ONE NIGHT, SNOW ORCHID & More Featured in Cherry Lane Theatre's 2013-14 Season

Angelina Fiordellisi, Founding Artistic Director of Cherry Lane Theatre, announces the following productions for the company's 2013-14 season:

The world-premiere of Charles Fuller's play ONE NIGHT..., directed by Clinton Turner Davis, will be produced Off-Broadway by Cherry Lane Theatre and Rattlestick Playwrights Theater this season, with previews set to begin October 17 prior to an official opening night on October 30 at Cherry Lane Theatre (38 Commerce St.) in Manhattan. The production will run through November 24.

Charles Fuller is best-known for his acclaimed A SOLDIER'S PLAY, which won the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Best American Play, New York Drama Critics and Edgar Awards.

ONE NIGHT....takes an unflinching look at what has happened to women in the U.S. Armed Forces when their decision to serve their country exposes them to an unforeseen battle against their fellow soldiers. Home from war, ONE NIGHT... explores the lingering effects of trauma and injustice and one woman's recompense.

Casting for ONE NIGHT... is to be announced.

ONE NIGHT... was commissioned by Angelina Fiordellisi as part of Cherry Lane Theatre's Discovery Series, which gives new plays -- first fine-tuned in the company's various development programs -- a premiere Off-Broadway production on Cherry Lane's Mainstage.

The producers of ONE NIGHT... have announced that 5% of each ticket sale will be donated to organizations that support Afghanistan and Iraq war veterans who are victims of sexual assault. Patrons will have the opportunity match the donation when purchasing tickets.

The production has set design by John McDermott, costume design by Jessica Jahn, lighting design by Nicole Pearce and video design by Gil Sperling.

ONE NIGHT... will perform Tuesdays at 7 pm, Wednesdays through Fridays at 8 pm, Saturdays at 2 and 8 pm and Sundays at 3 pm. Reservations at 212 352 3101 or online at www.cherrylanetheatre.org

Charles Fuller achieved critical notice in 1969 with The Village: A Party. He later wrote plays for the Henry Street Settlement theatre and the Negro Ensemble Company in New York. His 1975 play The Brownsville Raid, won him critical acclaim. He won an Obie Award for Zoomanand the Sign in 1980. His next work, A Soldier's Play, was a critical success, winning the 1982 Pulitzer Prize, Best American Play, New York Critics and Edgar Awards. He later adapted the script into the 1984 film A Sodier's Story. Directed by Norman Jewison the film and his screenplay were nominated for Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and a Writers Guild of America Award. He has also written short fiction, a novella 'Snatch: The Adventures of David and Me in Old New York' for young readers, screenplays for CBS, Showtime, NBC and PBS, and worked as a motion picture producer.

In 1996, Clinton Turner Davis directed the acclaimed revival of August Wilson's JOE TURNER'S COME AND GONE at New Federal Theatre, winner of six AUDELCO awards including Outstanding Production and Direction. His 1994 production of Carlyle Brown's THE AFRICAN COMPANY PRESENTS RICHARD III (Acting Company) also earned AUDELCO awards for Outstanding Direction and EnsemblE. Davis' other award-winning productions include Athol Fugard's MY CHILDREN! MY AFRICA! At Dallas Theatre Center, BLACK NATIVITY at Freedom Theatre and Eric Overmyer's ON THE VERGE.

SNOW ORCHID by Joe Pintauro

SNOW ORCHID by Joe Pintauro will be presented by Barefoot Theatre Company in association with Cherry Lane Theatre in the winter of 2014, with previews set to begin January 7 prior to an opening night (TBA) and running through February 2. Directed by Valentina Fratti, this marks the world premiere of Mr. Pintauro's revised version of his play about an Italian family living in Brooklyn in 1964: a home-bound matriarch who longs for her native Sicily, her husband just returned home from rehab, and their sons.

Joe Pintauro is the author of numerous plays, including RAFT OF THE MEDUSA, BESIDE HERSELF, BY THE SEA, BY THE SEA, BY THE BEAUTIFUL SEA, MEN'S LIVES, HEAVEN AND EARTH and THE DEAD BOY. He is a resident playwright with Circle Repertory Theatre. He received the 2005 John Steinbeck Literary Award, along with awards from the O'Neill Playwriting Conference.

