Mark Blum, Diane Davis and More to Star in Primary Stages' THE MODEL APARTMENT; Cast Announced!

Primary Stages continues its 29th season with a new production of their acclaimed 1995 OBIE Award winner, The Model Apartment, by Pulitzer Prize winner Donald Margulies (Shipwrecked!, Time Stands Still, Dinner with Friends, Sight Unseen). Directed by Evan Cabnet (A Kid Like Jake at Lincoln Center Theater, The Performers on Broadway), the production will feature Mark Blum (The Assembled Parties and Gore Vidal's The Best Man on Broadway), Diane Davis (Old Acquaintance on Broadway, Regrets Only at MTC), two-time Obie Award-winner Kathryn Grody (The Marriage of Bette & Boo, Top Girls, A Mom's Life), and Hubert Point-Du Jour (Angels in America andThe Brother/Sister Plays Off-Broadway). The Model Apartment runs September 24 - November 1 at Primary Stages at 59E59 Theaters. Opening night is Tuesday, October 15 at 7PM.

When Max and Lola, two Holocaust survivors from Brooklyn, retire to Florida, they find their new condo unfinished and are forced to spend the night in a "model apartment" where things are not always as they seem. In this brilliant and bizarre Drama Desk-nominated black comedy, Max and Lola soon realize that if they ever want to truly "retire," they must first confront the demons of their past.

The Model Apartment features a scenic design by Lauren Halpern, costume design by Jenny Mannis, lighting design by Keith Parham, and original music and sound design by Josh Schmidt.

"Donald Margulies is a vital member of the Primary Stages family and we're excited to be remountingTHE MODEL APARTMENT," says Andrew Leynse, Artistic Director, Primary Stages. "The play has such an important place in our history and we feel it's time to bring this essential Donald Margulies work back to the New York theater scene."

LISTINGS INFORMATION: The Model Apartment plays a limited engagement September 24 - November 1 at Primary Stages at 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street). Opening night is Tuesday, October 15 at 7PM. Performances are Tuesday-Thursday at 7pm, Friday at 8pm, Saturday at 2pm & 8pm, and Sunday at 3pm. There will be a special Wednesday matinee at 2pm on Wednesday, October 30. There is no performance on Wednesday, October 23. Single tickets are priced at $70 for all performances. Tickets may be purchased by calling Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200, online at www.primarystages.org, or in person at the 59E59 Theaters Box Office. Group Tickets (10+) are $49 each for performances through October 13 and $49 each for all performances October 16 -November 1. Group sales are available by calling (212) 840-9705, ext. 204. Please visit the website at www.primarystages.org, or call (212) 840-9705 for additional information.

Mark Blum (Max). Primary Stages: Buffalo Gal. Broadway: The Assembled Parties, Gore Vidal's The Best Man (both revivals), Twelve Angry Men, The Graduate, A Thousand Clowns, Lost In Yonkers, My Thing of Love, The Merchant. Off-Broadway: The Good Mother, Lonely I'm Not, We Live Here, Picked, After The Revolution, Singing Forest, Mourning Becomes Electra, The Long Christmas Ride Home, The Waverly Gallery, Mizlanski Zilinski, Little Footsteps, It's Only A Play,Gus and Al (Obie), Key Exchange, Table Settings, Say Goodnight Gracie. Film: Shattered Glass, Desperately Seeking Susan, Crocodile Dundee, The Presidio, Blind Date, Worth Winning, Lovesick. TV: "Fringe," "The Good Wife," "The Sopranos," "The West Wing," the "Law and Order"s, "NYPD Blue," "Frasier," "The Practice," "Wings," "Miami Vice," and "St. Elsewhere."

Diane Davis (Debby) is thrilled to be at Primary Stages. She has appeared on Broadway in Golden Boy, Festen, and Old Acquaintance and Off-Broadway in Regrets Only (Manhattan Theater Club), The Young Left (Cherry Lane). Regional credits include Abigail/1702 (Pittsburgh City Theater), All My Sons (Huntington), Dying City (Hartford Stage), Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (Center Theatre Group, Los Angeles), Mother of Invention (Williamstown Theater Festival). Television credits include "Michael and Michael Have Issues," "The Beautiful Life," "Fringe," "Without A Trace," "Law and Order", and "Filthy Gorgeous." Diane has an M.F.A. from the NYU Graduate Acting Program. Love to E and W.

Kathryn Grody (Lola) received OBIE Awards for her work in The Marriage of Bette and Boo andTop Girls, and a Drama Desk nomination for her solo show, A Mom's Life, all at the Public. Theater credits include: Actors Theatre of Louisville, Mark Taper Forum, Missouri Repetory Company, EST, The Public Theatre, WPA, NYTW (Usual Suspect), Dorset Theatre, ACT, Dixon Place, 59E59 Theaters, Ambassador, The Lark, The New Works Festival, and Irish Rep with playwrights Michael Weller, Tina Howe, Caryl Churchill, Chris Durang, Ed Napier, Teresa Rebeck, Susan Miller, Andrea Kuchlewska, Leila Buck, Winter Miller, Liz Swados, Wendy Wasserstein, Samuel Beckett, Zuzka Kurtz, Liz Magic Laser, and Savianna Stanescous. Film credits include: My Bodyguard, The Lemon Sisters, Reds, Life With Mikey, Men With Guns, Limbo, and Another Woman.

