Playwrights Horizons, under the leadership of Artistic Director Tim Sanford and Managing Director Leslie Marcus, is proud to announce the sixth and final production of its upcoming 2011/2012 Season. Completing the theater company's line-up is the New York premiere of MAPLE & VINE, a new play by JorDan Harrison (Doris to Darlene at Playwrights Horizons, Act a Lady, Amazons and Their Men), directed by Obie Award winner Anne Kauffman (The Thugs, Stunning, Naked Angels' This Wide Night, Mr. Harrison's Act a Lady).
MAPLE & VINE will be presented at
Playwrights Horizons' Mainstage Theater (416 West 42nd Street) as the third production of the season. The play had its World Premiere this March, also directed by Ms. Kauffman, as part of The Humana Festival of New American Plays. In his review of that production, Charles Isherwood of The New York Times called it, "Piquantly funny, cleverly executed and darkly playful."
MAPLE & VINE joins the following five previously-announced productions (in Season order):
COMPLETENESS - the New York premiere of a new play by
Itamar Moses (The Four of Us, Bach at Leipzig), directed by Obie Award winner
Pam MacKinnon (Clybourne Park, The Four of Us, Occupant, Peter and Jerry), presented at
Playwrights Horizons' Mainstage Theater. COMPLETENESS will be the first production of the season, beginning performances in August 2011.
MILK LIKE SUGAR - the New York premiere of a new play by Kirsten Greenidge in her New York debut, directed by Obie Award winner
Rebecca Taichman (Menopausal Gentlemen, Orlando, The Scene), presented at
Playwrights Horizons' Peter Jay Sharp Theater. MILK LIKE SUGAR will be presented as a co-production with the
Women's Project and
La Jolla Playhouse.
ASSISTANCE - the New York premiere of a new play by
Leslye Headland (Bachelorette), directed by
Trip Cullman (A Small Fire, The Drunken City and Manic Flight Reaction at PH, Bachelorette), presented at
Playwrights Horizons' Mainstage Theater.
THE BIG MEAL - the New York premiere of a new play by Dan LeFranc (Sixty Miles to Silver Lake for P73/
Soho Rep, In the Labyrinth at
Soho Rep), directed by Obie Award winner
Sam Gold (Circle Mirror Transformation and Kin at PH, Tigers Be Still, The Aliens, The Coward), presented at
Playwrights Horizons' Peter Jay Sharp Theater.
RAPTURE, BLISTER, BURN - the World Premiere of a new play commissioned by
Playwrights Horizons with funds from the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, by Pulitzer Prize finalist and Obie Award winner
Gina Gionfriddo (
Becky Shaw). Directed by
Peter DuBois (
Becky Shaw, Measure for Pleasure, Jack Goes Boating, Artistic Director of
Huntington Theatre Company), the play will be presented at
Playwrights Horizons' Mainstage Theater.
Bios and production details for the first five productions of the 2011/2012 Season can be found starting on page 3 of this release. Casting information and dates for all six shows will be announced in the coming months.
Three brand-new subscription packages to
Playwrights Horizons' 2011/2012 season are now available: a 6-show Subscription package ($225, four Mainstage and two Peter Jay Sharp
Theater Productions); FlexPass (4+ tickets, $45-50 per ticket); and Membership ($55 membership fee + one ticket at $40 or less for each show, as desired). In addition, the company will continue to offer 30&Under Membership ($20 membership fee + one $20 ticket for each show, as desired); and Student Membership ($10 membership fee + one $10 ticket for each show, as desired). In addition to discounts on all Mainstage season attractions, subscribers receive priority booking and seating, ticket exchange privileges, parking and dining discounts, and exclusive mailings of
Playwrights Horizons Bulletins. Packages are available at
www.ticketcentral.com.
Playwrights Horizons, currently celebrating its 40th Anniversary Season, is a writer's theater dedicated to the support and development of contemporary
American Playwrights, composers and lyricists and to the production of their new work. Under the leadership of artistic director
Tim Sanford and managing director
Leslie Marcus, the theater company continues to encourage the new work of veteran writers while nurturing an emerging generation of theater artists. In its 40 years,
Playwrights Horizons has presented the work of more than 375 writers and has received numerous awards and honors, including a special 2008 Drama Desk Award for "ongoing support to generations of theater artists and undiminished commitment to producing new work." Notable productions include five Pulitzer Prize winners:
Bruce Norris' Clybourne Park (2011 winner),
Doug Wright's I Am My Own Wife (2004 Tony Award, Best Play),
Wendy Wasserstein's The Heidi Chronicles (1989 Tony Award, Best Play),
Alfred Uhry's Driving Miss Daisy and
Stephen Sondheim and
James Lapine's Sunday in the Park with George - as well as
Adam Bock's A Small Fire,
Annie Baker's Circle Mirror Transformation (three 2010 Obie Awards including Best New American Play),
Edward Albee's Me, Myself & I, Melissa
James Gibson's This (2010
Susan Smith Blackburn Prize finalist),
Doug Wright,
Scott Frankel and
Michael Korie's Grey Gardens (three 2007 Tony Awards),
Craig Lucas's Prayer For My Enemy and Small Tragedy (2004 Obie Award, Best American Play),
Adam Rapp's Kindness,
Sarah Ruhl's Dead Man's Cell Phone,
Lynn Nottage's Fabulation (2005 Obie Award for Playwriting),
Kenneth Lonergan's Lobby Hero,
David Greenspan's She Stoops to Comedy (2003 Obie Award),
Kirsten Childs's The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin (2000 Obie Award),
Richard Nelson and
Shaun Davey's
James Joyce's The Dead,
Stephen Sondheim and
John Weidman's Assassins,
William Finn's March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland,
Christopher Durang's Betty's Summer Vacation and Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You,
Richard Nelson's Goodnight Children Everywhere,
Lynn Ahrens and
Stephen Flaherty's Once on This Island,
Jon Robin Baitz's The Substance of Fire,
Scott McPherson's Marvin's Room,
A.R. Gurney's Later Life,
Adam Guettel and
Tina Landau's Floyd Collins and
Jeanine Tesori and
Brian Crawley's Violet.
Playwrights Horizons' season productions are generously supported by The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.
Playwrights Horizons is supported in part by public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. In addition,
Playwrights Horizons receives major support from the
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, Time Warner Inc., the Charina Endowment Fund and the Peter Jay Sharp Foundation.
Photo Credit: Genevieve Rafter-Keddy