Valentina Fratti has directed numerous productions in New York including APARTMENT 3A by Jeff Daniels, TWO BROTHERS at Theater for the New City and THE GREEN MANIFESTO at Minetta Lane, NYCFringe.

For performance and ticket information: www.cherrylanetheatre.org.

THE HILL TOWN PLAYS by Lucy Thurber

This summer from August 14-September 28, Cherry Lane Theatre Partners with four additional theatres located in the West Village -- Rattlestick, Axis and New Ohio theatres -- to present THE HILL TOWN PLAYS, a cycle of five plays by Lucy Thurber. THE HILL TOWN PLAYS mark the inaugural season of THEATER: VILLAGE, what will become an annual theatrical event of five plays centered around one playwright or theme running simultaneously in five different West Village venues.

Two of the five plays will be performed at Cherry Lane Theatre:

SCARCITY

Written by Lucy Thurber, directed by Daniel Talbott

Produced by Cherry Lane Theatre and Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre

August 14-September 28

Previews begin August 14

Performances: Wednesday 7 pm, Thursday 6:30 pm, Friday 8 pm, Saturday 1 and 8 pm, Sunday 1 and 7 pm

Cherry Lane Theatre Studio (38 Commerce St.)

ASHVILLE

World-premiere

Written by Lucy Thurber, directed by Karen Allen

August 21-September 28

Cherry Lane Theatre, Mainstage (38 Commerce St.)

SCARCITY is being presented as part of Cherry Lane Theatre's Celebrating Women Playwrights program, which continues Cherry Lane's groundbreaking work in creating opportunities for women artists whose voices have been underserved. More info about this program at cherrylanetheatre.org/programs/.

In SCARCITY: a young Rachel watches her dejected father and mother deal with the day to day drudgery of their lives in a small Western Massachusetts town, determined to hold the family together while her older brother Billy looks for an escape. Their lives are interrupted by the comings and goings of equally desperate friends, and a teacher whose own desires disrupt everything in an unexpected way.

Lucy Thurber is the author of the plays: Where We're Born, Ashville, Scarcity, Killers and Other Family, Stay, Bottom of The World,Monstrosity, Dillingham City, The Locus and The Insurgents. Rattlestick Playwrights Theater has produced three of her plays, Where We're Born, Killers and Other Family and Stay. She was the recipient of the 2000-01 Manhattan Theatre Club Playwriting Fellowship.

The other plays in THE HILL TOWN cycle -- being performed at other West Village Theatres -- are WHERE WE'RE BORN, KILLERS AND OTHER FAMILY and STAY.

MASTER CLASS SERIES

Free and open to the general public

Cherry Lane will continue its popular MASTER CLASS SERIES this fall with one-night-only evenings featuring playwrights David Henry Hwang (September 9 at 7 pm) and Kia Corthron (September 16 at 7 pm) and award-winning writer/producer/director Matt Williams (November 18 at 7 pm) at the Cherry Lane Theatre, Studio (38 Commerce St.) Master Class sessions are free and open to the public. Reservations are required and can be booked: company@cherrylanetheatre.org.

Cherry Lane's Master Class series offers an inside view of the creative process, from masters of the craft, in an intimate setting. Master Class participants receive focused contact with distinguished artists in discussions that range from the challenges of the artistic process and production, to navigating professional partnerships, to the moment that inspired their commitment to working in theatre. Since the program's conception, the Master Class Series has engaged the most exciting, legendary and iconic artists working in theatre today. Together they hold twelve Pulitzer Prizes, thirty-five Tony awards, and twenty-one Obie awards. They include Edward Albee, David Auburn, Amiri Baraka, Lee Blessing, Ed Bullins, Kia Corthron, Gretchen Cryer, Tyne Daly, George Dicenzo, Jules Feiffer, Charles Fuller, A.R. Gurney, Israel Horovitz, Tina Howe, David Henry Hwang, Arthur Kopit, Arthur Laurents, David Lindsay-Abaire, Craig Lucas, Eduardo Machado, Emily Mann, Terrence McNally, Charles Mee, Marsha Norman, Lynn Nottage, Harold Prince, Theresa Rebeck, Sam Shepard, Alfred Uhry, Wendy Wasserstein, and Michael Weller.

