Photo Flash: Powerhouse Theater's Ninety Rehearsal

THE POWERHOUSE MAINSTAGE OPENS WITH NINETY, 6/30 - 7/12

The two-character play Ninety will feature actress Sarita Choudhury, star of the film Mississippi Masala, and Kevin Kilner from the original cast of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Dinner with Friends.

In Ninety, Isabel (Choudhury), an art conservator, has only 90 minutes to convince her ex-husband William (Kilner), now a famous actor, that their love and marriage are worth saving. They have only 90 minutes to remember the beginnings of their love affair and marriage and perhaps regain what was lost. Can Isabel, who so successfully restores paintings, recreate her relationship with William? Can William recapture the love and promise that they once shared? They only have 90 minutes to rediscover their love or call it a day, forever.

Noted playwright Murray-Smith, author of such powerful and intimate explorations of human relationships as Honour and Nightfall, noted in an article for The Age that, "I started writing about why couple stay together against the odds, about how difficulty and suffering and grief and madness become part of the composition of profound love."

A post-show discussion will be offered following the performance on Tuesday, July 7.

Joanna Murray-Smith's plays have been produced throughout Australia and all over the world. They include Honour (Broadway, West End, the Royal National Theatre, productions in two dozen countries, public reading with Meryl Streep at Powerhouse), Bombshells (West End, Europe, nominated for the Outstanding Touring Production Award at the 26th Annual DORA Mavor Moore Awards in Toronto, Canada), The Female of the Species (Australasia, West End with Dame Eileen Atkins, nominated for an Olivier Award for Best New Comedy), Scenes from a Marriage (Belgrade Theatre, commissioned and directed by Sir Trevor Nunn), Rapture, Redemption, Nightfall, and Lovechild. Her work has been nominated for and won many awards including the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Drama for Honour and Rapture. In 2003, she was awarded the Centenary Medal for outstanding service as a playwright.

Maria Mileaf previously directed a workshop of Brighde Mullins' Fire Eater as well as readings by Claire Chafee and Christopher Bomba at Powerhouse. Some of her favorite directing credits include Alexandra Gersten-Vassilaros' The Argument (The Vineyard), Lee Blessing's A Body of Water as well as his Going to St. Ives (Primary Stages - Outer Critic Circle Award for Best New Play, 2005), Kira Obolensky's Lobster Alice (Playwright's Horizons), Vijay Tendulkar's Sakharam Binder (with Sarita Choudhury at The Play Company), Erik Ehn's 'Maid (Lincoln Center Festival).

25TH ANNIVERSARY GALA BENEFIT PERFORMANCE AND PARTY, 6/27

This just in - two actors from the original cast of the musical Largo-Manu Narayan (The Love Guru, Bombay Dreams) and David Forman-will be joining Oscar winner Mary McDonnell (Dances with Wolves, Battlestar Galactica), Tony and Grammy Award-winning musician, composer, and lyricist Duncan Sheik (Spring Awakening); Mark Linn-Baker, who recently appeared off-Broadway in John Patrick Shanley's Romantic Poetry and is the star of the classic film My Favorite Year and the series Perfect Strangers; Rob Morrow (Numb3rs, Northern Exposure); David Strathairn (Good Night and Good Luck, The River Wild, Passion Fish); from The Closer Jon Tenney (The Heiress), who is also a member of Vassar's class of 1984; Jennifer Westfeldt (Wonderful Town, Kissing Jessica Stein, Ira & Abby); and many more!

Newly added to the line-up of plays and musicals of the past 25 seasons that the artists will perform selections from are the musical Largo (2001); Theresa Rebeck's Spike Heels (1990); and the play Fault Lines, by Stephen Belber (2008), which had its off-Broadway debut this past fall. Selections from other works will include Savage in Limbo (1985), Snakebit (1994), Side Man (1996), A Year with Frog & Toad (2000); Adrift in Macao (2002), Dangerous Beauty (2005), The Boy Who Heard Music (2007), and Nero (2008).

The "Silver Celebration under the Stars" performance will begin at 7pm in the Martel Theater of the Vogelstein Center for Drama and Film and will be followed by a "Locavore party," at 8:30pm outside the Martel Theater on the Frances Daly Fergusson Quadrangle (under a tent). The audience will join with the artists at the party to celebrate the food and drink of the Hudson Valley with a light supper from Gigi's Hudson Valley, beverages from Clinton Vineyards and Keegan Ales, and dessert by Babycakes Café.

