Austin Pendleton to Helm SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER for Mississippi Mud; Talbacks Begin 2/9

Fresh from Ivanov starring Ethan Hawke, Obie Award-winning director Austin Pendleton directs Tennessee Williams' stark and religiously sensual morality play Suddenly Last Summer with the Mississippi Mud.

This is the play that moved Brookes Atkinson to praise Williams as being "at the peak of his talent as a poet of the damned." It is brought to life in a new bold raw space production that places center stage the lush language of this modern fable. Mr. Pendleton stars as Dr. Cukrowicz and helms a talented cast of actors that includes Johanna Leister (Broadway: Whose Life Is it Anyway w/Mary Tyler Moore, Tartuffe w/Victor Garber, Dracula w/Raul Julia; Beyond the Horizon at Irish Rep; The Edge Of Night), Jen Danby (Vivien Leigh: The Last Press Conference, Orson's Shadow with Mississippi Mud,Cat on A Hot Tin Roof Mud Lab production, directed by Austin Pendleton; "Paula" and "Bad Pictures" vlogisodes with The Wooster Group, the film Run #3), and Maureen Mooney (Guiding Light, All My Children; Mod Donna at The Public directed by Joseph Papp, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof with the Mud, directed by Austin Pendleton). Joining these actors are Jody Prusan (Bury the Dead at HB Playwrights Foundation directed by Geoffrey Owens, A Streetcar Named Desire with Mississippi Mud Productions, Founder and Talent Manager at Connecting Talent Company), Gene Gallerano (co-director of the documentary film The Austin Pendleton Project: Where The Work Is, UnderstudyIvanov, starring Ethan Hawke, directed by Austin Pendleton), Allison Plamondon (choreographer for the Academy Award nominated short film Curfew, "Outstanding Performance in a Solo Show" award at Planet Connections Theatre Festivity for See Bob Run).

Post-Show Talkbacks with Austin Pendleton and cast Saturdays February 9, February 16, February 23, and March 2.

Austin Pendleton (Director) most recently, in New York, directed, and stepped into a role in, Ivanov at CSC, starring Ethan Hawke. In Chicago, he has just directed The Birthday Party at Steppenwolf, where he is a member of the Ensemble. He has directed several Mississippi Mud productions, including Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and is now preparing productions of A Streetcar Named Desire, Vieux Carre, and Lust, among others, all for Mud. He won an Obie in 2011 for directing Three Sisters for CSC, with Peter Sarsgaard and Maggie Gyllenhaal. He has acted in many movies and television episodes. His last Broadway appearance was in The Diary of Anne Frank,with Natalie Portman and Linda Lavin, in a script revised by Wendy Kesselman, in whose musical, The Black Monk, he also appeared. He has written three plays:(Orson's Shadow, produced at Mud after its off-Broadway run in 2005 at the Barrow St. Theatre, directed by David Cromer; Uncle Bob, which has been produced in NY, around the country and internationally; and Booth, which starred Frank Langella in its productions in New York, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and New Haven's Long Wharf Theatre; as well as the libretto for A Minister's Wife, music by Josh Schmidt and lyrics by Jan Tranen, produced in 2011 at Lincoln Center). All of these works have been published. He teaches acting at HB Studio, in New York.