New Group Presents CREATIVE PRODUCING Convo With Hal Prince 4/27

In anticipation of its upcoming production Groundswell, The New Group proudly presents "Creative Producing: A Conversation with Hal Prince." This ONE NIGHT ONLY special event takes place Monday, April 27 at 7:00 PM. Tickets are $20 and may be arranged through Ticket Central at www.ticketcentral.com or (212) 279-4200. This event is free to New Group subscribers.

Legendary producer and director Hal Prince will speak on his experiences in the theater and the next generation of creative producers. The evening will be moderated by Broadway and Off-Broadway producer Robyn Goodman, and the panel will include Groundswell playwright Ian Bruce and Associate Producer Orin Wolf. This discussion will center on the production of Groundswell, addressing how this internationally acclaimed play made its way from South Africa to New York, with a U.S. premiere Off-Broadway at The New Group slated for May (previews begin May 4, Official Opening is May 18). Associate Producer Orin Wolf currently holds the T Fellowship in producing at Columbia University, which is co-sponsored by Hal Prince.

Hal Prince directed the premiere productions of Cabaret, the original Sweeney Todd, A Little Night Music, The Phantom of the Opera, She Loves Me, Company, Follies, Candide, Pacific Overtures, Evita, Parade and LoveMusik. Mr. Prince's producing credits include The Pajama Game, Damn Yankees, West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof, Fiorello! and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Among the plays he has directed are Hollywood Arms, The Visit, The Great God Brown, End of the World, Play Memory and his own play, Grandchild of Kings. Recently he prepared a new version of Phantom, which is running in Las Vegas at the Venetian Hotel. He is currently working on a glamorous new musical, Paradise Found with Richard Nelson, Ellen Fitzhugh, Jonathan Tunick and Susan Stroman, and music by Johann Strauss II. His opera productions have been seen at Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Dallas Opera, Vienna Staatsoper and the Theater Colon in Buenos Aires. He served as a trustee for the New York Public Library and on the National Council of the Arts of the NEA. Recently, he became an officer with the Order of Arts and Letters from the French Government for "contributing significantly to furthering the arts in France and throughout the world." He is the recipient of a National Medal of Arts for the year 2000 from President Clinton for a career spanning more than 40 years, in which "he changed the nature of the American musical." The recipient of 21 Tony Awards, he was a 1994 Kennedy Center Honoree.

Robyn Goodman produced Avenue Q (2004 Tony Award for Best Musical), In The Heights (2008 Tony Award for Best Musical) and the current revival of West Side Story. Other Broadway credits include Metamorphoses (Drama Desk Award), A Class Act (Tony nomination), Steel Magnolias, Barefoot in the Park and High Fidelity. Off-Broadway she produced Bat Boy The Musical, tick, tick... BOOM!, Our Lady of 121st Street, Red Light Winter and the award-winning Altar Boyz. She was co-founder and Artistic Director of the Second Stage Theatre for 13 years, Supervising Producer of ABC's "One Life To Live" for 4 years, and is currently the Artistic Consultant to The Roundabout Theatre Company.

Orin Wolf's producing credits include Irving Berlin's I Love a Piano (national tour), Assume the Position starring Robert Wuhl (currently in development at La Jolla Playhouse under the direction of Christopher Ashley), Groundswell, History of the Word (premiered at the Tony-Award Winning Crossroads Theater in October of 2004 and then at the Vineyard Theater and Queens Theatre in the Park in 2006) and 25 Questions for a Jewish Mother Starring Judy Gold. As President and CEO of OBB / Off Broadway Booking, current and upcoming tours include: Footloose, The Wedding Singer, Dixie's Tupperware Party, My Mother's Italian, My Father's Jewish and I'm in Therapy, Runt of the Litter, 25 Questions for a Jewish Mother, I Love a Piano, The Great American Trailer Park Musical, Life in a Marital Institution and Adam Pascal Live. Orin worked as a talent associate on HBO's U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in March of 2004 after being the Company Manager on the Broadway production of Bill Maher: Victory Begins at Home. He is a graduate of the Hartt School of Theater and the Commercial Theater Institute and was awarded the T-Fellowship for Creative Producing at Columbia University.

Ian Bruce was trained as an actor by Ruth Oppenheim and appeared in the early ‘70s on the Johannesburg stage and in SABC TV productions. During a long, politically motivated exile in Holland he co-founded the Tekhwini Theatre Foundation with Anthony Akerman and Joseph Mosikili. It was there he began writing. In 1978, his first play, Falls The Shadow, won the Dutch Arts Council Best New Play Award. His only work to evade South Africa's censorship net, My Father's House, was produced by PACT in 1989, directed by the late Francois Swart. After his return to South Africa in the early ‘90s, Mr. Bruce won a Radio SA award for his play, Kept In Mind. In 1998, he began working with the New Africa Theatre Association for which he and his wife Ina have created a host of productions, educational plays, and Industrial Theatre works. For Mr. Bruce, writing Groundswell marked a very special return, after many years, to the kind of probing drama he most values. He is the current Executive Director of the New Africa Theatre Association.

Directed by Scott Elliott, Groundswell will play a limited Off-Broadway run May 4 - June 27, with an Official Opening Night on Monday, May 18. This production features Larry Bryggman, David Lansbury and Souleymane Sy Savane.

Groundswell plays at The New Group @ Theatre Row (The Acorn Theatre / 410 West 42nd Street, between 9th & 10th Avenues) as follows: Monday @ 8:00 PM, Tuesday @ 7:00 PM, Wednesday - Friday @ 8:00 PM, Saturday @ 2:00 PM (matinee) & 8:00 PM. Tickets may be arranged through Ticket Central at www.ticketcentral.com or (212) 279-4200, or at the Theatre Row Box Office (12:00-8:00 PM daily). Tickets are $49.00.

Previous DARK NIGHT events at The New Group include:

"O'Neill and his Electra": An Evening of Conversation with Tony Kushner, Arthur & Barbara Gelb, Zoe Caldwell (January 16, 2009)
"Eric Bogosian in Scenes from DRACULA" (March 8, 2009)
DARK NIGHTS offers unique programming and enlightening conversation, coinciding with mainstage productions at The New Group.

For more information, visit www.thenewgroup.org.