Bartlett Sher to Helm BLOOD AND GIFTS at LCT this Fall

Lincoln Center Theater has announced plans to produce BLOOD AND GIFTS, a new play by J.T. Rogers, to be directed by Bartlett Sher, this fall in the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater Previews begin Thursday, October 27. Opening night is Monday, November 21. The production's cast of 13 and design team will be announced at a later date.

Commissioned by Lincoln Center Theater, and presented this past fall in London at the National Theatre, BLOOD AND GIFTS tells the story of the secret spy war behind the official Soviet-Afghan War of the 1980s. Spanning a decade and playing out in Washington DC, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, the play follows CIA operative Jim Warnock as he struggles to stop the Soviet Army's destruction of Afghanistan. The ground constantly shifts for Jim and his counterparts in the KGB and British and Pakistani secret service as the political and personal alliances between the men keeps changing. And as the outcome of the entire Cold War comes into play, Jim and a larger-than-life Afghan warlord find the only person they can trust is each other. BLOOD AND GIFTS tells the story of the unknown men who shaped one of the greatest historical events of recent history, the repercussions of which continue to shape our world.

J.T. Rogers is the author of the play The Overwhelming (produced in New York by the Roundabout Theater Company and in London at the National Theatre, in association with Out of Joint), Madagascar, White People, Murmuring in a Dead Tongue and Seeing the Elephant which was nominated for the Kesselring Prize for Best New American Play. An earlier version of BLOOD AND GIFTS was presented as part of a cycle of 11 plays about Afghanistan titled The Great Game: Afghanistan at the Tricycle Theatre in London.

Bartlett Sher, Resident Director at Lincoln Center Theater, directed the LCT productions of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Joe Turner's Come and Gone (Tony nomination), South Pacific (Tony Award), Awake and Sing! (Tony nomination) and The Light in the Piazza (Tony nomination). Former Artistic Director of Seattle's Intiman Theater, his other NY credits include productions at Playwrights Horizons and Theatre for a New Audience. His opera credits include the MET productions of The Barber of Seville, The Tales of Hoffman and the current Comte d'Ory.

Now in its 26th year, Lincoln Center Theater is currently presenting, with the National Theatre of Great Britain and Bob Boyett, the National Theatre's production of War Horse, adapted from the novel by Michael Morpurgo by Nick Stafford in association with Handpsring Puppet Company and directed by Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris, opening April 14 at the Vivian Beaumont Theater, and the new musical A Minister's Wife, based on George Bernard Shaw's Candida, with a book by Austin Pendleton, music by Joshua Schmidt, lyrics by Jan Levy Tranen, conceived and directed by Michael Halberstam, beginning Thursday, April 7 in the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater. LCT3, Lincoln Center Theater's programming initiative dedicated to producing the works of new artists and developing new audiences will conclude its third season with 4000 Miles, a new play by Amy Herzog, directed by Daniel Aukin, June 6 through July 2 at The Duke on 42nd Street.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/WM Photos