Playwrights Horizons has announced the final two productions of its 2000-2001 season. They are Keith Bunin's The Credeaux Canvas and Kia Corthron's Breath, Boom.
If Bunin is an unfamiliar name to you, the director of the piece is not: Michael Mayer, the man behind Side Man, Thoroughly Modern Millie and many others. The show will begin previews May 11 for an opening June 5. It will play through June 17. The Credeaux Canvas follows three young creative types in the East Village: Jamie, his girlfriend Amelia and their pal, Winston. Dreams engender schemes for this trio when they embark upon a plan which has some unexpected consequences. No cast has been selected.
Kia Corthron is having the New York season of her career. Her Force Continuum bowed at the Atlantic Theatre Company earlier this year and one of her short plays is featured in the dramatic collage that is Urban Zulu Mambo at the Signature Theatre Company. Breath, Boom, which premiered at the Royal Court in London, takes a look at Prix, a girl gang leader, following her life over 14 years beginning in the mid-'80s, including spans on the rough city streets and the even rougher corridors of the prison system. The plot is in keeping with the playwright's marked social concerns.
Marion Isaac McClinton, who has made his name piloting the work of August Wilson (Jitney, Kind Hedley II), will direct. Again, no cast has been named. Previews begin May 31 at Playwrights Horizons' Studio Theater. Opening is June 10 for a run through June 24.
* Playwrights Horizons began previews for the world premiere of Kenneth Lonergan's Lobby Hero Feb. 16. Lonergan, who penned such humane, intimate plays as This Is Our Youth and The Waverly Gallery, has been nominated for a 2001 Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, for "You Can Count On Me," which he also directed. He was also a Golden Globe nominee for the picture. Under the direction of Mark Brokaw, the cast of Lobby Hero includes Tate Donovan, Heather Burns, Glenn Fitzgerald and Dion Graham. Official opening is March 13.
Tickets are $45. Playwrights Horizons is at 416 W. 42nd Street in Manhattan. For information about Playwrights Horizons, check out the web site at www.playwrightshorizons.org or call (212) 279-4200.
—By Robert Simonson
and Kenneth Jones
