Lois Smith to Star in Playwrights Horizons' 'Saints'

Playwrights Horizons, under the leadership of Artistic Director Tim Sanford and Managing Director Leslie Marcus, has announced additional casting for its 2007/2008 Season.  

Two-time Tony Award nominee Lois Smith will headline the previously-announced World Premiere of 100 Saints You Should Know, a new play by Kate Fodor (Hannah and Martin) and directed by Drama Desk Award nominee Ethan McSweeny (Broadway revival of The Best Man, Never the Sinner).  

Smith's last stage appearance was her acclaimed performance in Horton Foote's The Trip to Bountiful at Signature Theatre, for which she received five awards: an Obie Award, a Lucille Lortel Award, a Drama Desk Award, an Outer Critics Circle Award and the Kingsley-Evans Award.  Smith made her Broadway debut in 1952 in Time Out for Ginger and her additional Broadway credits include The Grapes of Wrath (Tony nomination), Buried Child (Tony nomination), The Young and Beautiful, The Iceman Cometh and Orpheus Descending (original production). She has a long history with Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre, where she first worked in 1988 and became a Steppenwolf Ensemble Member in 1993.  She is a longtime member of The Actors Studio and has appeared in many plays both Off-Broadway and regionally.  Her many films include her debut in East of Eden with James Dean and Five Easy Pieces (National Society of Film Critics Award).  Her television work spans live television plays ("Miss Julie," "The Master Builder"), series guest appearances ("Grey's Anatomy," "Frasier," "Law & Order") and HBO films ("Truman," "The Laramie Project").

100 Saints You Should Know will be the first production of the season, with previews beginning August 24, 2007 at Playwrights Horizons Mainstage Theater (416 West 42nd Street).   In the show, "Theresa cleans the rectory of the local parish to support her unruly teenage daughter. When its priest is forced to leave the church under uncertain circumstances and return home to his protective mother (Lois Smith), Theresa finds herself compelled to pursue him.  One eventful night joins them all, forcing a reckoning with the broken memories and shaken faith that divides them – and the discovery of a shared, tenuous common ground, state press notes.

During the 2007-2008 season, Playwrights Horizons will also present:the world premiere of Sarah Treem's A Feminine Ending, directed by Blair Brown, the world premiere of Doris to Darlene: A Cautionary Valentine, the New York premiere of Pulitzer Prize-finalist Sarah Ruhl's Dead Man's Cell Phone, the New York City premiere of Adam Bock's The Drunken City and the world premiere of the new musical Saved!.

Additional casting for 100 Saints You Should Know will be announced in the coming months.

Visit www.playwrightshorizons.org for tickets and more information.

Photo of Lois Smith by Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.