Nielsen, Weller, Etc. Set for Playwrights '06-'07 Season

Another round of casting has been announced for Playwrights Horizons' 2006-2007 season, which will feature performances by Kristine Nielsen, Peter Weller, Harris Yulin and more.

The season kicks off on September 1st with the New York premire of Bruce Norris' The Pain and the Itch, starring the previously-announced Jayne Houdyshell (Well), as well as Mia Barron, Aya Cash, Peter Jay Fernandez, Reg Rogers, and Christopher Evan Welch, among others. Anna D. Shapiro directs the play.  "With a young daughter in serious need of attention and a ravenous creature possibly prowling the upstairs bedrooms, what begins as an average Thanksgiving for one privileged family unravels into an exposé of disastrous choices and less-than-altruistic motives," state press notes.

Reg E. Cathey (The Green Bird, Fool's Fire, "The Wire") and recent NYU Acting Program Graduate Andre Holland (Shakespeare in the Park As You Like It and Much Ado About Nothing) will headline the New York premiere of Tanya Barfield's Blue Door, directed by Leigh Silverman (Well) and running from September 28th through October 29th.  "When a prominent African-American mathematician in crisis begins to lose his grip on reality, the ghosts of ancestors past shatter the serenity of an insomnia-filled night. Blue Door is a tour-de-force for two actors, a vivid, exuberantly theatrical play about the black American male experience.  The show will play the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre.

Film and theatre star Weller (Summer Brave, Full Circle, Robocop films, "24") will join actor-director Yulin (Fran's Bed, Hedda Gabler, The Price) for the New York premiere of Richard Nelson's Frank's Home, which will be directed by Robert Falls (Death of a Salesman, Aida).  Weller will play the character of the title--the legendary Frank Lloyd Wright--while Yulin will play fellow architect Louis Sullivan.  "It is summer, 1923, and architect Frank Lloyd Wright has recently left Chicago for California, determined to embrace Hollywood's youthful zest and mend broken relationships with his adult children. Having recently completed his latest 'wonder of the world' — Tokyo's Imperial Hotel — Wright is poised to settle down and embrace his new home. But his splintered family still holds deep-seated resentments."  The play, which begins performances in January on the Mainstage Theatre, was previously seen at Chicago's Goodman Theatre; it will be presented in association with the Goodman.

Joining the previously-announced Sigourney Weaver (Mrs. Farnsworth, Hurlyburly) in the world premiere of Crazy Mary, a new play by A.R. Gurney (Love Letters, Sylvia) will be Nielsen (Romeo and Juliet at Williamstown, Miss Witherspoon, Obie-winner for Betty's Summer Vacation).   The play begins previews in May on the Mainstage.  "In an attempt to account for the family inheritance, the scion of a wealthy Buffalo, NY clan and her willful, college-aged son visit their long lost cousin Mary. The catch: Mary is living in an asylum, and has barely spoken in years, forcing mother and son to employ radical ends to get through."  The play will be directed by Flea Theatre artistic director Jim Simpson (Mrs. Farnsworth).

No casting has yet been announced for the other 2006-2007 Playwrights Horizons shows-- David Cale and Jonathan Kreisberg's musical Floyd and Clea Under the Western Sky and Adam Rapp's Essential Self Defense.

Visit www.playwrightshorizons.org for more information.