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After Ashley Opens Off-Broadway at the Vineyard
By: BWW News Desk Feb. 28, 2005
After Ashley's central character is not the one of the title, but 17-year old Justin, whose life is entangled in a tragedy that generates national attention. After having lost his mother, he is forced to live his life in the glare of media lights as his opportunistic father seeks to benefit from public interest in the murder. Justin's search for peace in the face of a tragedy-turned-travesty is the heart of this satiric and poignant new play. Cincinatti's CityBeat has called After Ashley "exceptionally entertaining" and its writing "biting but often hilarious."
The play was a breakout (and controversial) hit at the 2004 Humana Festival of New American Plays in Louisville, Kentucky, an influential showplace for playwrights--it served as the springboard for 2003's Omnium Gatherum. Having previously been in development at the 2003 O'Neill Playwrights Conference of the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center, After Ashley originated as a commissioned work at the Philadelphia Theatre Company.
Terry Kinney, who helms the piece, is equally well-known for his acting (the 1996 revival of Buried Child, among others) and directing. He has directed episodes of HBO's Oz, as well as having staged the 2001 revival of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, the premiere of Nicky Silver's Beautiful Child (once again at the Vineyard), and the Chicago premiere of Richard Greenberg's The Violet Hour.
After Ashley's cast includes Anna Paquin, Kieran Culkin, Tim Hopper, Grant Shaud, Mark Rosenthal and Dana Eskelson. Prominent among these names are those of Paquin and Culkin. Paquin, who plays Justin's girlfriend, won an Oscar at the age of 12 for her performance in The Piano, and has continued to add to an accomplished body of film work in The 25th Hour and the X-Men films (as Rogue). She is not a newcomer to the stage having appeared twice in Manhattan Theatre Club productions and others; she was featured in Neil LaBute's The Distance from Here and starred in Rebecca Gilman's Pulitzer-nominated The Glory of Living. Culkin plays Justin and in addition to his work in such films as Igby Goes Down, has performed onstage in James Lapine's The Moment When at Playwright's Horizon and on the West End in Kenneth Lonergan's This is Our Youth.
The production signals the first time that a Gionfriddo play will have been produced off-Broadway. Other plays have been produced regionally; these include Safe, U.S. Drag, Guinevere and Briar Rose. She has won the 2001-2002 Susan Blackburn Prize, the 2002 Helen Merrill Award for Emerging Playwrights, and is the recipient of a Lucille Lortel fellowship and a Rhode Island State Council on the Arts Fellowship.
After Ashley features Set Design by Neil Patel, Costume Design by Laura Bauer, Lighting Design by David Lander and Original Music and Sound Design by Milburn-Bodeen Music.
The play is on a limited run until March 20th, 2005, and showtimes are Tuesday through Saturday at 8 PM, and Saturday and Sunday at 3 PM.
Tickets are $50.00, and can be purchased by calling 212-352-3101 or ordering through TheatreMania at http://www.theatermania.com/content/show.cfm/show/108127.
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