Reed Birney Will Star in Steven Levenson's Core Values Off-Broadway

By Adam Hetrick
26 Mar 2013

Reed Birney
Reed Birney
Photo by Joseph Marzullo/WENN

Steven Levenson's new play Core Values, about workplace team building, will receive its Off-Broadway world premiere at Ars Nova in April starring Reed Birney.

Birney (Blasted, Circle Mirror Transformation, Picnic) leads a cast that also features Paul Thureen (Uncle Vanya), Susan Kelechi Watson (A Naked Girl on the Appian Way) and Erin Wilhelmi (The Great God Pan).

Carolyn Cantor (The Great God Pan, After the Revolution) will helm the production that begins previews April 23 and officially opens May 6. The run is currently scheduled through May 18.

Here's how it's billed: "With the world around him changing at a dizzying pace, the owner of a small travel agency clings to the values he holds most dear: teamwork, loyalty and the incalculable importance of a good trust fall. It takes a weekend staff retreat for him to realize his team-building exercises won't put off the realities of a rapidly evolving marketplace. Core Values is a play about where Americans live: work."

Ars Nova commissioned the play during Levenson's tenure as the company's 2010 artist-in-residence. His play The Unavoidable Disappearance of Tom Durnin will have its world premiere Off-Broadway at the Roundabout Theatre Company in June. He is currently at work on a new musical with Dogfight and A Christmas Story writers Benj Pasek and Justin Paul.

The production will have scenic design by Lauren Helpern, costume design by Emily Rebholz, lighting design by Traci Klainer Polimeni and sound design by M.L. Dogg.

Tickets go on sale March 27. Tickets, priced $30, are available at arsnovanyc.com or by phoning (212) 352-3101. Ars Nova is located at 511 W. 54th Street.