David Henry Hwang was awarded the 1988 TonyÓ, Drama Desk, Outer Critics, and John Gassner Awards for his Broadway debut, M. Butterfly, which was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His play Golden Child, which premiered at South Coast Repertory, received a 1998 TonyÓ nomination and a 1997 OBIE Award. His new book for Rodgers & Hammerstein'sFlower Drum Song earned him his third TonyÓ nomination in 2003. Yellow Face won a 2008 OBIE Award for Playwriting and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His most recent work,Chinglish, won a 2011 Chicago Jeff Award before moving to Broadway, where it received a 2012 Drama Desk Nomination.Other plays include FOB (1981 OBIE Award), The Dance and the Railroad (1982 Drama Desk Nomination), Family Devotions (1982 Drama Desk Nomination), The Sound of a Voice and Bondage. He co-authored the book for Elton John and Tim Rice'sAida, which ran almost five years on Broadway, and was the bookwriter of Disney's Tarzan, with songs by Phil Collins. As America's most-produced living opera librettist, he has written four works with composer Philip Glass, as well as Osvaldo Golijov'sAinadamar (two 2007 Grammy Awards), Bright Sheng's The Silver River (1997), and Unsuk Chin's Alice in Wonderland (2007 "World Premiere of the Year" by Opernwelt Magazine). Hwang penned the feature films M. Butterfly, Golden Gate, and Possession (co-writer), and co-wrote the song "Solo" with composer/performer Prince. He won the 2011 PEN/Laura Pels Award for a Master American Dramatist, the 2012 Inge Award for Distinguished Achievement in the American Theatre, the 2012 Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, and is a 2013 US Artists Donnelly Fellow. He is currently the Residency One playwright at New York's Signature Theatre Company, which has recently revived two of his earlier plays, and will premiere his newest work, Kung Fu, in 2013-14.

Kia Corthron'splays include A Cool Dip in the Barren Saharan Crick (Playwrights Horizons co-production with The Play Company and the Culture Project), Trickle (Ensemble Studio Theatre's Marathon), Moot the Messenger (Actors Theatre of Louisville's Humana Festival), Light Raise the Roof (New York Theatre Workshop), Snapshot Silhouette (Minneapolis' Children's Theatre), Slide Glide the Slippery Slope (ATL Humana, Mark Taper Forum), The Venus de Milo Is Armed (Alabama Shakespeare Festival), Breath, Boom (London's Royal Court Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, Yale Repertory Theatre, Huntington Theatre and elsewhere), Force Continuum (Atlantic Theater Company), Splash Hatch on the E Going Down(New York Stage and Film, Baltimore's Center Stage, Yale Rep, London's Donmar Warehouse), Seeking the Genesis (Goodman Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club), Digging Eleven(Hartford Stage Company), Life by Asphyxiation (Playwrights Horizons), Wake Up Lou Riser (Delaware Theatre Company), Come Down Burning (American Place Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre), Cage Rhythm (Sightlines/The Point in the Bronx). Awards and fellowships include the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Creative Arts Residency (Italy), Dora Maar Residency (France), MacDowell Colony, Siena Arts Institute Visiting Artist (Italy), Playwrights Center's McKnight National Residency, Masterwork Productions Award, the Wachtmeister Award, Columbia College/Goodman Theatre Fellowship, Barbara Barondess MacLean Foundation Award, AT&T OnStage Award, Daryl Roth Creative Spirit Award, Mark Taper Forum's Fadiman Award, National Endowment for the Arts/TCG, Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays, New Professional Theatre Playwriting Award, Callaway Award, and in television a Writers Guild Outstanding Drama Series Award and Edgar Allan Poe Award for The Wire. Most recently Kia has written a novel. She currently serves on the Council of the Dramatists Guild, is a member of the Writers Guild of America, and is an alumnus of New Dramatists.

