Williamstown Theatre Festival Announces Full Casts of THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST, THE BLUE DEEP This Summer

Williamstown Theatre Festival Artistic Director Jenny Gersten has announced today the full cast and creative teams for the first two productions of the 2012 season: The Importance of Being Earnest and the World Premiere of The Blue Deep.  The Importance of Being Earnest will be presented on the Main Stage from June 26 through July 14 (opening June 28) and The Blue Deep will grace the Nikos Stage from June 27 through July 8 (opening June 28). Both casts arrived in Williamstown today for their first rehearsals on the bucolic Williams College campus in preparation for the runs of these exciting and unique productions at the Festival.

Oscar Wilde’s quintessential comedy of manners, The Importance of Being Earnest, is directed by David Hyde Pierce, whose portrayal of Niles Crane for 11 seasons on NBC’s “Frasier” earned him four Emmy Awards. The cast features Marylouise Burke (Fuddy Meers) as Miss Prism, Louis Cancelmi as Algernon Moncrieff, Helen Rita Cespedes as Cecily Cardew, Sean Cullen (South Pacific) as Lane, Emmy and Tony Award winner Tyne Daly (“Cagney and Lacey”, Master Class, Gypsy) as Lady Bracknell, Glenn Fitzgerald (The Sixth Sense) as Jack Worthing, Paul Anthony McGrane as Merriman, Amy Spanger (Elf, Rock of Ages) as Gwendolyn Fairfax, and Henry Stram (WTF’s R Shomon) as Chasuble with Charlotte Bydwell, Julian Cihi, Alexander Seife, and Ariana Seigel.

What if a family of Guys and Dolls-style gangsters moved to Downton Abbey-style London in order to escape certain, shall we say, entanglements? What if two of these wise guys fell hard for two tough dolls? And what if the formidable dame who runs the aforementioned criminal family developed an appetite for cucumber sandwiches? Director David Hyde Pierce gives us Oscar Wilde’s hilarious high society satire, The Importance of Being Earnest, in a very new way. Welcome to the family.

The creative team includes Allen Moyer (Scenic Design), Ben Stanton (Lighting Design), Michael Krass (Costume Design), and Jill BC Du Boff (Sound Design). Eileen Kelly is the Production Stage Manager.

The World Premiere of The Blue Deep by Lucy Boyle is directed by Bob Balaban (Bernard and Doris, Tennessee and Me). The new play stars Becky Ann Baker (WTF’s Our Town), Emmy and Tony Award winner and WTF veteran Blythe Danner (WTF’s The Seagull, “Meet the Parents”), Jack Gilpin (WTF’s Design for Living), “Boardwalk Empire” regular Heather Lind (former WTF Non-Equity Company), and Finn Wittrock (Broadway’s Death of a Salesman).

Though only in her twenties, Lila Miller (Lind) is stuck, while her mother, Grace (Danner), is perpetually in motion. When Lila returns home to her family's exquisite Hamptons house and garden with only a plastic bag and a broken heart, there's no nurturing to be found, except as pertains to horticulture. The same painful history that threatens to drive mother and daughter permanently apart ultimately evolves into the one realm where reconnection might be possible. The Blue Deep is an achingly honest and funny play about loss, growing up, and the benefits of aquaerobics.

More Articles by This Author...