Tony Nominee Wilson Milam Stages World Premiere, The Great Game, at Duke in NC
By Kenneth Jones
14 Feb 2007
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Anjali Bhimani and Marcus Dean Fuller in The Great Game.
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Director Wilson Milam has been on campus at Duke University to stage the world premiere of The Great Game, by D. Tucker Smith, toward a Feb. 14 launch.
Bringing together an award-winning creative team and cast for the play, Theater Previews at Duke presents the production through March 4 at Reynolds Theater on the Duke campus.
Theater Previews is co-producing The Great Game with Tony Award-winning producer Randall Wreghitt and Jana Robbins. Theater Previews previously partnered with Wreghitt and Robbins on Little Women – The Musical and Paper Doll. Wreghitt is a producer of the current Broadway musical, Grey Gardens. Co-producers are Joel and Phyllis Ehrlich, and associate producers are Jackie and Brian Steele.
Wilson Milam earned a Best Direction Tony Award nomination for The Lieutenant of Inishmore. The Great Game is billed as an 1870-set "epic story of love, betrayal and intrigue played out in the drawing rooms of London and the snow-capped peaks of Central Asia."
The cast features Michael O'Hagan, Lois Markle, Anjali Bhimani, David Bishins, Christopher Burns, Marcus Dean Fuller, Robert Steggert, Yvonne Woods and Duke junior Heather Collins.
Playwright D. Tucker Smith is also the author of The Knockout Suit, a finalist in the Samuel French Short Play Competition; and Overnight Delivery and Patriot Act, both finalists in the New York City 15-Minute Play Festival.
Theater Previews at Duke's mission is to serve as a breeding ground for professional, innovative and high-quality new plays and musicals, and to offer audiences the opportunity to engage in productions in a variety of stages of development.
The presence of the playwright is an essential part of the program. Smith has been active in both the production process and in related academic activities on campus.
Theater Previews provides the personnel, space, time and support required to bring his or her vision to fruition in the course of producing work that makes a contribution to the field on a national scale.
The creative team includes Tony Award nominee (The Pajama Game) Derek McLane (set design), Greg Gale (costume design), Ben Stanton (lighting design), Peter Fitzgerald (sound design), Josh Marquette (hair design) and J. David Brimmer (fight director).
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"We couldn’t be more delighted with the cast," Zannie Giraud Voss, producing director at Duke, stated. "These artists will bring a wealth of talent to the Duke community and Triangle audiences, and our Duke student interns will get to work with these outstanding artists on the creation of another exciting new work for the American theatre."
"The Great Game is a play whose universal themes of imperialism, racism, greed and forbidden love resonate now more than ever," stated Voss. "The play is a rare and compelling work of art."
Tickets ($18-$30) are on sale for the production at the University box office at (919) 684-4444, or online at www.tickets.duke.edu.
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