Becky Ann Baker, Peter Friedman and More Set for Playwrights Horizons' THE GREAT GOD PAN

Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) has announced additional casting for its 2012/2013 Season, with initial casting for THE GREAT GOD PAN, the World Premiere of a new play by Obie Award winner Amy Herzog (After the Revolution at PH, 4000 Miles), directed by Carolyn Cantor (After the Revolution and Essential Self-Defense at PH, Pumpgirl, Orange Water Flower).

The cast will feature Becky Ann Baker (Good People, All My Sons, Assassins), Tony Award nominee and Obie Award winner Peter Friedman (Ragtime, PH’s The Shaggs, After the Revolution, Circle Mirror Transformation and The Heidi Chronicles), Olivier Award nominee Sarah Goldberg (Clybourne Park in London and the PH production on Broadway, The Dark Knight Rises), Keith Nobbs (Lombardi, columbinus, Lortel Award and Drama Desk nominee for Four), Joyce Van Patten (I Ought to Be in Pictures, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Rumors) and Erin Wilhelmi (The Girl from Nowhere, Likeness). Due to a scheduling conflict, Ms. Van Patten will assume the role for the previously-announced Judith Ivey. Final casting to be announced soon. The production will begin previews in late November 2012 at Playwrights Horizons’ Mainstage Theater, with an Opening Night set for Tuesday, December 18.

In addition to THE GREAT GOD PAN, the five other productions of the 2012/2013 Season are:

DETROIT – Now in previews, the New York premiere of a new play by Lisa D’Amour (2011 Pulitzer Prize finalist for this play, 2011 Steinberg Playwright Award winner for her body of work, Obie Award winner for Nita and Zita), directed by Obie Award winner Anne Kauffman (Maple and Vine at PH, The Thugs, Stunning, Naked Angels’ This Wide Night). The cast features two-time Tony Award winner John Cullum (for Shenandoah and On the Twentieth Century; nominations for Urinetown, 110 in the Shade and On a Clear Day You…; Wilder at PH), Darren Pettie (This and Spatter Pattern at PH, Butley on Broadway, “Mad Men”), Oscar and two-time Tony Award nominee Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone, “The Office,” On the Mountain at PH), Emmy Award nominee David Schwimmer (“Friends,” “Band of Brothers,” PH debut) and Sarah Sokolovic (Drama Desk Award nominee for The Shaggs at PH). As the first production of the theater company’s new season, DETROIT is now in previews at Playwrights Horizons’ Mainstage Theater.

THE WHALE – the New York premiere of a new play by Obie Award winner Samuel D. Hunter (A Bright New Boise), directed by Davis McCallum (A Bright New Boise, Queens Boulevard, Elliot: A Soldier’s Fugue). The cast features Theatre World Award winner Cassie Beck (The Drunken City and Prayer for My Enemy at PH, The Norman Conquests), Reyna de Courcy (Burning), Tony Award and

Obie Award winner Shuler Hensley (Oklahoma!, Sweet and Sad, Young Frankenstein), Tasha Lawrence (Wilder, Wilder, Wilder; Good People) and Cory Michael Smith (The Shaggs at PH, Cock). Previews for THE WHALE will begin Friday, October 12 at Playwrights Horizons’ Peter Jay Sharp Theater.

THE FLICK – the World Premiere of a new play commissioned by Playwrights Horizons with funds from the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, by Obie Award winner Annie Baker (Circle Mirror Transformation at PH, The Aliens, her current adaptation of Uncle Vanya), directed by Obie Award winner Sam Gold (Circle Mirror Transformation, Kin and The Big Meal at PH; Seminar on Broadway, The Aliens). Previews will begin Friday, February 15, 2013 at Playwrights Horizons’ Mainstage Theater.

THE CALL – the World Premiere of a new play by Tanya Barfield (Blue Door at PH), directed by Obie Award winner Leigh Silverman (Go Back to Where You Are and Blue Door for PH; Chinglish, Well, In the Wake). Previews will begin performances Friday, March 22, 2013 at Playwrights Horizons’ Peter Jay Sharp Theater. THE CALL will be presented as a co-production with Primary Stages.

FAR FROM HEAVEN – the World Premiere of a new musical featuring book by Tony Award winner & two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Richard Greenberg (Take Me Out, Three Days of Rain), music by Tony Award nominee Scott Frankel (Grey Gardens at PH, Happiness), lyrics by Tony Award nominee Michael Korie (Grey Gardens at PH, The Grapes of Wrath, Happiness), directed by three-time Tony Award nominee Michael Greif (Grey Gardens at PH, Rent, Next to Normal, The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide…). The cast will be lead by four-time Tony Award nominee Kelli O’Hara (The Light in the Piazza, The Pajama Game, South Pacific and the current Nice Work If You Can Get It; My Life with Albertine at PH). The musical is based on the Focus Features / Vulcan Productions motion picture Far From Heaven, written and directed by Todd Haynes. FAR FROM HEAVEN was commissioned by Playwrights Horizons under the auspices of the Playwrights Horizons Musicals in Partnership Initiative with leadership funding provided by the The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Through this initiative, the musical had a Preview Production run at the Williamstown Theatre Festival this summer, also featuring Ms. O’Hara. Previews will begin Friday, May 17, 2013 at Playwrights Horizons’ Mainstage Theater.

Bios and production details for each of the six productions of the 2012/2013 Season can be found starting on page 3 of this release. Additional casting, information and dates for the four other shows will be announced in the coming months.

Three subscription packages to Playwrights Horizons’ 2012/2013 season are now available: a 6-show Subscription package ($230, 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 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 42 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’s Clybourne Park (2012 Tony Award, Best Play), 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 Kirsten Greenidge’s Milk Like Sugar (2012 Obie Award), Gina Gionfriddo’s Rapture, Blister, Burn; Dan LeFranc’s The Big Meal; Amy Herzog’s After the Revolution; Annie Baker’s Circle Mirror Transformation (three 2010 Obie Awards including Best New American Play); Bathsheba Doran’s Kin; Adam Bock’s A Small Fire; 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 in part 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, Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Peter Jay Sharp Foundation.