THE VELOCITY OF AUTUMN Headed for Broadway Spring 2013 Starring Estelle Parsons and Stephen Spinella

STEPHEN SPINELLA (Chris) won two Tony and two Drama Desk Awards for the original Broadway productions of Tony Kushner’s epic Angels in America plays, directed by George C. Wolfe; he was honored for playing the role of Prior Walter in both the first part (Millennium Approaches) which marked his Broadway debut and the second (Perestroika). Other Broadway credits include A View from the Bridge, Electra, James Joyce’s The Dead (Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk Awards, Tony Nomination), Our Town and Spring Awakening. Mr. Spinella’s Off-Broadway credits include The Illusion, Love! Valour! Compassion (Obie Award), Troilus and Cressida, A Question of Mercy, The Seagull, Elle, Svejk, The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures, An Iliad (Lucille Lortel and Obie Awards, Drama Desk Nom) and As You Like It. His film work includes Virtuosity, The Jackal, Love! Valour! Compassion!, Great Expectations, Ravenous, Cradle Will Rock, Bubble Boy, Connie and Carla, Milk, Rubber and Steven Spielberg’s soon to be released feature Lincoln. Mr. Spinella’s TV credits include "The Education of Max Bickford", "24", "Desperate Housewives", "ER", "Alias", “Will and Grace”, “Numb3rs”, “Heroes”, “Grey’s Anatomy” and "The Mentalist". A graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts where he studied with Olympia Dukakis and Ron Van Lieu, Mr. Spinella also attended the University of Arizona.

ERIC COBLE (Playwright) Mr. Cobles’s plays have been produced Off-Broadway, throughout the U.S., and on several continents, including productions at The Kennedy Center, Denver Center Theatre Company, New York and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals, Alliance Theatre, The Cleveland Play House, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, South Coast Repertory, Asolo Repertory, Indiana Repertory, Coterie Theatre, Great Lakes Theater Festival, Stages Repertory, and The Contemporary American Theatre Festival. His plays include Bright Ideas (Manhattan Class Company, directed by John Rando), Natural Selection (Actors Theatre of Louisville Humana Festival, directed by Marc Masterson), The Dead Guy, A Girl's Guide to Coffee, and The Giver. Mr. Coble has been recognized for his work with an Emmy nomination, the AT&T Onstage Award, the National Theatre Conference Playwriting Award, the AATE Distinguished Play Award for Best Adaptation, an NEA Playwright in Residence Grant, and a TCG Extended Collaboration Grant.

MOLLY SMITH (Director) has been instrumental in leading the reinvention of Arena Stage, focusing on the creation of the new Mead Center for American Theater as well as major artistic changes. Arena Stage is a center for the production, presentation, development and study of American theater. Ms. Smith has been a leader in new play development for 30 years while at Arena Stage for the past 14 years and at Perseverance Theatre in Alaska, the theater she founded and led for 19 years. She is a great believer in first, second and third productions of new work and has championed projects like Next to Normal, How I Learned to Drive and Passion Play, a cycle. Ms. Smith has directed for Arena Stage Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, How I Learned to Drive, Hot ‘N’ Throbbing, All My Sons, The Great White Hope, Coyote Builds North America, Agamemnon and His Daughters, A Moon for the Misbegotten, South Pacific, An American Daughter, Camelot, Orpheus Descending, Anna Christie, Passion Play, a cycle, Damn Yankees, Cabaret, The Women of Brewster Place, Christmas Carol 1941, Legacy of Light, Light in the Piazza, Oklahoma!, The Book Club Play, and The Music Man. She has worked alongside playwrights Sarah Ruhl, Paula Vogel, Tim Acito, Karen Zacarías, John Murrell, James Magruder, Barry Lopez and many others. Ms. Smith’s directorial work has also been seen at the Shaw Festival in Canada, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Trinity Repertory Company, Tarragon Theatre in Toronto and Centaur Theatre in Montreal.

HOP THEATRICALS (Producer) and lead producer Larry Kaye have been nominated for two Tony Awards for How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying with Daniel Radcliffe and John Larroquette, and for Green Day’s American Idiot. Other productions with which HOP and Mr. Kaye have been involved include Broadway’s Oleanna with Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles, and Blithe Spirit with Angela Lansbury, as well as Rooms Off-Broadway, and Pippin at London’s Menier Chocolate Factory. Upcoming projects include a Broadway revival of Beth Henley’s The Miss Firecracker Contest and the new Broadway-bound musical The Tapioca Miracle.

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