Academy Award winner Philip Seymour Hoffman will stage the work starring fellow Oscar winner Ellen Burstyn as well as Elizabeth Canavan, Liza Colón-Zayas, Arthur French, Gillian Jacobs, Ajay Naidu, Michael Shannon, Sidney Williams, and David Zayas. The final member in the Little Flower of East Orange company will be announced shortly.
Little Flower of East Orange is presented in association with LAByrinth Theater Company at the Public Theater.
Stephen Adly Guirgis and Philip Seymour Hoffman previously teamed up for the urban dramas The Last Days of Judas Iscariot and Jesus Hopped the A Train. Their latest collaboration - Little Flower of East Orange - is described as "an inter-generational ghost story set in an upper Manhattan charity hospital."
The design team for Little Flower of East Orange includes Narelle Sissons (set design), Mimi O'Donnell (costume design), Japhy Weideman (lighting design) and David Van Tieghem (sound design).
In a statement LAByrinth co-artistic director John Gould said, "The ongoing collaboration between Stephen and Phil is emblematic of the artistic risk that is LAByrinth's life-blood. These guys were both actors who developed a new skill with this company: Stephen as a writer and Phil as a director. And they developed these skills in the service of new, ferocious and distinctly New York work. There's no doubt that The Little Flower of East Orange will be a fierce, pulsating play which is bound to tear your heart out." Ellen Burstyn won a Tony Award for her work in Same Time, Next Year and an Oscar for the film "Alice Doesn't Live Her Anymore" — both in the same year (1975). Other stage credits include 84 Charing Cross Road, Shirley Valentine, Shimada, Sacrilege and Fair Game. She was also Oscar-nominated for her roles in "The Last Picture Show," "The Exorcist," "Same Time, Next Year," "Resurrection" and, most recently, "Requiem for a Dream."
The company next presents Brett C. Leonard's UNCONDITIONAL (starting Feb. 10) as directed by Mark Wing Davey. The Off-Broadway troupe's season will also include developmental runs of Rebecca Cohen's Penalties & Interest (June 10-28), directed by John Gould Rubin; and Scott Hudson's Sweet Storm (June 29-30), directed by Padraic Lillis.
Little Flower of East Orange will run through April 20. Tickets will go on sale Feb. 17 and may be purchased by calling (212) 539-8750 or by visiting www.publictheater.org.
The Public Theater is located at 425 Lafayette Street in Manhattan.