A limited number of tickets are available at $100 and these include admission to both the performance and party afterwards.

A special Mainstage subscription and gala package is $174.25 and will include admission for one to the gala, to all nine readings, and to any performance of all three Mainstage shows: Ninety, by Joanna MurRay Smith, directed by Maria Mileaf, featuring Sarita Choudhury and Kevin Kilner (June 30 - July 12); the musical The Burnt Part Boys, with book by Mariana Elder, music by Chris Miller, lyrics by Nathan Tysen, and directed by Erica Schmidt (July 17 - July 26); and the play Vera Laughed, by Keith Bunin, one of the writers of HBO's award-winning drama series In Treatment (July 22 - August 2).

All performances to the Powerhouse Inside Look presentation of Lewis Black's hilarious comedy One Slight Hitch have sold out, so don't wait to purchase your Powerhouse tickets today.

To purchase tickets, go online to http://powerhouse.vassar.edu, call (845) 437-7235 or (845) 437-5599, or visit the Box Office on the Vassar campus.

Vassar is sited in New York's beautiful Hudson Valley in Poughkeepsie, NY. Go to http://www.vassar.edu/directions for directions to the Vassar campus.

Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations at Vassar should contact the Office of Campus Activities at (845) 437-5370. Without sufficient notice, appropriate space and/or assistance may not be available.

Powerhouse Theater, now entering its 25th season, is the result of a unique collaboration between New York Stage and Film and Vassar College. The program consists of an eight-week residency on the Vassar campus during which more than 200 professional artists and some 40 apprentices live and work together to create new theater works. Powerhouse steadfastly supports both emerging and established artists.

The annual residency has included such writers as John Patrick Shanley, Beth Henley, Henry Kreiger, Warren Leight, Christopher Durang, Richard Greenberg, Stephen Belber, Eric Bogosian, Steve Martin, Dael Orlandersmith, Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater; directors Mark Brokaw, Joe Mantello, Lisa Peterson, Roger Rees, Liz Swados, David Warren, and Michael Wilson; and actors Chris Cooper, Dana Delany, Olympia Dukakis, Edie Falco, Peter Gallagher, Joel Grey, Ethan Hawke, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Timothy Hutton, Kristen Johnston, Lucy Liu, Julianna Margulies, Rob Morrow, Frances McDormand, Josh Radnor, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Kyra Sedgwick, Fisher Stevens, David Strathairn, Meryl Streep, Stanley Tucci, Jennifer Westfeldt, among many others.

Since its inception in 1985, Powerhouse has played a significant role in the development of hundreds of new plays, provided a home for a diverse group of artists free from critical and commercial pressures, and established itself as a vital cultural institution for the Hudson Valley, the New York metropolitan area, and the surrounding region.

Founded in 1985 by Producing Directors Mark Linn-Baker, Max Mayer, and Leslie Urdang, and now under the leadership of Artistic Director Johanna Pfaelzer, New York Stage and Film (SAF) is dedicated to both emerging and established artists in the development and production of new works for theater and film.

The cornerstone of SAF's programming is the Powerhouse program, a rare artistic community that exists outside the commercial pressures of New York City and whose nationwide contribution to theater and film is invaluable.

SAF has developed and/or premiered new works by some of this country's most significant artists including John Patrick Shanley's Savage in Limbo and his Tony and Pulitzer Award-winning Doubt, Jon Robin Baitz's Three Hotels and A Fair Country, David Marshall Grant's Snakebit, Warren Leight's Tony Award-winning Side Man, as well as new works by Beth Henley, Eric Bogosian, Theresa Rebeck, Richard Greenberg, Duncan Sheik & Steven Sater, Eve Ensler, and Paul Weitz, among many others.

SAF is a recipient of the Jujamcyn Theater Award for its outstanding contribution to the development of creative talent for the theater.

Vassar College is a highly selective, coeducational, independent, residential, liberal arts college founded in 1861. Consistently ranked as one of the country's best liberal arts colleges, Vassar is renowned for its long history of curricular innovation, and for the natural and architectural beauty of its campus.

More than 50 academic departments and degree programs - from Anthropology to Cognitive Sciences to Urban Studies - encompass the arts, foreign languages, natural sciences, and social services, and combine to offer a curriculum of more than 1,000 courses.

Vassar was the first college to be founded with an art collection and gallery; today, the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center holds over 18,000 works by such masters as Picasso, Rembrandt, and O'Keeffe.

Photo credit Mark Stephen Kornbluth