Casting Complete for Goldfarb and Baker Plays at Playwrights Horizons

By Kenneth Jones
20 Jul 2009

Margarita Levieva, Cristin Milioti and Adam Rothenberg
Margarita Levieva, Cristin Milioti and Adam Rothenberg

Playwrights Horizons announced complete casting and dates for the first two productions — The Retributionists and Circle Mirror Transformation — of its upcoming 2009-10 season at its home on West 42nd Street.

The world premiere of Daniel Goldfarb's The Retributionists will feature Adam Driver (2009 Juilliard School graduate), Margarita Levieva (Impressionism), Cristin Milioti (Stunning at LCT3) and Adam Rothenberg (Danny and the Deep Blue Sea at Second Stage). Director Leigh Silverman's cast will also include Hamilton Clancy (Dog Logic at American Place Theater), Rebecca Henderson (Three Sisters at CSC) and Jefferson Award winner Lusia Strus (for Go Away, Go Away, plus Henry IV for the RSC and It Ain't No Fairy Tale with Steppenwolf).

Goldfarb's work includes Modern Orthodox and Adam Baum and the Jew Movie.

The Retributionists is billed this way: "Spring 1946. The plan was simple — a German for every Jew. Its execution would be swift, clean, its impact undeniable. In this daring, new romantic thriller inspired by actual events, a band of young Jewish freedom fighters attempts to avenge a society's wrongs — if only they can keep from tearing each other apart in the process."

The Retributionists will begin previews Aug. 21 toward an opening night of Sept. 15. The limited engagement will run through Sept. 27 at PH's Mainstage Theater.

Tracee Chimo (Irena's Vow, 365 Days/365 Plays) and Obie Award winner Heidi Schreck (for Drum of the Waves at HERE) will complete the cast of the world premiere of Annie Baker's Circle Mirror Transformation, directed by Sam Gold at PH's intimate Peter Jay Sharp Theater. They join the previously announced Obie Award winner Reed Birney (The Savannah Disputation at Playwrights), Tony Award nominee Peter Friedman (Ragtime, Playwrights Horizons' The Heidi Chronicles, 2009 Drama Desk nomination for Body Awareness) and Obie Award winner Deirdre O'Connell (Manic Flight Reaction at Playwrights Horizons, Drama Desk nomination for Love and Anger). Baker's Body Awareness was presented by Atlantic Theater Company.

The production will play Sept. 24-Nov. 1, opening Oct. 13.

Additional casting for the season's four remaining productions will be announced in the coming months.

Circle Mirror Transformation is billed this way: "When four lost New Englanders enrolled in Marty's (Deirdre O'Connell) community center drama class experiment with harmless games, hearts are quietly torn apart and tiny wars of epic proportions are waged and won. Annie Baker's new comedy is a beautifully crafted diorama, a petri dish in which we see, with terrific detail and clarity, the hilarious sadness of a motley quintet."

For subscription and ticket information to all Playwrights Horizons productions, call Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200, noon to 8 PM daily, or purchase online at the Playwrights Horizons website at www.playwrightshorizons.org.