Photo Flash: Joel Grey to Direct ON BORROWED TIME With Phillipa Soo, Bebe Neuwirth, Sam Waterston and More

Two River Theater will continue their series of online benefit play readings with On Borrowed Time, a live two-act event; Act 1 on Wednesday, August 5 and Act 2 with a live Q&A with the artists on Thursday, August 6 at 7:00PM EDT.

Featuring a celebrated cast, under the direction of Academy and Tony-Award winner Joel Grey, Two River Theater will revisit the classic 1939 play, which opened their 2013 season.

Check out rehearsal photos below!

Mr. Grey said, "I've revisited this play many times throughout my life, and I'm not sure I ever needed to hear what it has to say as much as I do right now."

The reading will feature Blair Brown (Theater: Copenhagen, TV: Fringe), Michael Cumpsty (Theater: End of the Rainbow), Bill Irwin (Theater: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf), Kevin Isola (Theater: Brooklyn Boy, TV: Deadbeat) Karl Kenzler (TV: House of Cards) Bebe Neuwirth (Theater: Chicago, TV: Cheers), Duane Noch(Actor, Two River Theater Master Carpenter), Gregory Noll (Theater: Middle School Mysteries), Steven Skybell (Theater: Fiddler on the Roof), Phillipa Soo (Theater: Hamilton), and Sam Waterston (TV: Grace and Frankie, Law & Order). Oakes Fegley (Film: The Goldfinch, Disney's Pete's Dragon) will reprise his Two River debut as Pud, the role which launched Joel Grey's theatrical career at the Cleveland Playhouse as a nine-year-old boy.

All proceeds from this reading and the entire series will support Two River Theater. In addition, proceeds will be matched by a generous donor to benefit five organizations with a pressing need due to the impact of systemic racism and COVID-19. The beneficiary partner for this reading, selected by Director Joel Grey, is The Actors Fund.

The Actors Fund is a national human services organization that fosters stability and resiliency, and provides a safety net for performing arts and entertainment professionals over their lifespan. Programs include social services and emergency financial assistance, health care and insurance counseling, housing, and secondary employment and training services. Visit actorsfund.org.

"Paul Osborn's On Borrowed Time premiered in 1939 alongside Thornton Wilder's Our Town and WH Auden's 'September 11, 1939,' each written in a cataclysmic time of global crisis and uncertainty, not unlike our own", says Artistic Director John Dias. "Each artist reached the same conclusion-as Auden wrote-that: 'We must love one another or die.'"

This rarely-produced American masterpiece is a magical fantasy about the love between a little boy and his Gramps. When Death himself pays them a visit in the form of a man named Mr. Brink, Gramps outwits him-trapping Brink in a tree and refusing to let him down.

Online benefit event tickets are $25 for the reading and include access to live post-reading Q&A with the artists, hosted on Zoom. Reading series memberships are available at a discounted rate of five readings for $100. The series' first reading, Your Blues Ain't Sweet Like Mine by Tony-Award winner Ruben Santiago-Hudson, will take place on Sunday, July 26 at 7:00PM EDT. Sponsorships start at $1,000, and include additional benefits such as an invitation to a private virtual event with reading artists.