Photo Flash: THE FORGOTTEN WOMAN Opens Tomorrow at Bay Street Theater

Bay Street Theater is pleased to announce the arrival of the Hamptons' newest diva, with the world premiere of THE FORGOTTEN WOMAN, a new play by Jonathan Tolins, directed by Noah Himmelstein. The production starts tomorrow, May 31, and runs through June 19. There is a "Pay What You Can" performance on May 31 with a limited amount of tickets available at the Box Office starting at 11 am that are based on a first-come, first-served basis.

Margaret Meier is a gifted soprano on the verge of a major operatic career. And she's terrified. When a handsome reporter shows up at her Chicago hotel room, this anything-but-diva-like diva is forced to grapple with every aspect of her life: her less-than-passionate marriage, her child, her ambition, her weight, and the price she must pay in a most demanding and irrational art form. Will Margaret succeed in mastering her career, men, and her own self-doubt to release the star within?

The cast stars Ashlie Atkinson (Steve, Wolf of Wall Street) as Margaret, Darren Goldstein (The Affair, Limitless) as Steve, Mark Junek (The Outs, Viral Beauty) as Erick, Justin Mark (Gotham, Last of the Boys) as Jordan, and Robert Stanton (The Coast of Utopia, Mary Stuart) as Rudolph. The production team includes Tim Mackabee (Set Designer), David Lander (Lighting Designer), Jess Goldstein (Costume Designer), Elisheba Ittoop (Sound Designer), Andrew Diaz (Props), Meg Murphy (Hair/ Wig Designer), and Jennifer Wheeler Kahn (Production Stage Manager). Casting by Stewart/Whitley.

"I am thrilled to welcome this amazing cast and creative team to open Bay Street's 25th-anniversary Mainstage Season," says Artistic Director Scott Schwartz. "The Forgotten Woman is a fierce and funny play that gloriously plays the woman card - it's the story of the birth of a diva - a complicated and powerful woman comes into her own and comes to terms with her career, her passion for art and the men in her life, and her own self image. What a great way to start the summer here at Bay Street!"

Previews are sponsored by Peconic Landing. STUDENT SUNDAY MATINEES returns this summer for the Mainstage Season, High School and College students can receive (1) FREE admission for the 2pm Sundayperformances of THE FORGOTTEN WOMAN. Photo ID must be shown. Returning this year is TALKBACK TUESDAY with Bay Street's Artistic Director, Scott Schwartz, and members of THE FORGOTTEN WOMAN cast following each Tuesday performance except for preview week.

JONATHAN TOLINS (Playwright) Plays: The Twilight of the Golds, If Memory Serves, The Last Sunday in June, Secrets of the Trade, and Buyer & Cellar. He and his husband Robert Cary contributed additional material to the Broadway revival of On the Town. Film: The Twilight of the Golds and Martian Child. Television: "Queer as Folk," The Academy Awards, The Tony Awards, "Partners," "Grease Live!" (with Robert Cary), and "BrainDead." Jon has written articles for Opera News, Time, and The Huffington Post, and is a panelist on the Metropolitan Opera Radio Quiz. He lives in Connecticut with his husband and their children, Selina and Henry.

NOAH HIMMELSTEIN (Director):Andrew Lippa's concept opera I Am Anne Hutchinson/I Am Harvey Milk (Strathmore and Lincoln Center), with Kristin Chenoweth, also San Francisco with Laura Benanti; An Inspector Calls (Everyman Theatre, Baltimore); Bleeding Love (Fredericia Theatre, Denmark); Things I Left On Long Island(Players Theatre); Loving Leo (Weston Playhouse); Michael Korie and Conrad Cummings's opera, Positions 1956 (Urban Arias, DC; premiere); Windows (American Opera Projects); Strindberg's The Stronger & Cocteau's The Human Voice (Columbia University). Asst. Director to Bartlett Sher and James Lapine. Upcoming: Los Otros by Michael John LaChiusa & Ellen Fitzhugh. Graduate of Emerson College. www.noahhimmelstein.com

