Joely Richardson to Join Ethan Hawke in Classic Stage Company's IVANOV

Classic Stage Company, under the leadership of Artistic Director Brian Kulick and Executive Director Greg Reiner, has announced that acclaimed stage, screen and television actress Joely Richardson (bio below) has joined the cast of their upcoming production of Anton Chekhov's IVANOV, starring Ethan Hawke and directed by Austin Pendleton, which begins performances Wednesday, October 17 at CSC (136 East 13th Street) as the first show of the award-winning company's 45th Anniversary Season. Hawke, in the title role, and Richardson, who will play Anna, will be joined in IVANOV by Glenn Fitzgerald (Borkin), Roberta Maxwell (Zinaida), George Morfogen (Shabelsky), Juliet Rylance (Sasha), Jonathan Marc Sherman (Lvov) and Louis Zorich (Lebedev). IVANOV, which will have its official opening on Sunday, November 4, will play a limited engagement through Sunday, November 25. Tickets go on sale to the general public on Thursday, September 20.

Hawke will be making his CSC debut in IVANOV, as the theatre continues its immensely successful Chekhov Cycle. As Chekhov's first great dramatic anti-hero, Hawke takes on the role considered by many to be "the Russian Hamlet." Returning to CSC, Pendleton has directed the highly-acclaimed productions of Chekhov's Three Sisters and Uncle Vanya for the company. Rylance, Maxwell, Morfogen and Zorich have each been featured in previous Chekhov Cycle offerings.

Translated by Carol Rocamora, IVANOV will feature scenic design by Tony Award-winner Santo Loquasto (who also designed CSC's The Cherry Orchard, Uncle Vanya and The Seagull), costumes by Marco Piemontese (The Cherry Orchard, Three Sisters), lighting by Keith Parham (Three Sisters) and original music and sound by Ryan Rumery (The Cherry Orchard, Three Sisters).

Following IVANOV, CSC's season continues in February with Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Tony Award-winning Best Musical PASSION, featuring beloved musical theatre stars Judy Kuhn and Melissa Errico, and directed by Tony Award-winner John Doyle, who has won acclaim for his revelatory reinterpretations of Sondheim's Sweeney Todd and Company. Additional casting will be announced in the coming months. (Doyle's directorial concept for PASSION will not include musical instruments played by actors.)

CSC's Mainstage season wraps up in May with Bertolt Brecht's THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE featuring a new score by Tony Award-winning singer/songwriter Duncan Sheik (Spring Awakening). Directed by Brian Kulick (who directed this past season's sold-out production of Brecht's Galileo starring F. Murray Abraham at CSC), Brecht's playful parable calls into question our basic assumptions of right in a world that has gone wrong.

Classic Stage Company is the award-winning theatre committed to re-imagining the classical repertory for a contemporary American audience. Last season, CSC presented critically-acclaimed productions of The Cherry Orchard with John Turturro and Dianne Wiest, which received the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Revival; Bertolt Brecht's Galileo starring Academy Award-winner F. Murray Abraham, directed by Brian Kulick; and Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream with Bebe Neuwirth and Christina Ricci, directed by Tony Speciale. 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 PEN 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. CSC's artists are the finest established and emerging theatre practitioners working in this country. Highly respected and widely regarded as a major force in New York and American theatre, CSC 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 further information on Classic Stage Company, call (212) 352-3101, visit the theatre in person at 136 East 13th Street, or go to www.classicstage.org.