ReGroup Presents PARADISE LOST July 18

The ReGroup Theatre Company is pleased to announce that they are being joined for one night by Angelica Page for their reading of Paradise Lost by Clifford Odets. Over the past year, the ReGroup has been presenting highly acclaimed readings of the obscure Group Theatre plays. This is their first time tackling one of the Group's most famous plays, and they are please to have Ms Page playing matriarch Clara Gordon alongside 14 actors in their company. The reading will take place on the Main Stage Theatre at The Irish Rep, 132 W 22nd St at 7 PM on Monday, July 18th. Admission is free, but donations are greatly appreciated. Reservations are required. To RSVP, please call (212) 340-1054 or email RSVP@ReGroupTheatre.org

Clifford Odets frequently stated that Paradise Lost was his favorite of his plays. It opened in December 1935 and was his 4th play to open on Broadway that year. It received a chilly reception from the critics who considered it too Chekhovian and experimental, but the Group and their audience rallied and flooded the press with letters defending the play. It's initial run only last 73 performances, but it has become a timeless and important play in the American Theatrical canon as it so beautifully depicts the Gordon family's struggle with the American Dream in the years directly following the Great Depression. Filled with some of the most brilliant soliloquies Odets has ever written, the ReGroup is pleased to be able to give the play a rare New York staged reading.
The rest of the cast is composed of ReGroup actors: Angelo Angrisani, Tyler Burke, Rachel Casparian, Mark Doherty, Selena C. Dukes, JacK Gilbert, Kelsey Moore, Ross Nathan, Julian Sapala, Maurya Scanlon, Emilio Tirado, Shelley Valfer & Timothy Weinert. The production will be staged by Allie Mulholland who directed ReGroup's most recent production, Paul Green's The House of Connelly.

The ReGroup also recently published Volume 1 of The "Lost" Group Theatre Plays. The book contains a foreword by Estelle Parsons and new essays from George Bartenieff, Allie Mulholland and Jeffrey Lawson. These classic plays, all of which have been out of print for over 75 years, are an important part of American Theatre History, and they are now available through www.regrouptheatre.org, Amazon.com and The Drama Book Shop. On Thursday July 7th at 6PM, members of the ReGroup will perform scenes from the three plays in the volume, Claire & Paul Sifton's 1931- and John Howard Lawson's Success Story and Gentlewoman at The Drama Book Shop, 250 W 40th St., New York. Following the readings at 7 PM will be a reception and book signing.