Eileen Heckart will play Gladys Green, the ancient owner of a Washington Square art gallery, in Kenneth Lonergan's new play, The Waverly Gallery, which opens at the Williamstown Theatre Festival on Aug. 11 for a run through Aug. 22.
In the play, Green fights to hold on to the gallery, even as Alzheimer's disease takes possession of her mind. Also in the cast are Maureen Anderson, Anthony Arkin (Power Plays), Mark Blum (Lost in Yonkers), Josh Hamilton (As Bees in Honey Drown) and Stephen Mendillo.
Heckart won a Tony Award for her turn in Butterflies Are Free and nabbed an Oscar when she repeated the performance on film.
Scott Ellis, fresh from piloting Warren Leight's The Glimmer Brothers, directs.
* In other WTF news:
Bob Dishy, Jeffrey DeMunn, Lizbeth Mackay and Harris Yulin make up the cast of the new James Naughton-directed production of Arthur Miller's The Price, which plays the Williamstown Theatre Festival's main stage Aug. 18-29.
The Price tells the story of two feuding brothers, a policeman who spent much of his life tending to his father and handling family affairs, and a doctor who achieved great success by detaching himself from familial responsibilities. Estranged for many years, the siblings are brought together again to dispose of their late father's estate.
Naughton, a Williamstown mainstay for over two decades, directed Charles MacArthur's Johnny on a Spot at the festival two seasons back. Better known as an actor, he won Tonys for City of Angels and Chicago, and, last season, brought his cabaret act Street of Dreams to Off-Broadway.
Yulin was most recently seen on the Broadway stage in The Diary of Anne Frank. His handiwork as a director can be seen at Primary Stages, where his production of Conor McPherson's This Lime Tree Bower is still playing.
Bob Dishy's many credits include Broadway's The Goodbye People and Damn Yankees. Jeffrey DeMunn was seen Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in Gun-Shy and has appeared on Broadway in Spoils of War and K2. Lizbeth Mackay has appeared in the recent Broadway productions of The Heiress and Abe Lincoln in Illinois.
The remaining season schedule, which runs June 16-Aug. 29, runs as follows:
The Main Stage:
As You Like It (Aug. 4-15), starring Gwyneth Paltrow as Rosalind, Mark Linn-Baker as Touchstone, Michael Cumpsty as Jaques and Alessandra Navola as Orlando.
The Price (Aug. 18-29), Arthur Miller's play about family loyalty and responsibility, directed by James Naughton.
Nikos Stage:
The Waverly Gallery (Aug. 11-22), Kenneth Lonergan's new play about an 85-year-old Greenwich Village gallery owner who, while failing mentally, refuses to retire, directed by Scott Ellis (Steel Pier).
WTF will also present several cabaret acts and play readings.
For information, call (413) 597-3399.
--By Robert Simonson
