NewsMayer, Ivey, Groff, O'Toole, Bobbie and More Will Work at Playwrights Horizons in 2008-09Playwrights Horizons announced two additional plays for its 2008-09 season, and a slew of artists who'll be attached to projects in the coming year. Expect directors Walter Bobbie, Kate Whoriskey, Michael Mayer, playwrights Evan Smith and Christina Anderson and performers Jonathan Groff, Dana Ivey and Maura Tierney, among others.
By
Kenneth Jones
June 05, 2008
Jonathan Groff
Photo by Aubrey Reuben
The newly announced plays of the slate are:
The Savannah Disputation (winter/spring 2009, Mainstage Theater): The New York premiere of a new play by Evan Smith (Psych and The Uneasy Chair at Playwrights Horizons, Servicemen), directed by Tony Award winner Walter Bobbie (Chicago, New Jerusalem), featuring four-time Tony Award nominee and three-time Obie Award winner Dana Ivey (Driving Miss Daisy, Sunday in the Park with George and Smith's The Uneasy Chair, all at Playwrights Horizons). "When susceptible Catholic spinster Margaret politely admits door-to-door Pentecostal missionary Melissa into her home, her seemingly-solid faith starts to waver — much to the chagrin of her feisty sister Mary (Dana Ivey). But who's the blasphemer and who's the believer? Before long, the God-fearing sisters have ambushed their steadfast 'guest' with the aid of an unsuspecting local priest, setting the scene for a showdown of truly biblical proportions."
Inked Baby (spring 2009, Peter Jay Sharp Theater): The world premiere of a new play by 2007 Susan Smith Blackburn nominee Christina Anderson in her Off-Broadway playwriting debut, directed by Kate Whoriskey (Fabulation at Playwrights Horizons, The Piano Teacher). "Stuck for money and unable to conceive, Gloria enlists the aid of her sister to make the child that she and her husband can't. As they uneasily await the baby's arrival, a mysterious contamination spreads outside. But consumed by their own struggles, is anyone paying attention? In this imaginative, other-worldly new drama, one family fights to find its place in a neglected neighborhood." The theatre company also announced the addition to the season of Tony Award-winning director Mayer (Spring Awakening). He'll direct the New York premiere of the previously announced New York premiere of Theresa Rebeck's Our House.
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Initial casting was announced for three previously announced productions:
Emmy Award nominee Maura Tierney (Dr. Abby Lockhart on "ER"), Aya Cash (The Pain and the Itch at Playwrights Horizons) and Brian J. Smith (Good Boys and True at Second Stage, MTC's Come Back, Little Sheba) will appear in the world premiere of Three Changes by Nicky Silver, directed by Wilson Milam. It opens the season Aug. 22 at the Mainstage.
Tony Award nominee Jonathan Groff (Spring Awakening, the upcoming Hair for Shakespeare in the Park), 2008 Theatre World Award winner Cassie Beck (The Drunken City) and Skipp Sudduth (Lincoln Center's current South Pacific) will appear in Craig Lucas' Prayer for My Enemy, a New York premiere, directed by three-time Tony Award nominee Bartlett Sher (The Light in the Piazza, Awake and Sing!, the current Broadway revival of South Pacific).
Academy Award and Emmy Award nominee Annette O'Toole (Best Original Song for "A Mighty Wind," plus The Seagull at CSC, Martha Kent on TV’s "Smallville"), Obie Award winner Ray Anthony Thomas (Forced Continuum) and Katherine Waterston will appear in the world premiere of Kindness, written and directed by Pulitzer Prize finalist and Obie Award winner Adam Rapp (Essential Self-Defense at Playwrights Horizons, Red Light Winter). Subscriptions to Playwrights Horizons' 2008-09 season are now available, in six-show (four Mainstage productions and two productions in The Peter Jay Sharp Theater) or four-show (four Mainstage productions) packages.
For subscription and ticket information call Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200, or visit Playwrights Horizons website at www.playwrightshorizons.org.
