April 18). The troupe will also co-produce the new musical The Burnt Part Boys at Playwrights Horizons.
Tickets to The Metal Children at the Vineyard Theatre, 108 East 15th Street, can be purchased by calling (212) 353-0303. For more information, visit vineyardtheatre.org.