HUBERT POINT-DU JOUR (Neil). Theater: A Map of Virtue (13P); Nightlands (New Georges); Angels in America (Signature Theater); The Tempest, The Really Big Once (Target Margin); The Brother/Sister Plays (The Public u/s); The Gentleman Caller (Clubbed Thumb); 365/Days Plays (The Public/Clubbed Thumb). Regional: A Raisin in the Sun (Westport Playhouse); Romeo and Juliet (The Shakespeare Theater of DC); Blue Door, The Breach (Seattle Rep); American Buffalo (Wellfleet Harbor). Sundance Theater Lab; Eugene O'neill Playwright's Conference; NYS&F. International: Blue Door (HIFA-Zimbabwe). TV: "Over/Under"; "Black Jack" (Pilot); "Law & Order". Film: Mother George;University Place. NYU Tisch School of the Arts. YoungArts Awardee.

Donald Margulies' (Playwright) plays include Time Stands Still, Brooklyn Boy, Dinner With Friends, Sight Unseen, Collected Stories, Coney Island Christmas, The Loman Family Picnic, God Of Vengeance, What's Wrong With This Picture?, Found A Peanut, The Model Apartment and Shipwrecked! An Entertainment - The Amazing Adventures Of Louis De Rougemont (As Told By Himself). He has won a Lucille Lortel Award, two American Theatre Critics New Play Citations, two Los Angeles Drama Critics Awards, two OBIE Awards, one Tony Award nomination, two Dramatists Guild Hull-Warriner Awards, five Drama Desk Award nominations, two Pulitzer Prize nominations and one Pulitzer Prize. His works have been performed at major theatres across the United States and around the world. Mr. Margulies has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, The New York Foundation for the Arts, and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. In 2005 he was honored by the American Academy of Arts and Letters with an Award in Literature, and was the recipient of the 2000 Sidney Kingsley Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Theatre. Mr. Margulies is an alumnus of New Dramatists and serves on the council of The Dramatists Guild of America. He is an adjunct professor of English and Theatre Studies at Yale University.

Evan Cabnet (Director). World premieres include: Daniel Pearle's A Kid Like Jake (Lincoln Center Theater, Spring 2013). Christopher Shinn's Teddy Ferrara (Goodman Theatre), Warrior Class (Second Stage Uptown), Outside People (Vineyard/Naked Angels), All-American (LCT3), David West Read'sThe Performers (Broadway, Longacre Theater) and The Dream of the Burning Boy (Roundabout Underground), Oohrah! (Atlantic Theater Co.), Elizabeth Meriwether's Oliver Parker! (stageFARM) andThe Mistakes Madeline Made (Naked Angels), Map Of Heaven (Denver Center), Donald Margulies'Shipwrecked! (Long Wharf, East Coast premiere), The Gingerbread House (stageFARM/Rattlestick), and his own adaptations of Ubu Roi and Salman Rushdie's Haroun and the Sea of Stories(Williamstown).

Primary Stages is an Off-Broadway theater company dedicated to inspiring, supporting, and sharing the art of playwriting. We operate on the strongly held belief that the future of American theater relies on nurturing playwrights and giving them the artistic support needed to create new work. Since our founding in 1984, we have produced more than 100 new plays, including David Ives' All in the Timing (both the original 1993 production and 2013 revival); Kate Fodor's Rx; Charles Busch'sOlive and the Bitter Herbs; A.R. Gurney's Black Tie; Horton Foote's Harrison, TX and Dividing the Estate (Two 2009 Tony Awardnominations); Brooke Berman's Hunting and Gathering (one of New York Magazine's Top TenPlays of 2008); Terrence McNally's Dedication or the Stuff of Dreams(starring Nathan Lane andMarian Seldes) and The Stendhal Syndrome (featuring Isabella Rossellini and RichardThomas); Danai Gurira and Nikkole Salter's In the Continuum (which went on to tour the U.S., Africa, and Scotland); and Conor McPherson's St. Nicholas (which marked the playwright's U.S. debut). In 2008, Primary Stages was honored with the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Body of Work, which encompasses much more than the plays we produce for the stage. Primary Stages supports playwrights and develops new works through commissions, workshops, readings, and our education and training programs: The Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group, the Marvin and Anne Einhorn School of Performing Arts (ESPA), and the Fordham/Primary Stages MFA in Playwriting. Through these programs, Primary Stages advocates for our artists, helping them make important-and often transformative-connections within the theater community.

Photo Credit: Jennifer Broski

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