A spokesperson for Long Wharf Theatre — where the work is currently making its east coast debut through Feb. 6 — confirmed that New York troupes are interested in the work. Reports have the Roundabout Theater Company, Manhattan Theater Club and the Public Theater included in the bunch.
Director Bartlett Sher — who teamed with Lucas on The Light in the Piazza — stages the current New Haven presentation starring Kristine Nielsen and Robin Bartlett. The work made its world premiere at his Seattle homestage, the Intiman Theatre in July 2004.
Singing Forest interweaves the tales of three generations of one family, from New York in 2000 to post-World War II Paris to Vienna in the 1930s. The three-act drama was originally commissioned by Seattle’s ACT Theatre (under Gordon Edelstein) and developed with Trinity Repertory Company.
The cast of Singing Forest — many of whom play multiple roles — features Nielsen (Betty's Summer Vacation) and Bartlett (Yentl, Reckless, Everett Beekin) with Mark H. Dold (The Seagull - NYSF), Kristin Flanders (Singing Forest - Intiman Theatre), Ben Hammer (The Great Sebastians, Golda), Roderick Hill (Cymbeline - Theatre For A New Audience), Hamish Linklater (Recent Tragic Events), Henry Stram (Titanic, The Crucible) and John Vickery (The Lion King, The Real Thing).
Nielsen was seen in the Off-Broadway staging of Omnium Gatherum as well as Broadway's The Green Bird, Jackie: An American Life and The Iceman Cometh. Other credits include Off Broadway's Pericles (Theatre For A New Audience), The Underpants (Classic Stage Company), Wonder of the World (Manhattan Theatre Club) and her Obie Award-winning turn in Betty's Summer Vacation. The creative team for Singing Forest features John McDermott (scenic), Elizabeth Caitlin Ward (costume), Stephen Strawbridge (lighting) and Peter John Still (sound).
Lucas, who won the 2004 OBIE Award for Best American Play for Small Tragedy, has also penned the plays Prelude to a Kiss, Stranger, This Thing of Darkness and The Dying Gaul — which he recently adapted and directed for the big screen starring Campbell Scott, Patricia Clarkson and Peter Sarsgaard. The scribe's Reckless was just revived on Broadway earlier this season and the Adam Guettel musical The Light in the Piazza for which he penned the book is set to debut March 17 at Lincoln Center Theatre's Vivian Beaumont with an April 18 opening.
Tickets to Singing Forest at the Long Wharf Theatre’s C. Newton Schenck Mainstage, 222 Sargent Drive in New Have, CT, can be purchased by calling (203) 787-4282 or toll-free at (800) 782-8497. For more information, visit Long Wharf online at www.LongWharf.org.
