Bonnie Milligan, Soara-Joye Ross, Among Cast of Encores! PROMENADE

Encores! Off-Center Artistic Director Anne Kauffman today announced casting for the production of Promenade (July 10 & 11) as part of New York City Center's 75th Anniversary Season.

Directed by Laurie Woolery, with music direction by Greg Jarrett, and choreography byHope Boykin, Promenade follows two escaped prisoners, known only as 105 and 106, as they run through The City, mingling with an assortment of characters from the poor and homeless to the extremely wealthy. This absurdist look at the haves and have-nots, with book by Maria Irene Fornes and music by Al Carmines, will star Mark Bedard (Jailer),Becca Blackwell (Mayor), Eddie Cooper (Mr. R), Daniel Everidge (Mr. T), Carmen Ruby Floyd (Miss I), Marcy Harriell (Miss U), James T. Lane (105), Bonnie Milligan (Miss Cake),Bryonha Parham (Servant), Don Darryl Rivera (Soldier/Driver), Soara-Joye Ross (Miss O), Steve Routman (Soldier/Injured Man), Saundra Santiago (Mother), and J.D. Webster (Mr. S). Casting for the role of 106 will be released later.

In keeping with City Center's founding mission to make the arts accessible to all New Yorkers, many Off-Center tickets are $25. Tickets can be purchased online at NYCityCenter.org, by calling 212.581.1212, or in person at the City Center Box Office (131 West 55th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues).

The Lobby Project, a series of free, pre?performance events will once again feature an investigative theater performance based on the themes of each Off-Center production created by City Center Artists-in-Residence The Civilians. The events take place in City Center's Grand Tier lobby one hour before curtain and are free for ticket holders.

Encores! Off-Center (Anne Kauffman, Artistic Director; Jeanine Tesori, Creative Advisor) was founded in 2013 with the mission of presenting musicals that pushed creative boundaries when they were first produced. Filtered through the lens of today's artists, these shows are presented not as historical documents but as living, vital works that speak to audiences both new and old. The New York Times has called Encores! Off-Center "a summer theater highlight," with past productions including Violet with Sutton Foster; tick, tick...BOOM! with Lin-Manuel Miranda; Little Shop of Horrors with Ellen Greene and Jake Gyllenhaal; The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin with Nikki M. James; and Jason Robert Brown's Songs for a New World.

New York City Center gratefully acknowledges 75th Anniversary Season Sponsors Stacey and Eric Mindich and the Howard Gilman Foundation.

Leadership support for Encores! Off-Center is provided by the Stacey and Eric Mindich Fund for Musical Theater. Major support is provided by the Ford Foundation. Series Sponsors include Stacy Bash-Polley, Luigi Caiola and Sean McGill, Elizabeth and Dean Kehler, Andrew Martin-Weber, Paula and Ira Resnick, and Nathalie and Pablo Salame.

The Lobby Project is sponsored by The Frederick Loewe Foundation.

In addition, City Center thanks Lisa and Richard Witten for their generous support in establishing the Artistic Innovation Fund and the JLGreene Arts Access Fund in The New York Community Trust and Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Fund for their generous support of the Arts Access Fund.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / WM Photos