Off-Broadway's The New Group proudly announces that Lily Rabe will star in the company's world premiere of David Rabe's An Early History of Fire. Directed by Jo Bonney, this production opens in April 2012 at The New Group @ Theatre Row as part of the company's 2011-2012 Season.
From one of the most influential playwrights of our time, An Early History of Fire is set at the tipping point of the early 1960s. In a Midwestern town, Danny's world is defined by friendship and loyalty - but the bigger world is encroaching, in the form of Karen, back from college in the east, alluring and unsettling because of what she now knows. Still, Danny can't escape the grip of his immigrant father, who is mourning a vanished world of lost prestige and clinging to his only son. Awhirl in longing and confusion, An Early History of Fire marks David Rabe's return to The New Group, following the company's acclaimed 2005 revival of Hurlyburly.
With rehearsals set to begin February 2012, David Rabe shares, "A further excitement waits in the chance to collaborate with my daughter, Lily, for the first time. In a reading we did of the play, her embodiment of Karen brought clarity and heart to a difficult, complex person."
David Rabe's first play in New York in 1971 was The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel. This was followed by Sticks and Bones, The Orphan, In the Boom Boom Room and Streamers, all produced by
Joseph Papp. Hurlyburly came later, as did Those the River Keeps, A Question of Mercy, The Dog Problem and The Black Monk adapted from Chekov. In recent years he has devoted his time more to fiction as he pursued a course begun with the novel Recital of the Dog. Since 2005 he has published A Primitive Heart, a book of stories, and two novels, Dinosaurs on the Roof and Girl by the Road at Night. A fourth novel was completed not long ago, along with several plays. Among his awards are the Drama Desk, NY Drama Critics Circle, Outer Critics, Obie, American Academy of Arts and Letters, Tony and three Hull-Warriner Awards.
Most recently,
Lily Rabe appeared as Nora in A Doll's House as part of the
Williamstown Theatre Festival's 2011 summer season. In New York, she recently appeared as Portia in The Merchant of Venice (Shakespeare in the Park and on Broadway - Tony nomination) with
Al Pacino. Other Broadway credits include The American Plan, Heartbreak House (OCC nomination, Callaway Award) and Steel Magnolias (Drama Desk nomination). Broadway upcoming:
Theresa Rebeck's Seminar, directed by
Sam Gold, with
Alan Rickman and
Hamish Linklater (Fall 2011). Her Off-Broadway and regional credits include Crimes of the Heart, Colder Than Here, Proof and The Crazy Girl. Film credits include All Good Things, Letters from the Big Man, Weakness, Aftermath, What Just Happened, The Toe Tactic, No Reservations, A Crime,
Mona Lisa Smile and Never Again. TV credits include "Last of the Ninth," "Saving Grace," "Nip/Tuck," "Medium" and all three "Law & Order" series.
Jo Bonney's directorial credits include:
Lynn Nottage's By the Way, Meet Vera Stark (
Second Stage); Break of Noon (MCC),
Culture Clash's American Night (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); Darci Picoult's Lil's 90th (
Long Wharf Theatre);
Suzan-Lori Parks' Father Comes Home from the War (Public Theatre Lab);
Naomi Wallace's The Hard Weather Boating Party (The Humana Festival) and Fever Chart (Public Theatre Lab);
Michael Weller's Beast (New York Theatre Workshop);
Alan Ball's All that I Will Ever Be (NYTW);
Eric Bogosian's subUrbia;
Charles Fuller's A Soldier's Play and
Lisa Loomer's Living Out (
Second Stage, NY);
Will Power's The Seven (NYTW &
La Jolla Playhouse) (L. Lortel Best Musical);
Neil LaBute's Fat Pig (MCC &
Geffen Playhouse); Some Girl(s) (MCC); Carol Churchill's Top Girls (
Williamstown Theatre Festival);
Christopher Shinn's On the Mountain (
Playwrights Horizons);
Nilo Cruz's Anna in the Tropics (
Arena Stage); Universes' Slanguage (NYTW/
Mark Taper Forum);
Lanford Wilson's Fifth of July (
Signature Theatre) (L. Lortel Best Revival);
Jose Rivera's Adoration of the Old Woman (
La Jolla Playhouse) and References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot (
The Public Theater);
Diana Son's Stop Kiss and
Anna Deavere Smith's House Arrest (
The Public Theater);
Jessica Goldberg's Good Thing (
The New Group);
John Osborne's Look Back in Anger (CSC,NY);
Danny Hoch's Some People and Jails, Hospitals & Hip-Hop (USA/Britain);
Dael Orlandersmith's Stoop Stories (
Studio Theatre, Washington & The
Goodman Theatre); numerous solos Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll; Pounding Nails in the Floor with My Forehead by
Eric Bogosian (USA/Britain).
Jo Bonney is the recipient of a 1998 Obie Award for Sustained Excellence of Direction and editor of Extreme Exposure: An Anthology of Solo Performance Texts from the Twentieth Century (TCG).
All productions play at The New Group @ Theatre Row (The Acorn Theatre / 410 West 42nd Street, between 9th & 10th Aves). Tickets may be arranged through www.telecharge.com or (212) 239-6200 . Tickets are $60.00 plus $1.25 restoration fee. For more info, visit www.thenewgroup.org.
Photo Credit: Peter James Zielinski
