Michelle Beck and More Lead THE WANDERERS a the Old Globe

The Old Globe's 2017-2018 Season continues with today's announcement of the complete cast and creative team for the Globe-commissioned world premiere of Anna Ziegler's new American play The Wanderers, directed by Barry Edelstein, the Globe's Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director. The Wanderers will run April 6 - May 6, 2018 in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, part of the Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. Tickets start at $30.00 and are on sale to the general public now. Previews run April 6-12. Opening night is Friday, April 13 at 8:00 p.m.

The world premiere of The Wanderers brings playwright Anna Ziegler back to The Old Globe following the success of The Last Match in 2016. Esther and Schmuli are shy young Orthodox Jews embarking on an arranged marriage, despite barely knowing each other. Abe and Julia are high-profile celebrities embarking on a dangerously flirtatious correspondence, despite being married to other people. On the surface, the lives of these two couples couldn't be more different. But Ziegler's funny, insightful, and mysterious new drama, commissioned by the Globe and developed in last year's Powers New Voices Festival, explores the hidden connections between seemingly disparate people, drawing audiences into an intriguing puzzle and a deeply sympathetic look at modern love.

The Wanderers was recognized by three major honors in conjunction with this production, including The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation Theatre Visions Fund Award-a program which selects just one production each year out of a nationwide pool of applicants, with a selection panel which includes theatre luminaries Theodore S. Chapin, Scott Ellis, Tom Hulce, and John Weidman, an Edgerton Foundation New Play Award-which supports an extended rehearsal process for world premiere productions, and a Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Theater Development Grant-which recognizes early career playwrights and their work with development and production grants that support commissions, readings, workshops and first productions.

The cast includes Michelle Beck (Broadway's A Raisin in the Sun, Richard III and Love's Labour's Lost at The Public Theater) as Sophie, Janie Brookshire (Ziegler'sA Delicate Ship, The Philanthropist on Broadway) as Julia Cheever, Ali Rose Dachis (Larry David's Fish in the Dark on Broadway) as Esther, Daniel Eric Gold ("Ugly Betty," Charlie Wilson's War, Obie Award winner for A Small Tragedy Off Broadway) as Abe, and Dave Klasko (King Lear for The Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park) as Schmuli.

The creative team includes Marion Williams (Scenic Design), David Israel Reynoso (Costume Design), Amanda Zieve (Lighting Design), Jane Shaw (Sound Design), Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew (Projection Design), David Huber (Voice and Dialect Coach), Caparelliotis Casting (Casting), and Anjee Nero (Production Stage Manager).

"Anna Ziegler continues to rise to prominence as one of the most exciting playwrights of her generation, and it's an honor for the Globe to produce the world premiere of her wonderful and striking new play," said Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein. "The Wanderers tells two intertwined stories, both of which center on people who seek for something more out of life. Their restlessness-their wanderings-lead them to make choices that change everything, not only for themselves, but also for the people who love them. Anna's writing is emotionally rich and intellectually bracing, and she confers great humanity and dignity on these lost souls. This is a highly original play that I find audacious, absorbing, and moving, and I'm delighted to share it with San Diego audiences."

Anna Ziegler (Playwright) has written the plays The Wanderers (The Old Globe's 2017 Powers New Voices Festival); The Last Match (The Old Globe, City Theatre, Roundabout Theatre Company; Craig Noel Award nomination for Outstanding New Play); the widely produced Photograph 51, directed on the West End in 2015 by Michael Grandage and starring Nicole Kidman (WhatsOnStage Award for Best New Play); Actually (Geffen Playhouse, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Manhattan Theatre Club; Ovation Award for Playwriting for an Original Play); Boy (Keen Company/Ensemble Studio Theatre, TimeLine Theatre Company; Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Award nominee); and A Delicate Ship (The Playwrights Realm, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park). She currently holds commissions from Roundabout Theatre Company, Second Stage Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, and Empire Street Productions. Her plays have been developed at The Sundance Institute Theatre Lab, The O'Neill Theater Center's National Playwrights Conference, Cape Cod Theatre Project, New York Stage and Film, Old Vic New Voices, and Soho Rep.'s Writer/Director Lab, among others. Her plays are published by Dramatists Play Service; a collection entitled Anna Ziegler: Plays One is published by Oberon Books. She is currently developing television shows for HBO and AMC/Sundance and a screenplay for Scott Free Productions.

