Carolyn Mignini Leads MASTER CLASS at Brooklyn's Gallery Players, 3/16

The Gallery Players will present Master Class by Terrence McNally beginning March 16th. Carolyn Mignini* stars as legendary opera singer, Maria Callas. Ms. Mignini's Broadway and Off-Broadway appearances include Guys and Dolls, Fiddler On The Roof , Tintypes, The Fantasticks and Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All/The Actor's Nightmare. Tom Rowan directs this limited engagement production which runs through March 31st.

Master Class, winner of both the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding New Play and the Tony Award for Best Play in 1996, is a mesmerizing meditation on Maria Callas' life and nature of her art. Commanding, competitive, glamorous and drop-dead funny, Callas is alternately dismayed and impressed by the three students exposed to her withering scrutiny. What starts as a master class becomes a platform for Callas to relive her own recollections about the glories and failures of her life and career. In this rich and vividly theatrical piece we learn that Callas, although fierce and uncompromising in her art, was much less sure and successful in her private life.

Carolyn Mignini (Maria Callas) appeared in Bryony Lavery's Dirt at D.C.'s Studio Theater, Hereafter at Theater St. Marks and in Kindling, a film which she also co-produced. In 2011, she appeared in the premier of I Married Wyatt Earp at 59E59. She's a member of Ensemble Studio Theater and continues to develop new works with Prospect Theater Co. and NY Theater Barn. Broadway credits: Tintypes (Drama Desk Nom.), Fiddler On The Roof, A History Of The American Film, and One Night Stand. TV credits include The Good Wife, FX's Lights Out, The Practice, Chicago Hope, Murphy Brown, and Days Of Our Lives.

Mignini leads a cast that includes Jonas Cohen* as Manny, Stephanie Joiner* as Sophie, Brandon Snook* as Tony, Samantha Guevrekian as Sharon and Artem Kreimer as the Stagehand. Connor Davis produces this Actors Equity Association showcase production. *Member of Actors Equity

The design team includes scenic designer Kathryn Leiber, costume designer Tony Johnson, lighting designer Peter Gormeault, sound designer Jacob Subotnick and properties designer Sara Slagle. The production is stage managed by Katy Lynn Patterson.

Tickets are $18 for adults, $14 for seniors and children 12 and under. Tickets may be purchased online at www.galleryplayers.com or by calling Ovationtix at 212-352-3101 (phone hours 9-9 weekdays, 10-6 weekends). Performances take place Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8PM with matinees on Saturday at 2PM and Sunday at 3PM. The Gallery Players is located at 199, 14th Street, between 4th and 5th Aves, in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

A New York institution since 1967, The Gallery Players has served actors and audiences alike for more than four decades by showcasing both established and burgeoning new talent and offering a home base for theater professionals. Its eclectic programming of intimate revivals and ambitious new work has earned it the reputation of "New York's best kept secret." Among its famous alumni are founding member Harvey Fierstein, Broadway regular, Deidre Goodwin, New York theater personality Seth Rudetsky and many others.

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