The New Theatre 20th Anniversary Season*Opening This Weekend*Madagascar by JT Rogers With Kathryn Lee Johnston, Angie Radosh and William Schwartz Directed by Ricky J. Martinez (New Theatre Directorial Debut) Designers: Jesse Dreikosen and Micheal Foster Stage Manager: Joseph M. NeSmithSeptember 8 - October 9, 2005Thursday, Sept. 8 at 8 pm- Reduced Price PreviewOPENING WEEKEND EVENTS WITH THE PLAYWRIGHT: *Book sale and signing of J.T. Rogers' Madagascar throughout the opening weekend* Friday, Sept. 9 at 7 pm - Pre-Opening Night Celebration Enjoy the hors d'oeuvre buffet courtesy of Catering by Lovables and meet the playwright at 7 pm, followed by the performance at 8 pm. Saturday, Sept. 10 at 8 pm (Opening Night) Sunday, Sept. 11 at 1 pm- Meet'n'Greet Brunch Enjoy a light brunch and meet the playwright at Noon, performance at 1 pm followed by a post-play discussion with cast and playwright.* Sunday, September 11 at 7 pm. PLAY READING The Overwhelming, a new play by J.T. Rogers
About the play and playwright Madagascar is about a mysterious disappearance that changes three lives forever. A stunning new play by J.T. Rogers - author of the 2003-2004 season's enormously successful White People. With the simplest of means Rogers creates a dizzying and haunting look at life and loss.J.T. Rogers' Madagascar received the 2005 Pinter Review Prize for Drama and will be published in September in hardback through the Pinter Review and the University of Tampa Press. The play also won the American Theatre Critics Association's 2004 M. Elizabeth Osborne Award and was a finalist for the ATCA's Steinberg New Play Award. It was recently seen Off Broadway as part of the SPF Summer Play Festival. Rogers is the author of White People (nominated for best play of the year by the L.A. Drama Critics Circle, Barrymore Award of Philadelphia, and the Carbonell Award), Seeing the Elephant (Kesselring Prize nominee for best new American play), and Murmuring in a Dead Tongue, which was presented last season in NYC by Epic Rep, where he is company member. His latest play, The Overwhelming, was presented at the Play Penn festival of new works in Philadelphia in July. Regionally, his works have been given main-stage productions here at New Theatre, and at the Philadelphia Theatre Co., New Actors Union Theatre (Moscow), the Road Theatre (L.A.), the Adirondack Theatre Festival (NY), and many times at the Salt Lake Acting Co., where he was a 2004-2005 NEA/TCG playwright in residence. Rogers has been an artist in residence at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center and the Edward Albee Foundation, and was the recipient of a 2004 Playwriting fellowship from New York Foundation for the Arts. He lives in Brooklyn.