Barry Edelstein (Director) is the Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director of The Old Globe and is a stage director, producer, author, and educator. He has directed nearly half of the Bard's plays. His Globe directing credits include The Winter's Tale, Othello, The Twenty-seventh Man, the world premiere of Rain, Picasso at the Lapin Agile,Hamlet, and the world premiere of The Wanderers. He also directed All's Well That Ends Well as the inaugural production of the Globe for All community tour. As Director of the Shakespeare Initiative at The Public Theater (2008-2012), Mr. Edelstein oversaw all of the company's Shakespearean productions as well as its educational, community outreach, and artist-training programs. At The Public, he staged the world premiere of The Twenty-seventh Man, Julius Caesar, The Merchant of Venice, Timon of Athens, and Steve Martin's WASP and Other Plays. He was also Associate Producer of The Public's Broadway production of The Merchant of Venicestarring Al Pacino. From 1998 to 2003 he was Artistic Director of Classic Stage Company. His book Thinking Shakespeare is the standard text on American Shakespearean acting. He is also the author of Bardisms: Shakespeare for All Occasions. He is a graduate of Tufts University and the University of Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar.

The Wanderers is supported in part by a lead underwriting grant from The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation. It is also supported in part through gifts from Production Sponsors Laurents / Hatcher Foundation, Sheila and Jeffrey Lipinsky, Paula and Brian Powers, U.S. Bank, and The Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Fund. This play is a recipient of an Edgerton Foundation New Play Award. Financial support is provided by The City of San Diego.

Additional events taking place during the run of The Wanderers include:

VICKI AND CARL ZEIGER INSIGHTS SEMINAR: Tuesday, April 10 at 5:30 p.m.

An opportunity to closely connect with productions both onstage and backstage. Playwright Anna Ziegler and director Barry Edelstein will engage patrons in an informal and illuminating presentation of ideas and insights to enhance the theatregoing experience. Reception at 5:00 p.m. FREE.

SUBJECT MATTERS: Saturday, April 14 following the 2:00 p.m. matinee.

Explore the ideas and issues raised by a production through brief, illuminating post-show discussions with local experts, such as scientists, artists, historians, and scholars. Subject Matters will ignite discussion, bring the play's concerns into sharp focus, and encourage you to think beyond the stage! FREE.

POST-SHOW FORUMS: Tuesdays, April 17 and 24, and Wednesday, May 2.

Join us after the show for an informal and enlightening question-and-answer session with cast, crew, and/or Globe staff members. Get the inside story on creating a character and putting together a professional production. FREE.

SINGLE TICKETS to The Wanderers start at $30 and are on sale to the general public now. Tickets can be purchased online at www.TheOldGlobe.org, by phone at (619) 23-GLOBE [234-5623], or by visiting the Box Office at 1363 Old Globe Way in Balboa Park. Discounts are available for full-time students, patrons 29 years of age and under, seniors, military members, and groups of 10 or more.

Performances begin on April 6, 2018, and continue through May 6, 2018. Performance times: Previews: Friday, April 6 at 8:00 p.m.; Saturday, April 7 at 8:00 p.m.;Sunday, April 8 at 7:00 p.m.; Tuesday, April 10 at 7:00 p.m.; Wednesday, April 11 at 7:00 p.m.; and Thursday, April 12 at 8:00 p.m. Opening night is Friday, April 13 at 8:00 p.m. Regular performances (April 6 - May 6): Tuesday and Wednesday evenings at 7:00 p.m.; Thursday and Friday evenings at 8:00 p.m.; Saturdays at 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.; and Sundays at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. There will be no matinee performance on Sunday, April 22 at 2:00 p.m., and an additional matinee performance on Wednesday, April 25 at 2:00 p.m.

The Tony Award-winning Old Globe is one of the country's leading professional regional theatres and has stood as San Diego's flagship arts institution for over 80 years.Under the leadership of Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein and Managing Director Timothy J. Shields, The Old Globe produces a year-round season of 15 productions of classic, contemporary, and new works on its three Balboa Park stages: the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage in the 600-seat Old Globe Theatre and the 250-seat Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, both part of The Old Globe's Conrad Prebys Theatre Center, and the 605-seat outdoor Lowell Davies Festival Theatre, home of its internationally renowned Shakespeare Festival. More than 250,000 people attend Globe productions annually and participate in the theatre's artistic and arts engagement programs. Numerous world premieres such as the 2014 Tony Award winner for Best Musical, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, Meteor Shower,Bright Star, Allegiance, The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and the annual holiday musical Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas! have been developed at The Old Globe and have gone on to enjoy highly successful runs on Broadway and at regional theatres across the country.