Peccadillo to Present Regan's 1940 Play Morning Star

The OBIE and Lortel Award-winning Peccadillo Theater Company will present the first New York City revival of Sylvia Regan's 1940 play Morning Star. Performances will be at Bank Street Theatre (155 Bank Street), and will begin on Thursday, June 28th, continuing through Saturday, July 28th.

"Beginning in 1910, Sylvia Regan's Morning Star tells the story of the hopes and struggles of an immigrant Jewish family on the Lower East Side of New York. Becky Felderman, a widow, has brought her four children to America so they might have a better life than they would in Russia. Their fortunes are shaped by the momentous events happening around them: the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, World War I and the Great Depression. First produced on Broadway in 1940, Morning Star shares with us a poignant quest for family, love and the promise of the American dream.  The play went on to be produced all over the world, as Ellen Schiff points out in her collection Awake and Singing: 'Although Morning Star showcases major chapters in American Jewish experience, the play's international successes demonstrate its wide appeal.'  Peccadillo is pleased to bring Morning Star back to the city where it is set," state production notes.

The cast includes Peter J. Coriaty, Matthew DeCapua, Susan Greenhill, Lena Kaminsky, David Lavine, Geany Masai, Allan Mirchin, Steve Sterner, Caroline Tamas, Darcy Yellin, and Josh Philip Weinstein.  Design duties will be handled by Joe Spirito (Sets), Jeffrey E. Salzberg (Lighting), and Gail Cooper-Hecht (Costumes).

Director Dan Wackerman is the artistic director of The Peccadillo Theater Company. Most recently, he directed the critically acclaimed off-Broadway revival of John Murray and Alan Boretz's Room Service.   He also directed a revival of Dorothy Parker and Arnaud d'Usseau's The Ladies of the Corridor at the 13th Street Theatre and Elmer Rice's Counsellor-at-Law at Theatre at Saint Clement's (OBIE Award for Outstanding Direction, Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Revival, Outer Critics Circle nomination for Outstanding Direction & Revival).

The Peccadillo Theater Company is in its second decade of producing forgotten American classics - "forgotten" in the sense that most of the work they do has seldom, if ever, been revived in New York City, and "classic" in the sense of enduring theatrical value.  Their most recent production was Room Service, which transferred from Bank Street Theater and played for more than six months off-Broadway. Other successes include Counsellor-At-Law (two Lortel Awards, OBIE Award) and The Talk Of The Town, which ran for over a year in the Oak Room of the Algonquin Hotel.

Morning Star will begin performances on Thursday, June 28th and will continue through Saturday, July 28th.  Opening is scheduled for Monday, July 2nd.  The schedule will be Thursdays through Saturdays at 8:00pm, and Sundays at 3:00pm, with a special Monday evening performance on July 2nd at 7pm. Tickets are $20 and may be purchased by calling Smarttix at (212) 868-4444, or online at www.smarttix.com.