Meryl Streep, Carla Gugino, Mary-Louise Parker & More Join 'Spotlight on Plays' Spring Season

The spring "Spotlight on Plays" series will soon welcome six celebrated, award-winning actresses. Academy Award winner Ellen Burstyn & SAG nominee Carla Gugino will star in Watch on the Rhine, Emmy Award winner Kathryn Hahn will star in The Sisters Rosenweig, Tony Award winner Audra McDonald will star in Ohio State Murders, Tony Award winner Mary-Louise Parker will star in The Baltimore Waltz and Academy Award winner Meryl Streep will star in Dear Elizabeth.

The series begins this week with Larissa Fasthorse's The Thanksgiving Play on Thursday, March 25 at 8PM EST/5PM PST and Pearl Cleage's Angry, Raucous and Shamelessly Gorgeous on Thursday, April 8 at 8PM EST/5PM PST. Additional casting and dates will be announced soon.

Proceeds benefit The Actors Fund.

THE THANKSGIVING PLAY

Leigh Silverman (Lifespan of a Fact) directs Bobby Cannavale as "Jaxton," Keanu Reeves as "Caden," Heidi Schreck as "Logan" and Alia Shawkat as "Alicia."

Larissa Fasthorse's wickedly funny comedy finds a troupe of terminally "woke" teaching artists scrambling to create a pageant that manages to celebrate both Turkey Day and Native American Heritage Month. "A delicious roasting" (NY Times) of the politics of entertainment and political correctness, The Thanksgiving Play puts the American origin story in the comedy-crosshairs.

ANGRY RAUCOUS AND SHAMELESSLY GORGEOUS

Camille A. Brown (Choir Boy) directs Debbie Allen as "Betty," Phylicia Rashad as "Anna," Heather Alicia Simms as "Kate" and Alicia Stith as "Pete."

Pearl Cleage's "funny and hopeful" (Georgia Magazine) comedy is all about aging gracefully and gorgeously. Campbell, now 65, sparked controversy when she bared it all on stage years ago. When a theatre festival asks to re-stage the work with a younger actress in her role, dramatic and comic fireworks ensue.

WATCH ON THE RHINE by Lillian Hellman

Sarna Lapine (Sunday in the Park....) directs Ellen Burstyn as "Fanny Farrelly" and Carla Gugino as "Sara Muller."

Written and set during the rise of Hitler's Germany, Watch on the Rhine is a play about an American family, suddenly awakened to the danger threatening its liberty. Hellman's powerful drama won the 1941 New York Drama Critics Circle Award.

OHIO STATE MURDERS by Adrienne Kennedy

Kenny Leon (A Soldier's Play) directs Audra McDonald as "Suzanne Alexander."

Ohio State Murders is an unusual look at the destructiveness of racism in the U.S. When Suzanne Alexander, a fictional African American writer, returns to Ohio State University to talk about the violence in her writing, a dark mystery unravels.

DEAR ELIZABETH by Sarah Ruhl

Kate Whoriskey (Ruined) directs Meryl Streep as "Elizabeth" and Kevin Kline as "Robert."

Based on the compiled letters between poets Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Bishop, Dear Elizabeth maps the relationship of the two poets from first meeting to an abbreviated affair-- and the turmoil of their lives in between.

THE BALTIMORE WALTZ by Paula Vogel

Lileana Blain-Cruz (Marys Seacole) directs Mary-Louise Parker as "Anna."

A comic and dramatic fantasia based on the love and adventures of a brother and sister, one of whom has a fatal disease. Winner of the 1992 Obie Award for Best New American Play.

THE SISTERS ROSENSWEIG by Wendy Wasserstein

Anna D. Shapiro (August: Osage County) directs Kathryn Hahn as "Gorgeous Teitelbaum."

Three very different sisters reunite after a lengthy separation and discover humanity, respect, and love in this definitive serious comedy about sisterhood.

The "Spotlight on Plays" events are livestreamed on Stellar at 8PM EST/5PM PST and available for a strictly limited amount of time. Season subscriptions for all seven plays are available now for $59.00 on Broadways Best Shows. Individual tickets can be purchased for $10-15. Proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to The Actor's Fund.

To learn more about "Spotlight on Plays" series, visit Broadways Best Shows Spotlight on Plays.

The Spring Series of "Spotlight" on Plays is produced by an award-winning team of producers including Good Productions/Patty Baker, Rebecca Gold, Jayne Baron Sherman, Iris Smith, Louise Gund, Willette Klausner, Myla Lerner, Judith Manocherian, Alix Ritchie, Jenna Segal, and The Shubert Organization with support from The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation. Associate Producers for the Spring Season include Rose Caiola, Barbara Freitag, Barbara Manocherian and Gabrielle Palitz.

"Spotlight on Plays" is created by Jeffrey Richards with Jacob Soroken Porter and Jim Glaub.