Glenn F. Howerton, E. Katherine Kerr, Lee Pace and Annie Parisse are the human brush strokes in the world premiere staging of Keith Bunin's The Credeaux Canvas, beginning previews at Playwrights Horizons in Manhattan May 11.
Michael Mayer (Side Man, A View From the Bridge) directs the play about artists in New York's Lower East Side. The play is described this way in production notes: "Fueled by artistic ambition, brash determination and youthful idealism, kindred spirits Winston, Jamie and Amelia begin life anew on New York's Lower East Side. But when the death of his father open old wounds, Jamie concocts a reckless scheme that puts to good use Winston's painting talent and Amelia's beauty. In executing the plan, however, devastating discoveries about one another come to light and false beliefs are inexorably stripped away."
In the play, Winston's favorite painter is a somewhat-obscure French artist named Jean-Paul Credeaux (not an actual character in the play, and entirely fictional) whose work is on the cusp of being "discovered" long after his death. The art scheme of the play involves a canvas that Credeaux may or may not have painted.
Kerr is an Obie Award winner for Cloud Nine and acted in Laughing Wild at Playwrights Horizons. Howerton recently appeared in Complete Female Stage Beauty directed by Walter Bobbie. Pace is a 2001 Juilliard graduate and Parisse is an Emmy Award nominee for her role as Julia Snyder on "As the World Turns."
Official opening at Playwrights Horizons' Anne G. Wilder Theater is June 5, with performances continuing to June 17. The play is the final work in the nonprofit's 30th season. Playwright Bunin, of Brooklyn, penned The Principality of Sorrows (Off-Broadway), The King of Clocks (Lincoln Center Lab and HERE) and A Joke.
The Credeaux Canvas designers are Derek McLane (set), Michael Krass (costume), Kenneth Posner (lighting) and Scott Myers (sound).
Tickets are $45, with a student rush price of $15. Playwrights Horizons is at 416 W. 42nd Street. For information, call (212) 279-4200, or visit the website at www.playwrightshorizons.org.
— By Kenneth Jones