Matt Williams is best known as the creator and executive producer of the hit series "Roseanne," and co-creator and executive producer of "Home Improvement." He joined "The Cosby Show" during its premiere season and worked as a writer/producer for three subsequent seasons, during which time his work was honored with Emmy and Humanitas nominations, as well as sharing a Peabody Award for outstanding achievement in television writing. He also served as co-creator of "A Different World." Williams formed the Production Company Wind Dancer and co-created and executive produced "Carol & Company," starring Carol Burnett; "Buddies" with Dave Chappelle; "Thunder Alley;" "Soul Man;" and "Costello," again receiving Emmy and Humanitas nominations and winning numerous People's Choice Awards. He co-wrote and produced Disney's film "Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken;" was executive producer for "Firelight"; produced and directed "Where The Heart Is" starring Natalie Portman and Ashley Judd; produced Nancy Meyer's "What Women Want," with Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt; and co-wrote, produced and directed "Walker Payne" starring Jason Patric and Sam Shepard. Currently, he is writing a half-hour program with George Lopez and David McFadzean for FX. As a playwright, Williams wrote the one-acts "Bruce Lee Is Dead And I'm Not Feeling Too Good Either," and "Jason And The Nun. His full-length play, "Between Daylight and Boonville," premiered in New York to critical acclaim in 1980, and was subsequently performed at the Kennedy Center. He directed Robby Benson's musical "Open Heart" at Cherry Lane Theatre, and has directed over 20 productions of plays by such writers as Neil Simon and Lanford Wilson. He serves on the board of The University of Evansville, where he received an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts as well as a Bachelor of Fine Arts. He received a Masters of Fine Arts in theatre at the University of New Orleans. Williams is a founding board member of Cherry Lane Theatre and The New Harmony Project.

The site of a silo on the Gomez farm in 1817, the building that now stands at 38 Commerce Street was first erected as a brewery in 1836 and later served as a tobacco warehouse and box factory.

In 1924, a group of theater artists, colleagues of Edna St. Vincent Millay, commissioned famed scenic designer Cleon Throckmorton to convert the box factory into Cherry Lane Playhouse. It fueled some of the most ground-breaking experiments in the chronicles of the American Stage. The Downtown Theater movement, The Living Theatre, and Theatre of the Absurd all took root at the lively Playhouse, and it proved fertile ground for 20th century dramaturgy's seminal voices.

From this village jewel streamed a large succession of plays by nascent writers whose names have lent distinction to the American and international literary and dramatic treasuries from F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dos Passos and Elmer Rice in the '20s to O'Neill, O'Casey, Odets, Auden, Gertrude Stein, T.S. Eliot and William Saroyan in the '40s and '50s to Beckett, Albee, Pinter, Ionesco and LeRoi Jones in the '60s to Sam Shepard, Lanford Wilson, Joe Orton and David Mamet in the '70s and '80s.

The Playhouse productions featured an equally illustrious group of actors and directors including Barbra Streisand, Gene Hackman, Beatrice Arthur, James Earl Jones, Colleen Dewhurst, Cicely Tyson, Alan Schneider, Harvey Keitel, Judd Hirsch, Tony Curtis, Gary Sinise, Jerry Stiller, Rue McClanahan, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Roy Scheider, Frances Sternhagen, F. Murray Abraham, Joan Micklin Silver, Peter Falk, Tom Bosley, Frank Langella, Kim Stanley, Tyne Daly, Estelle Parsons, Geraldine Page, Kevin Bacon, Lee Strasberg, Roscoe Lee Browne, Tony Musante, Adolph Green and Betty Comden, Alvin Epstein, Dennis Quaid and Joseph Chaikin.

In 1996 Angelina Fiordellisi revived Cherry Lane, preserved the building and detailed history, and founded the Cherry Lane Alternative, our producing company, creating a number of programs to launch the next generation of American Playwrights, among them David Adjmi, Sheila Callaghan, Bathsheba Doran, Anton Dudley, Sam Forman, Katori Hall, Jakob Holder, Rajiv Joseph, Deborah Zoe Laufer, Rogelio Martinez, Winter Miller, Deirdre O'Connor, Christopher Shinn, Anne Washburn, Beau Willimon, and Bridgette Wimberly. www.cherrylanetheatre.org