All three works were part of this season's Barn Series Festival at The Public Theater — where the lauded troupe will once again be in residence for the 2004 season. Dates for the productions and this year's annual Barn Series are still being determined.
Shanley's Sailor's Song will kick off the new season under the direction of the scribe. The new work, billed to be "in the tradition of Gene Kelly and Eugene O'Neill," is "an extravagant romantic seaside story decorated with dance where a cynical man and a true believer battle over beautiful women and the power of love," according to a release.
The playwright has seen his previous works A Dirty Story, A Winter Party and Where's My Money? produced by LAByrinth.
The world premiere of Rivera’s Massacre (Sing to Your Children) follows seven people who join together to kill a neighbor who may or may not stay dead. Kate Whoriskey directs the new work penned specifically for LAByrinth's company of actors.
A LAByrinth season staple—a new Stephen Adly Guirgis play directed by LAB co-artistic director Philip Seymour Hoffman—is also set to play in the coming season. That new work this year will be a comedy called The Last Days of Judas Iscariot. The world premiere follows the story, set mainly in a near-Purgatory courtroom, in which a lawyer appeals the case of God and the Kingdom of Heaven vs. Judas Iscariot.
Among the characters that filled the stage show at the December 2003 Barn Series reading included the accused apostle Judas (played by Sam Rockwell of "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind"), his mother (Living Out star Liza Colon Zayas), his Irish lawyer (Elizabeth Canavan), childhood friend (Mums), opposing Middle Eastern counsel with a lisp (Yul Vasquez of The Stendhal Syndrome, "Seinfeld"), Court of Hope judge (Richard Petrocelli of Our Lady of 121st Street), a feistily persistent saint (Elizabeth Rodriguez), angel (Portia Our Lady), Pontius Pilate (Ron Cephas Jones Our Lady), Jesus (Michael Pitt of "The Dreamers") and a laid-back Devil (John Patrick Shanley).
For more information on LAByrinth Theater Company, visit www.labtheater.org .
