Project Shaw's Why She Would Not, with Brochu, Champlin, Davi, Grisetti, Presented Dec. 14

By Andrew Gans
14 Dec 2009

The Project Shaw series continues Dec. 14 with a reading of Why She Would Not, George Bernard Shaw's final and unfinished play.



The reading at the Players Club in Manhattan boasts the talents of Jim Brochu, Donna Lynne Champlin, Mara Davi, Sean Dugan, Josh Grisetti, Simon Jones, Victor Slezak and Tom Viola. Show time is 7 PM.

David Staller directs and produces.

In Why She Would Not, press notes state, "a brash and ambitious young man, who happens to be unemployed, saves a woman from being robbed. She introduces him into her wildly successful family business and he eventually comes to run it. She will not however, consent to marry him. Why? Only the play will tell us."

The unfinished work will be presented along with a newly written final scene by playwright Israel Horovitz. Staller also commissioned theatre journalists David Cote (Time Out New York), Michael Feingold (Village Voice), Jeremy McCarter (Newsweek), and Robert Simonson (Playbill.com) to each write a new ending. All five new endings will be presented; each writer will narrate his own version.

The evening will open with a reading Shaw's short play The Gadfly.

The Project Shaw series is produced and directed by Staller, who acted with Dana Ivey in Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession at the Irish Repertory Theatre. The series intends to offer every sketch, full-length and one-act play by the late playwright.

Past participants include Blair Brown, Mark Kudisch, Kerry Butler, Tyne Daly, Jonathan Hadary, Daniel Jenkins, Rebecca Luker, Michael Cerveris, Karen Ziemba, Michele Pawk, Bruce Vilanch, Jack Gilpin and George S. Irving.

The Players Club is located in Manhattan at 16 Gramercy Park South. Tickets, priced $20, are available by calling (212) 352-3101. For more information visit www.projectshaw.com.