Cast Announced for TENNESSEE WILLIAMS 1982 at Walkerspace

Playhouse Creatures Theatre Company (Producing Artistic Director Joseph W. Rodriguez) presents Tennessee Williams 1982, an evening of two, little known, one-act plays by Tennessee Williams, both completed in 1982, the year before the playwrights death. Directed by Cosmin Chivu (2013 revival of Tennessee Williams' The Mutilated), Tennessee Williams 1982 features the world premiere of A Recluse and His Guest and New York Premiere of The Remarkable Rooming-House of Mme. Le Monde. These two chamber pieces epitomize the theatrical imagination the playwright employed throughout his long writing career combined with the freedom he found later in life. Crisply written black comedies, these fierce plays center on the demands of unlikely human relationships in exotic locales fraught with tension.

"The vital truths Williams' reveals in these two one-acts are still present in raw and essential ways," says director Chivu. "In fact, more that 30 years later, the plays feel more potent than ever-the compassion, the poetic fire, and the heartbreaking vision of American's greatest playwright speak loudly in these compact works."

Kate Skinner (The Graduate), who will leads the ensemble cast, will be join by Ford Austin, Declan Eells, Anne Wechsler and Jade Ziane. Completing the creative team is Justin West (set design), Brooke Van Hensbergen (Associate set design), Angela Wendt (costume design), and John Eckert (lighting design), who join Joseph W. Rodriguez (Producing Artistic Director, Playhouse Creatures Theatre Company), Thomas Keith (Creative Producer), Olivia D'Ambrosio (Managing Director, Playhouse Creatures Theatre Company), Dana Greenfield (Associate Director) and Scott Davis (Assistant Director).

In the world premiere of A Recluse and His Guest, we meet a tall person of indeterminate gender-who, we later discover, is a woman named Nevrika. She has walked all winter through the Midnight Forest to a fictional town in a mythical, cold, northern country. In this poignant fable, it is her destiny to always move forward, never back. Looking for someone in the town to care for, she finds a miserable little creature named, Ott. He is the Recluse and she is the Guest who transforms him into a more-human human being, at least for a while.

Making its New York premiere, The Remarkable Rooming-House of Mme. Le Monde is a black comedy steeped in the brutal and the fantastic. Using acutely direct, comic, and unflinching action, Williams gives us a theatrical preview of the world we live in now. His vision is filled with humility for those who suffer while highlighting the greed of those who withhold sustenance along with our growing fetish for money and violence, both emotional and physical. However, Williams does offer hope: to recognize ourselves in a world where the "have-nots" are unfairly blamed for the inequities of the world because they are "accident prone."

Performances of Tennessee Williams 1982 will take place February 14-March 13 (see schedule above) at Walkerspace (46 Walker Street, Manhattan). Critics are welcome as of Thursday, February 18 for an official opening of Sunday, February 21 at 7pm. The running time is 90 minutes with one intermission. Tickets, priced at $40 for general admission and $50 for premium seats, can be purchased by visiting playhousecreatures.org or by calling 800.838.3006.

About the Creative Team

Cosmin Chivu (director) is a Romanian-born theater artist, currently based in New York City, with an international career of award-winning productions. He has directed over 50 professional and university productions in America, Austria, England, Germany, Greece, Italy, Romania and Thailand, including the Off Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams' The Mutilated starring Mink Stole and Penny Arcade, which was nominated for a Drama League Award for Best Revival, Beautiful Province by Clarence Coo (LCT3), winner of the Yale New Drama Series, Something Cloudy Something Clear by Tennessee Williams at The Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival, and staged readings of Our Class by Tadeusz Slobodzianek and More Stars Than There Are In Heaven by John Guare. Chivu is a lifetime member of the Actors Studio, a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab, an alumnus of the Old Globe's Jack O'Brien fellowship and the founder of InterArt Theatre Group. He holds a Masters in Directing from the Actors Studio Drama School, New School University, NYC and a B.A. in Acting from the G. Enescu Art Academy, Romania. Visit cosminchivu.com to learn more.

