Stage, film and television actress Ginnifer Goodwin ("Big Love", He's Just Not That Into You) will play Carnelle Scott in an industry reading of Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Beth Henley's comedy THE MISS FIRECRACKER CONTEST this Thursday, April 28th. Tony Award winning actress Judith Ivey directs.
THE MISS FIRECRACKER CONTEST is the story of Carnelle Scott (Goodwin), a young, rebellious, and slightly unruly woman living in the small town of Brookhaven, Mississippi. Carnelle desperately wants to win the local Miss Firecracker Contest, convinced that it will restore her reputation and allow her to leave Brookhaven in "a crimson blaze of glory". As she works her way towards the coveted title of Miss Firecracker, she is joined by an eccentric but loyal group of supporters.
Along with Goodwin, the cast for the NYC reading will also include Christopher Burns, Louis Cancelmi, Lauren Cohn, Mary Catherine Garrison and Ronica Reddick.
THE MISS FIRECRACKER CONTEST was first presented to New York audiences in 1984 at the Manhattan Theater Club. Then New York Times critic Frank Rich said of the play that Beth Henley's "comic voice has the crazed yet liberating sound of a Rebel yell." It was later made in the 1989 feature film starring Holly Hunter and Tim Robbins.
The reading is produced by HOP Theatricals, LLC. Industry professionals interested in attending the reading may contact Lauren Yates at General Manager Martian Entertainment for more information at LYates@MartianEntertainment.com.
Ginnifer Goodwin (Carnelle Scott). Ginnifer Goodwin was first seen on the big screen in the feature film Mona Lisa Smile with Julia Roberts and then the Oscar-nominated biopic Walk the Line, as Johnny Cash's first wife, opposite Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon. Goodwin was recently seen in the ensemble comedy He's Just Not That Into You based on the best-selling book by Greg Behrendt, with Jennifer Aniston and Drew Barrymore, as well as Tom Ford's directorial debut A Single Man with Julianne Moore and Colin Firth. She was a series regular on the hit HBO series, "Big Love" and can be seen in the upcoming film, Something Borrowed. Goodwin is classically trained in English theatre. She studied at Straford-upon-Avon's Shakespeare institute, in conjunction with the Royal Shakespeare Company and graduated from Boston University, where she performed with the Huntington Theatre Company and at the Williamstown Theatre Festival with director Nicholas Martin.
Judith Ivey (Director). A Tony Award winning stage actress in her own right, Ms. Ivey has also directed at theaters throughout the country, including the Alley Theatre, ALLIANCE THEATRE and Pasadena Playhouse, as well as at Roundabout Theatre and Second Stage in New York.
Beth Henley (Playwright) is the Pulitzer Prize winning author of Crimes of the Heart, for which she also received a Tony nomination. In addition to The Miss Firecracker Contest and Crimes of the Heart, Ms. Henley has written numerous other plays and screen plays.
