F. Murray Abraham to Lead Classic Stage Company's GALILEO, 2/1

Classic Stage Company, under the leadership of Artistic Director Brian Kulick, will present Academy Award winner F. Murray Abraham in a new production of Bertolt Brecht's GALILEO, translated by Charles Laughton, and directed by Kulick, beginning performances Wednesday, February 1 at CSC (136 East 13th Street) for a limited engagement through Sunday, March 11. The official press opening for GALILEO is Sunday, February 12. Tickets for GALILEO go on sale to the public today, Tuesday, January 3.

Abraham will be joined in the cast by Jon Devries, Robert Dorfman, Aaron Himelstein, Andy Phelan, Amanda Quaid, Steve Rattazzi, Steven Skybell and Nick Westrate. Scenic design is by Adrianne Lobel, lighting design by Justin Townsend, costume design by Oana Botez-Ban and original music and sound design by Christian Frederickson and Ryan Rumery.

Considered by many to be one of Brecht's masterpieces, GALILEO explores the question of a scientist's social and ethical responsibility, as the brilliant scientist Galileo must choose between his life and his life's work when confronted with the Inquisition.

GALILEO will perform Tuesdays at 7pm; Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8pm; Saturdays & Sundays at 3pm. Tickets are $60-$65. For tickets and information, visit www.classicstage.org or call (866) 811-4111, or (212) 352-3101, or visit the CSC box office at 136 East 13th Street, Monday through Friday 12 pm to 6pm.

Now in its 45th year Classic Stage Company is the award winning theatre committed to re-imagining the classical repertory for a contemporary American audience. This season CSC has presented the critically-acclaimed production of The Cherry Orchard with John Turturro and Dianne Wiest and will in March present Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream with Tony Award-winning actress Bebe Neuwirth and acclaimed actress Christina Ricci . Past seasons have included critically acclaimed productions of Chekhov's Three Sisters with Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jessica Hecht, Juliet Rylance and Peter Sarsgaard, directed by Austin Pendleton (Obie Award); David Ives' The School for Lies with Hamish Linklater (Obie Award), directed by Walter Bobbie; Unnatural Acts, conceived and directed by Tony Speciale; Ostrovsky's The Forest with Dianne Wiest and John Douglas Thompson, directed by Brian Kulick; David Ives' Venus In Fur with Nina Arianda and Wes Bentley, directed by Walter Bobbie; Shakespeare's The Tempest with Mandy Patinkin, directed by Brian Kulick; Chekhov's Uncle Vanya with Denis O'Hare, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard, directed by Austin Pendleton; Anne Carson's An Oresteia (International PENN Award for Poetry); Chekhov's The Seagull with Dianne Wiest and Alan Cumming; David Ives' New Jerusalem with Richard Easton, directed by Walter Bobbie; Hamlet, Richard II, Richard III with Michael Cumpsty (Obie Award as Hamlet), directed by Brian Kulick; and Yasmina Reza's A Spanish Play with Zoe Caldwell, directed by John Turturro.

CSC presents plays from the past that speak directly to the issues of today. As we return to works of the past, we endeavor to keep a clear eye on the future, particularly in terms of the next generation of artists and audiences. Founded in 1967, CSC has received wide recognition for its significant contributions to theatre as an art form through productions of classic plays, translations and adaptations and a long-standing commitment to the identification and nurturing of leading and emerging artists. Classic Stage's artists are the finest established and emerging theater practitioners working in this country. Highly respected and widely regarded as a major force in New York and American theatre, Classic Stage has been cited repeatedly by all the major Off-Broadway theater awards: Obies, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Drama League and the 1999 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Body of Work. For more information on Classic Stage Company visit the theatre's website at www.classicstage.org.

F. Murray Abraham (Galileo). Professional debut in Ray Bradbury's The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit. Macy's Santa, street theatre, commercials, live soap opera, children's theatre, musical comedy, Broadway debut in Man in the Glass Booth directed by Harold Pinter, 20th anniversary production of Caretaker, Waiting for Godot directed by Mike Nichols with Robin Williams, Steve Martin and Bill Irwin; plays by Sophocles, Aristophanes, Jonson, Shakespeare, Marlowe, Molière, Fadeaux, Giraudoux, Rostand, Chekhov, J.C. Oates, Pirandello, Beckett, Pinter, Miller, McNally, Guare, Shepard. Experimental work with Joe Chaiken, Pina Bausch, Richard Foreman, Andrei Serban, Linda Mussman, two evenings of one-act plays by Ethan Cohn, Law & Order, Bored to Death, The Good Wife, Scarface, Amadeus, The Name of the Rose, many European films: Lena Wertmuller, Sophia Lauren, Giancarlo Giannini, Claudia Cardinale, Max Von Sydow. Academy Award, Golden Globe, Obie, John Gielgud Award. Grandfather.

Brian Kulick (Director) is in his ninth year as Artistic Director of Classic Stage Company. Recent productions for CSC include Shakespeare's The Tempest with Mandy Patinkin, Ostrovsky's The Forest with Dianne Wiest and Shakespeare's Hamlet and Richard III with Michael Cumpsty. He commissioned and co-directed poet Anne Carson's award-winning An Oresteia, which was comprised of her translations of Aeschylus' Agamemnon, Sophocles' Electra, and Euripides' Orestes. From 1996-2001 Mr. Kulick was an Artistic Associate at The Public Theater where he directed Twelfth Night, The Winter's Tale and Timon of Athens at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park and also A Dybbuk, Pericles and Kit Marlowe at The Public's downtown home. Prior to this Mr. Kulick was the Associate Artistic Director of Trinity Repertory Theatre where he directed Romeo and Juliet, The Illusion and Don Quixote. He has directed the premieres of works by Nilo Cruz, Charles Mee, Tony Kushner, Han Ong and Kathleen Tolan. His work has also been seen at New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, the Mark Taper Forum, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Magic Theatre, ACT (Seattle) and McCarter Theatre. His work in opera/music theatre includes Carmen, Pelleas and Melisande, A Soldier's Tale, The Guilty Mother and The Anatole Cycle (all for Long Beach Opera). He has also served as the Creative Director of The Shakespeare Society and is currently on the faculty of Columbia's School of the Arts where he teaches directing with Anne Bogart.