Former Arena Stage associate artistic director Kyle Donnelly returns to stage Clare Boothe Luce's farce, The Women, at Arena Stage, Jan. 15-Feb. 20, 1999. The show officially opens Jan. 20, 1999.
Set in 1936, Women looks at the life of a kind and sheltered Park Avenue wife whose existence is totally altered by the senseless gossip of her friends and by her adulterous husband. The play premiered on Broadway Dec. 26, 1936 with the Great White Way's first all-female cast.
Donnelly (Helen Hayes Award for Dancing at Lughnasa, Lovers and Executioners) directs eighteen DC actresses, including Ellen Karas (Mary), Elizabeth Pierotti (Jane/Ensemble), Martha Hackett (Sylvia), Sarah Marshall (Nancy), Mary Fortuna (Peggy/Ensemble), Brigid Cleary (Edith), Stacey Leigh Ivey (Crystal Allen), Roxanne Orkin (Little Mary), Nancy Robinette (Countess De Lage), Naomi Jacobson (Miriam Aarons), Dana Krueger (Mrs. Morehead), Brook Butterworth (Nurse/Ensemble), Ida Eustis (Maggie/Ensemble), Jennifer Gerdts (Princess Tamara/Ensemble), Helen Hedman (Miss Watts/Ensemble), Dori Legg (Olga/Ensemble), Kim Schraf (Miss Trimmerback/Ensemble) and Rosalie Tenseth (Lucy/Ensemble).
The design team features Thomas Lynch (sets), Nancy Schertler (lighting), Paul Tazewell (sound) and Rob Milburn (sound). Sarah Jane Felder serves as speech and vocal consultant.
Susan R. White is the stage manager with Valerie Bijur Carlson as the assistant stage manager. Cathy Madison is the dramaturg. Tickets for The Women are $45-$24 and can be ordered by calling the box office at (202) 488-3300. Arena Stage is located at 1101 6th Street.
-- By Christine Ehren
