Evan Cabnet directs the Margulies work, to play at the New Haven company's Stage II Feb. 13-March 16, 2008. The world premiere played at South Coast Repertory in September with Gregory Itzin (of television's "24") in the lead role. The play by the Pulitzer Prize winner of Dinner With Friends follows "an old man named Louis De Rougemont [who] finds that stardom is a fleeting thing," according to Long Wharf. "Gaining notoriety at the turn of the century for his fantastic tale of being shipwrecked, living on a remote island with his beautiful islander wife and learning to ride sea turtles, De Rougemont recalls his adventures wistfully even while his audience becomes increasingly more skeptical." Stephen Wadsworth has been newly named to direct the upcoming world premiere of Anna Deavere Smith's Let Me Down Easy which plays Jan. 9-Feb. 3, 2008 on the Mainstage. Kaufman had been previously announced to direct the latest solo piece from the creator of Fires in the Mirror and Twilight: Los Angeles. The project was "inspired by interviews conducted as a visiting professor at the Yale University School of Medicine explores the resiliency and vulnerability of the human body."

The company currently presents David Sedaris' The Santaland Diaries (through Dec. 23) and Langston Hughes' Black Nativity (through Dec. 16). The season continues with Anna Deavere Smith's Let Me Down Easy (Jan. 9-Feb. 3, 2008), Donald Margulies' Shipwrecked! (Feb. 13-March 16, 2008), Lydia Diamond's The Bluest Eye (March 28-April 20, 2008) and the Richard Rodgers-Oscar Hammerstein musical Carousel (May 7-June 1, 2008).

Tickets to shows at Long Wharf Theatre, 222 Sargent Drive in New Haven, CT, are available by calling (203) 787-4282 or by visiting the theatre's website at www.longwharf.org.