The program, which produces short plays by prominent, contemporary American playwrights for a national audience via public radio and the Internet, will record its broadcasts in front of lives audiences for the first time.
Joining the previously announced Tony Award nominee Bobby Cannavale (The Motherf**ker With the Hat, Glengarry Glen Ross), Julie Halston (The Divine Sister, The Tribute Artist), Tony Award nominee John Leguizamo (Freak, Ghetto Klown), Rosie Perez (The Ritz, Reckless) and Nilaja Sun are Carson Elrod (Peter and the Starcatcher, Noises Off), Matthew Saldivar (A Streetcar Named Desire, Grease) and Tony Award nominee Lois Smith (Buried Child, The Grapes of Wrath).
Hosted and moderated by Playing on Air's founder and producer Claudia Catania, the March 24 program will feature works by David Lindsay-Abaire, Alexandra Gersten-Vassilaros and David Graziano. Casting is as follows: Cannavale, Leguizamo and Perez in Lindsey-Abaire's Crazy Eights (directed by Lindsay-Abaire); Lynnette Freeman, Darren Pettie and Sun in Gersten-Vassilaros's Peep (directed by Lisa Peterson); and Bobby Moreno and Megan Tusing in Graziano's Acorn (directed by John Giampietro).
The March 31 program will include writings by John Guare, David Ives and Jacquelyn Reingold. The casts include William Jackson Harper and Jenn Harris in Reingold's 2B or Not 2B (directed by Michael Barakiva); Halley Feiffer and Jack Wetherall in Guare's A Day for Surprises (directed by Jerry Zaks); and Halston, Elrod, Saldivar and Smith in Ives' St. Francis Preaches to the Birds (directed by John Rando).
"Radio, like reading, invites its audience's imagination," Catania said in a previous statement. "We think the wedding of radio and theatre, which certainly has an illustrious history, can be reinvented and made to respond to the rhythms and habits of tech-savvy consumers today." BRIC House is located at 647 Fulton Street in Brooklyn.
Visit playingonair.org for more information.