Casting a Doubt: Shanley's Catholic-School Play Expected at MTC in Fall

By Kenneth Jones
22 May 2004

John Patrick Shanley
John Patrick Shanley
Photo by Aubrey Reuben

John Patrick Shanley's new play, Doubt, is expected to find a home at Manhattan Theatre Club's Off Broadway Stage I beginning in November.

Doug Hughes will stage the play, to begin previews Nov. 3 prior to a Nov. 22 opening, according to casting notice. MTC has not officially announced the play.

Doubt takes place in 1964 in a Catholic junior high school in the Bronx. Sister Aloysius, "a formidable nun" who was married before she became a sister, runs the place.

A priest, a parent and another nun are part of the cast of characters. "The level of which and the appropriateness of [the priest's] care for the emotional well-being of his students is the sustenance of the play," according to the casting notice.

The fortysomething Sr. Aloysius, meanwhile, has a sense of humor and irony "even though she may not always show it." She "strongly believes her methods and views are correct and vigorously imposes them, though not necessarily without shades of doubt."

The play will be read this summer as part of the New York Stage and Film season at Vassar, in Poughkeepsie, July 23-25.

Shanley's plays include Italian American Reconciliation, Where's My Money?, Cellini, Four Dogs and a Bone, Danny and the Deep Blue Sea and Beggars in the House of Plenty. He is also known for his screenplay to "Moonstruck," which is being developed for a musical.

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