Justin West (set design) is New York based scenic and projection designer. His work has been seen at The York Theatre, New Ohio Theater, La MaMa ETC, Park Playhouse, The Prince Music Theater, Pace University, The Abingdon Theatre, Pan-Asian Rep, the Alchemical Theater Laboratory, The Lion at Theatre Row, the American Bard, the Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival, Quisisana Resort, and more. www.justinwestdesign.com.

Brooke Van Hensbergen (associate set design) is a Brooklyn based designer for theater and film. Selected credits include: The Connection (International Wow Haus), The Pond at (Downtown Community Television Center), The Sandy Hook Project (The WorkShop Theatre), On the Verge of Default (web mini-series, Sanjit De Silva), and All Is Good (Bienal Arte Joven) in Buenos Aires. Assistant credits: Massacre (The Sheen Center) and Big Love (Schimmel Center).

Angela Wendt's (costume design) recent theater credits include Cabaret, directed by Marcia Milgrim Dodge, St. Louis Repertory Theater, nominated for a St. Louis Theater Circle Design Award. If Colorado Had an Ocean, by Mike Gorman, world premiere at La MaMa. Big Love by Charles Mee, directed by Jorge Cacheiro, Schimmel Arts Center. Singing in the Rain, directed by Ray Roderick, Goodspell Opera, costumes nominated for a Connecticut Critics Circle Award, and The Mutilated by Tennessee Williams, directed by Cosmin Chivu, The New Ohio Theater. Upcoming: The Count of Monte Cristo by Frank Wilderhorn directed by Marcia Milgrim Dodge, Pioneer Theater, SLC. Recent feature film credits include Me and Kaminsky, directed by Wolfgang Becker, Hannah Arendt and The Misplaced World, both directed by Margarethe von Trotta, Audition by Matt Herron, She has also designed numerous music videos and commercials. Angela is the original Costume designer of the groundbreaking Broadway Musical Rent, for which she received the Hewes Design Award, Drama Logue Award and a Drama Desk and a Dora Mover Award Nomination. Most recently she had the honor to bring her design of Rent to Cuba, where it was the first American Musical to be performed there in 57 years!

John Eckert (lighting design) New York credits include: Wedge Horse, At The Table, Breathing Time, From White Plains, The Faire and Frogs (Fault Line Theatre); Consent (Steinberg Center); If Colorado Had An Ocean, Soulographie and How and Why I Robbed My First Cheese Store (La MaMa); Mary-Kate Olson is in Love and My Daughter Keeps Our Hammer (The Flea); Frankenstein: Mortal Toys and Atta Boy (HERE). Regional Credits include: A Christmas Carol (Trinity Rep); This Verse Business (Merrimack Rep); Boeing Boeing (Gulf Shore Playhouse); Unbleached American, How to Succeed in Business (Stoneham Theatre); The 39 Steps (Bristol Riverside Theatre); What to Wear w/ Richard Foreman (REDCAT); Miss Julie (Sledgehammer Theatre); Iphigenia... A Rave Fable (Son of Semele); and over 20 shows with the Peterborough Players. John is an Artistic Associate of Fault Line Theatre. He has won an LA Weekly Award and multiple New Hampshire Theatre Awards. MFA: CalArts. www.jeckert.com.

