Due to the extension of their Vienna: Lusthaus (revisited), New York Theater Workshop has moved its upcoming production of Harry Kondoleon's Play Yourself to the soon-to-be-vacant Century Center for the Performing Arts. The play as directed by Craig Lucas will play June 19-Aug. 4 at the Off-Broadway venue.
Marian Seldes, recently seen on Broadway in 45 Seconds From Broadway, will star in the comedy by Kondoleon (Love Diatribe). Seldes was recently seen Off Broadway at the same venue in Edward Albee's The Play About the Baby. The actress' other recent credits include Helen at the Public Theatre and The Butterfly Collection at Playwrights Horizons as well as the films "Hollywood Ending," "Town & Country" and "Duets."
In the world premiere comedy, Seldes plays an aging film star living with her former East Village-bartop-dancing daughter. The two are visited by an unknowing fan and a man who runs a sanctuary for the desperate. Play Yourself had been in development at Seattle Repertory in the 1986-87 season and at California's South Coast Repertory in 1987-88.
The Play Yourself cast also includes Elizabeth Marvel (An American Daughter, Alice in Bed), Ann Guilbert ("Grumpier Old Men," "The Nanny") and Juan Hernandez (Wait Until Dark, The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told).
Scribe Lucas has taken to the helm recently. He directed the deceased Kondoleon's final play, Saved or Destroyed at the Rattlestick Theatre. [Kondoleon died at the age of 39 of AIDS.] Lucas also directs his latest Off-Broadway co-creation — with David Schulner — This Thing of Darkness to open at the Atlantic Theatre May 30. Better known for his pen (The Dying Gaul, Stranger, Prelude to a Kiss), he has also been on stage in Sweeney Todd and On the Twentieth Century. Century Center was the recent home to the revival of The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged). The production is set to close May 28. The theatre is located at 111 East 15th Street in Manhattan.
*
Caryl Churchill's Far Away, an anti-utopian look at the future as shown through a girl's visit to her auntie's house was scheduled to run this season at NYTW, but was postponed for the Fall. The play, to be helmed by Stephen Daldry (Via Dolorosa, "Billy Elliot"), was shifted owing to the director's filming schedule.
Other titles being considered for next season are Peter Gaiten's Flesh and Blood, adapted from the novel by Michael Cunningham and a post-modern production of William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice to be directed by Hungarian director Robert Alfoldi and possibly star Bard buff Liev Schreiber.
For more information or tickets to NYTW shows, 79 East Fourth Street (between Bowery and Second Ave.), call (212) 460-5475. Also visit their new website at www.nytw.org.
— by Ernio Hernandez
