Woodward-Directed Wife Concludes at Westport Playhouse, June 24 | Playbill

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News Woodward-Directed Wife Concludes at Westport Playhouse, June 24 The Constant Wife, which opened the 70th season at CT's Westport Country Playhouse on June 12, will close there on June 24. W. Somerset Maugham's 1926 play tells of a well-heeled marriage woman who challenges the double standard against her sex. Joanne Woodward directs.

The Constant Wife, which opened the 70th season at CT's Westport Country Playhouse on June 12, will close there on June 24. W. Somerset Maugham's 1926 play tells of a well-heeled marriage woman who challenges the double standard against her sex. Joanne Woodward directs.

Starring in the show are Daniel Gerroll (Scotland Road), Kali Rocha (The Ride Down Mt. Morgan at NYSF), Mikel [sic] Sarah Lambert, Donald Corren, Martha Culver by Sharron Bower. Denise Lute, Allison Mackie, Armand Schultz and John Rothman.

Designing the show are Richard Ellis (sets), Susan Roth (lighting), Howard Tsvi Kaplan (costumes) and Raymond Schilke (sound).

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Next up is Austin Pendleton's new play, Orson's Shadow, June 26 July 8. David Cromer directs. Since bowing at Steppenwolf Theatre Company's Garage space earlier this year, the drama, Pendleton's third, has become a hot property, landing productions at Williamstown Theatre Festival and the Old Globe Theatre. The play is widely speculated to land in a major New York theatre sometime this fall. Orson concerns the imagined interactions between theatre legends Orson Welles, Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh, Joan Plowright and Kenneth Tynan as they rehearse a 1960 London production of Ionesco's Rhinoceros.

At Westport, Jeff Still will play Orson Welles, John Judd will play Lord Olivier, David Warren will play Kenneth Tynan, Lee Roy Rogers is Vivien Leigh, Sarah Wellington is Joan Plowright, and Sean is played by Dominic Conti. Designing the show are Mark Lohman (sets), J.R. Lederle (lighting), Jennifer Keller (costumes) and Chris Johnson (sound).

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The week of July 10-16 will bring Scott Wolf, Frank Converse, Jane Curtin (plus a couple of other cast members still to be announced) to A.R. Gurney's Ancestral Voices, directed by David Saint. Then July 17 22, Paul Newman will step on the stage for the first time in perhaps decades when he appears with his wife, Woodward, in the play. alongside James Naughton, Swoosie Kurtz and Paul Rudd.

Though Woodward has gone back and forth between film and theatre during her career, Newman has forged a career almost exclusively in film since starring in "The Silver Chalice" in 1955. He won his first film contract after being seen in William Inge's Picnic, his Broadway debut. Among his more notable films are "Hud," "Cool Hand Luke," "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," "The String," "The Verdict," "The Hustler," "The Color of Money" and "Mr. And Mrs. Bridge."

Woodward's most recent theatre work was filling in for Eileen Heckart in the Williamstown Theatre Festival production of The Waverly Gallery in 1999. Her many films include "The Three Faces of Eve" and "Mr. and Mrs. Bridge."

Ancestral Voices premiered last fall at Lincoln Center Theater and will have its first regional mounting at New Jersey’s George Street Playhouse this spring. A flexible piece, along the lines of Gurney's Love Letters, in which actors read from scripts, Voices concerns an older woman's divorce from a man and her subsequent marriage to his best friend.

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Tony nominee Jayne Atkinson (The Rainmaker) and Jeffrey Jones will star in Triangles for Two by David Wiltse, July 24-Aug. 5. Joe Grifasi will direct. The world premiere comedy asks the question, Do men and women speak the same language?

Atkinson is currently enjoying a moment in the sun: her performance in the Roundabout Theatre Company's production of The Rainmaker won her a Tony Award nomination. Her other credits include Ivanov at Lincoln Center Theater and The Skriker at the Public Theater.

Jeffrey Jones is a familiar face to film audiences. Among his many supporting turns are roles in "Amadeus," "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," "The Crucible," and "Beetlejuice."

Director Grifasi is primarily known as an actor, with film credits including "Presumed Innocent," "Money Train" and "One Fine Day."

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Also set for this season at Westport are:

Morphic Resonance by Katherine Burger, Aug. 7-19, a comedy/drama about thirtysomethings in love in Manhattan, starring John Cunningham directed by James Naughton.
Nicolette and Aucassin, book and lyrics by Peter Kellogg and music by David Friedman, Aug. 28-Sept. 9, a premiere musical of a 12th Century fable, featuring Bronson Pinchot.

The Westport Country Playhouse was founded in 1931 by Laurence Langer, the co-founder of the Theatre Guild. The 1830 barn Langer selected was converted into a theatre by architect Cleon Throckmorton, who had also designed the Cape Playhouse in East Dennis, MA. The stage was given the same dimensions at Broadway's Times Square Theatre, in order to better serve the transfer of plays from Westport to New York.

Appearing in the theatre early years were such actors as Helen Hayes, Eva Le Gallienne, Jessica Tandy and Henry Fonda. The Playhouse also occasionally hosted play tryouts, which went on to success on Broadway, including Blue Denim, Come Back, Little Sheba and Butterflies Are Free.

Tickets are $10-$38. The Westport Playhouse is located off Route 1 in Westport, CT. Call (203) 227-4177 or contact the website at www.westportplayhouse.com.

--By Robert Simonson

 
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