Playwrights Horizons Welcomes Baker, Norris, Gibson, Goldfarb, Posey, MacKinnon in 2009-10

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News   Playwrights Horizons Welcomes Baker, Norris, Gibson, Goldfarb, Posey, MacKinnon in 2009-10
By Kenneth Jones
Mar 17, 2009
 
Playwrights Horizons, the Off-Broadway company devoted to contemporary American plays, announced four world premieres for the 2009-10 season, including titles by Daniel Goldfarb, Annie Baker, Melissa James Gibson and Bruce Norris.
This star Parker Posey
This star Parker Posey

Artistic director Tim Sanford and managing director Leslie Marcus revealed details about the slate, including directors and the casting of Parker Posey ("Waiting for Guffman," "Best in Show," Off-Broadway's Hurlyburly) in Gibson's new play, This, directed by Daniel Aukin.

The season will also feature a new musical and a sixth and final production to be announced. Casting will be revealed later.

Presented at the theatre company's two-venue home at 416 West 42nd Street, the 2009-10 Playwrights Horizons productions will be (in season order):

  • The Retributionists by Daniel Goldfarb (Modern Orthodox, Adam Baum and the Jew Movie), directed by Leigh Silverman (Well, From Up Here) in the PH Mainstage Theater. "Spring 1946. The plan was simple — a German for every Jew. Its execution would be swift, clean, its impact undeniable. In this daring, new romantic thriller inspired by actual events, a band of Jewish freedom fighters attempts to avenge a society's wrongs — if only they can keep from tearing each other apart along the way."

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  • Circle Mirror Transformation by Annie Baker (Body Awareness at Atlantic Theater Company), directed by Sam Gold (Rag and Bone at Rattlestick, The Black Eyed at New York Theatre Workshop) in PH's Peter Jay Sharp Theater. "When four lost New Englanders enrolled in Marty's community center drama class experiment with harmless games, hearts are quietly torn apart and tiny wars of epic proportions are waged and won. Annie Baker's new comedy is a beautifully crafted diorama, a petri dish in which we see, with terrific detail and clarity, the hilarious sadness of a motley quintet."
  • This by Obie Award winner Melissa James Gibson ([sic]), directed by Obie Award winner Daniel Aukin ([sic], eight seasons as artistic director of SoHo Rep) featuring Parker Posey (Lortel Award for Hurlyburly, Lortel nomination for Fifth of July, films including "The House of Yes") in the PH Mainstage Theater. "Everyone's worried about Jane (Parker Posey). Her husband's been dead a year. Her daughter is ten. Her poetry's lost its muse. Her friends aren't that happy either. Her married friends are struggling. Her gay friend is lonely. And Jane's blind date with the French doctor (without borders) is complicated. An unromantic comedy about the joys — and disappointments — of entering your forties." This was commissioned by Playwrights Horizons with funds provided by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation/Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Leading National Theatres Program.

  • Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris (The Pain and the Itch at Playwrights Horizons), directed by Pam MacKinnon (Peter and Jerry at Second Stage, The Four of Us at MTC, Occupant at Signature) in the PH Mainstage Theater. "In 1958, a white family moves out. In 2008, a white family moves in. In the intervening years, Change overtakes a neighborhood, along with attitudes, inhabitants, and property values. Bruce Norris' pitch-black comedy takes on the issue of gentrification in our communities, leaving no stone unturned — and taking no prisoners — in the process." Norris has a long history with Steppenwolf Theater, where his previous five plays have had their world premieres. Playwrights Horizons presented Norris' first New York premiere with The Pain and the Itch in 2006. Clybourne Park will be his first play to have its world premiere in New York.

    Subscriptions to Playwrights Horizons' 2009-10 season will be available shortly. Visit playwrightshorizons.com.

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    Playwrights Horizons bills itself as "a writer's theatre dedicated to the support and development of contemporary American playwrights, composers and lyricists, and to the production of their new work."

    Notable productions include four Pulitzer Prize winners: Doug Wright's I Am My Own Wife (2004 Tony Award, Best Play), Wendy Wasserstein's The Heidi Chronicles (1989 Tony Award, Best Play), Alfred Uhry's Driving Miss Daisy and Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Sunday in the Park with George, as well as Craig Lucas' Prayer For My Enemy and Small Tragedy (2004 Obie Award, Best American Play), Doug Wright, Scott Frankel and Michael Korie's Grey Gardens (three 2007 Tony Awards), and more.

    For subscription and ticket information call Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200, noon to 8 PM daily, or visit www.playwrightshorizons.org.

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