Photo Flash: First Look at Mary Testa, Damon Daunno, Amber Gray and More in Bard SummerScape's OKLAHOMA!

The Bard SummerScape festival presents an entirely new way to experience Oklahoma!, Rodgers and Hammerstein's quintessential celebration of the American frontier. Starring Damon Daunno, Amber Gray, and two-time Tony nominee Mary Testa, Bard's production is directed by Daniel Fish - "a magical manipulator" (New York Times) - with new musical arrangements for a six-piece Americana band by Henry Hewes Award-winner Daniel Kluger, and new choreography by Jacob's Pillow Dance Award-winner John Heginbotham. This intimate, revelatory production brings audience and artists together in the round, sharing food and telling the story of a young nation forming its identity. Oklahoma!will be mounted in 25 performances between June 25 and July 19 in the LUMA Theater of the Frank Gehry-designed Fisher Center. SummerScape also presents Fernando Rubio's Everything by my side, an alfresco performance-installation that takes place outdoors under the trees in Bard's glorious Hudson Valley landscape (July 9-12). Check out a first look below!

For his upcoming production, Fish has assembled a stellar creative team. The original musical arrangements for the six-piece band are by Lucille Lortel and Barrymore Award-nominee Daniel Kluger, who will be joined by music director Nathan Koci (War Horse) and Drama Desk Award-winning sound designer Drew Levy. New choreography by John Heginbotham, founder of Dance Heginbotham, will complement Agnes de Mille's original dances. Based on an original concept by John Conklin, scenic design is by Laura Jellinek, whose work on SummerScape's hit production of The Imaginary Invalid prompted the Financial Times to state: "I have never seen a designer ... use the Frank Gehry space more imaginatively." Bard's costumes are by Terese Wadden, whose credits include Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Philadelphia, and BAM, with video projections by Bard College alum Joshua Thorson, and lighting by Scott Zielinski, winner of the 2013 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Lighting Design.

Anchoring Bard's first-rate cast is Mary Testa, as Laurey's indomitable Aunt Eller. A Broadway regular also seen in TV shows like Nurse Jackie, Whoopi, and Sex and the City, Testa has been recognized with a Drama Desk Award, two Obies, and two Tony nominations. Damon Daunno, familiar from Fox TV's The Following and Broadway's Brief Encounter, stars as cowhand Curly, opposite the Laurey of Amber Gray, who impressed the New York Times with her "startling emotional veracity" in the title role of last year's Obie Award-winning production of An Octoroon. Also vying for Laurey's hand is hired hand loner Jud Fry, played by Patrick Vaill, whose New York credits include Broadway and Lincoln Center. Allison Strong, known for roles on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and at the Metropolitan Opera, portrays the irrepressible Ado Annie, with James Patrick Davis, who "delivers the kind of organic performance that leaves acting behind and is a metamorphosis" (Stage magazine), as her cowboy suitor Will. Benj Mirman, whose past credits include Mara Wilson's Sheeple and Eric Schaeffer's award-winning film Boy Meets Girl, completes their love triangle as Persian peddler Ali Hakim, with Mitch Tebo as Annie's farmer father Andrew Carnes, and John Carlin - hailed as "one of NYC's better-kept secrets" (Time Out New York) - as cowboy Cord Elam.

Oklahoma! is presented through special arrangement with R & H Theatricals: www.rnh.com.

Photo Credit: Cory Weaver