About the Actors

Kate Skinner (Mme. Le Monde / Nevrika) has starred on Broadway in The Graduate and Uncle Vanya (with Tom Courtenay). Off-Broadway credits include Honey Brown Eyes, The Mapmaker's Sorrow, Ashes to Ashes, and Marvin's Room. National Tours include Lend Me A Tenor and The Graduate. Most recent regional credits include All My Sons (Swine Palace), Henry IV Parts 1 & 2 with Stacy Keach (Shakespeare Theatre), Other Dessert Cities (Pioneer Theatre), Boeing Boeing (Engeman Theatre), Doubt & Agnes of God (ATC/Chicago), The Alchemist (Shakespeare Theatre), Noises Off (Denver Center Theatre), Uncle Vanya with Peter Dinklage (Bard SummerScape), Rabbit Hole (Cleveland Playhouse), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Shakespeare Santa Cruz/Syracuse Stage) and Ah, Wilderness! (Guthrie Theatre). Her TV & film credits include The Affair, Unforgettable, Blue Bloods, all versions of Law & Order numerous times, several soap operas, Mona Lisa Smile, The Rage: Carrie II and Down The Shore (opposite James Gandolfini). She is married to author/actor Ron McLarty.

Ford Austin (Hall/Ott) Stage: The Grapes of Wrath (Tom Joad), The Lower Depths (Satin), The Homecoming (Max), Death of a Salesman (w/ Ralph Waite; The Papermill Playhouse), Lawyers (w/ Kevin Conway; The Westport Country Playhouse) and Zoetrope's Worldly Acts (w/ Jerry O'Connell; LA's Tiffany Theatre), The Male Intellect: An Oxymoron (1-Man Show). Film: Pearl Harbor (Doolittle Pilot). He co-starred in Vicky Jenson's Family Tree (Sundance Premiere, SXSW Jury Prize.) He created The Wright Stuff (comedy series) for Channel 101 and the Academy-award qualifying short Tiny Dancer. Ford has made over a dozen award-winning features, most notably, the cult horror-comedy classic, Dahmer vs Gacy. M.F.A. in Acting, Temple University. In 2011, Austin suffered a catastrophic car accident. He spent two weeks in a coma, semi-paralyzed, followed by months in the hospital. Doctors gave him a 1% chance of survival and said he would probably never walk again. Defiantly, Austin got well and worked from his hospital bed producing the documentary The Right to Love: An American Family. Austin moved to New York City for more surgeries and physical therapy. In 2013, fully recovered, returned to work in Los Angeles where he can be seen, most recently, on ABC's Wicked City. Ford is grateful to be a Lifetime Member of The Actors Studio where he studies with Mark Rydel, Lou Antonio, Lisa Richards, Allan Miller, and his mentor, Martin Landau.

Jade Ziane (Mint) Off Broadway credits: Solutions Grassroots (Ali) Dir. Josh Fox at BAM Irondale Center. Recent NYC credits: The Parade (Don) by Tennessee Williams at Duo Center, Julius Caesar (Octavius) at Access Theatre, and Big Love (Piero) at Michael Schimmel. Favorite roles include: A Number (Bernard 1, Bernard 2, and Michael Black) by Caryl Churchill, The Pillowman (Katurian) by Martin McDonagh, and Bent (Freddie) by Martin Sherman. When he isn't performing, Jade has also taken to writing, producing and directing, making his directorial debut with A Tempest by Amie Cesaire at the International WOW Haus last September. BFA Pace School of Performing Arts.

Declan Eells (Mme Le Monde's Son) is making his Off-Broadway debut with the Playhouse Creatures Theatre Company in Tennessee Williams 1982. His previous credits include Ernie in Jack Gelber's The Connection at the International WOW Haus in Brooklyn and Doalty in Pace University's production of Translations. TV and film credits include HBO's Boardwalk Empire and the short film Stray Boys, which premiered at the 2014 Cannes Film festival. He is currently completing his BFA in Acting at Pace School of Performing Arts.

Anne Wechsler (Golden-haired Girl/Customer) Credits include: Merrily We Roll Along at the Astoria Performing Arts Center, Making Spirits Bright at Act II Playhouse, Michael John LaChuisa's The Wild Party (Nadine), Girl Versus Corinth at Joe's Pub, and White Girl Wasted at the Kraine Theater. Anne is a graduate of NYU's the New Studio on Broadway, thrilled to be working on her first Tennessee Williams' project with the Playhouse Creatures Theatre Company.