ASHLIE ATKINSON (Margaret): Theatre World Award Winner: New York Theatre:Steve (New Group); As You Like It / The Tempest (Bridge Project); The Ritz(Roundabout); Butcher Of Baraboo (Second Stage); Fat Pig (MCC), The ATrainPlays and The 24 Hour Plays. Regional: Love, Loss, And What I Wore (Rubicon); January Joiner (Long Wharf); Book Club Play (Arena Stage); Fat Pig (Geffen). TV: Louie,Elementary, Blue Bloods, Good Wife, Nurse Jackie, High Maintenance, the Law & Order "trifecta", 30 Rock, Bored to Death, Boardwalk Empire, Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell, Rescue Me. FILM: Wolf of Wall Street, Bridge of Spies, Certain Women,Compliance, Eat Pray Love, Inside Man, All Good Things, Invention of Lying, My Best Day, Lyle, Blood Stripe, The Lennon Report, Cold Comes the Night, Another Gay Movie. Graduate of Hendrix College and the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre. Former skater, current Board member for Gotham Girls Roller Derby.

DARREN GOLDSTEIN (Steve): Broadway: Bloody, Bloody, Andrew Jackson. Off-Broadway: The Madrid (Manhattan Theater Club), The New Group: Rasheeda Speaking, The Good Mother, Abigail's Party (Lortel Nom. Featured Actor), Mouth to Mouth, & Terrorism. Oohrah! (Atlantic Theater), Mary Rose (The Vineyard), Gutenberg! The Musical (Actor's Playhouse), An Upset (EST '08 Marathon) Creature (New Georges/P73 Prod.), Bad Jazz (Play Company), St. Crispin's Day (Rattlestick). Regional: Beyond Therapy (Williamstown/Bay St. Theatre). Film: Limitless, All is Bright, (upcoming) The Girl on the Train. TV: Oscar Hodges on The Affair, American Odyssey, Inside Amy Schumer, Nurse Jackie, Blue Bloods, Damages, Person of Interest. MFA from NYU's Graduate Acting Program.

MARK JUNEK (Erick) credits include The Performers (u/s Broadway), after all the terrible things I do (Milwaukee Rep), In the Next Room or The Vibrator Play (Syracuse Stage) Family Play (Collaboration Town), Galileo, A Midsummer Night's Dream (Classic Stage Company), Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (Berkeley Rep), The Imaginary Invalid (Bard Summerscape), The Seagull, Henry V (Juilliard), "The Outs: Season Two," "Blindspot," "Forever," "Smash," and "Law and Order: SVU." Training: The Juilliard School. Education: Columbia University.

JUSTIN MARK (Jordan)has appeared on television's Gotham (FOX), and in the upcoming feature films Coin Heist and Frat Star. He hails from Portland, OR, where appeared in Last of the Boys (Drammy Award, Third Rail Rep)and JAW: Playwrights Festival (Portland Center Stage). He is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where favorite credits include "Louis" in Angels In America: Part One, Millennium Approaches and "Orlando" in As You Like It.

ROBERT STANTON (Rudolph) appeared at Bay Street in Dissonance. He was seen on Broadway in A Free Man of Color, Mary Stuart, The Coast of Utopia, and A Small Family Business. Two-dozen Off-Broadway credits include an Obie Award for All in the Timing at Primary Stages, where he and co-writer Daniel Jenkins performed their playLove Child. Recent credits include Mr. Puff in Sheridan's The Critic, Moon in Tom Stoppard's The Real Inspector Hound, Charles Marsden in Eugene O'Neill's Strange Interlude-all directed by Michael Kahn at the Shakespeare Theatre Company-and Arnolphe in Molière's The School for Wives directed by Mark Wing-Davey at Two River Theatre; Lars Thorwald in Keith Reddin's Rear Window opposite Kevin Bacon at Hartford Stage, and Eugène Ionesco's The Killer opposite Michael Shannon at Theatre for a New Audience, both directed by Darko Tresnjak; Moira Buffini's Dying for Itdirected by Neil Pepe at the Atlantic Theater Company; Doug McGrath's Checkersdirected by Terry Kinney at the Vineyard; and the science fiction podcast The Messageby Mac Rogers. Film and television include Jason Bourne, True Story, Confessions of a Shopaholic, Gigantic, Find Me Guilty, The Stepford Wives, Head of State, The Quiet American, Mercury Rising, Next Stop Wonderland, Red Corner, Washington Square,Striptease, Dennis the Menace, Bob Roberts, A League of Their Own, "The Blacklist," "Elementary," "Orange Is the New Black," "The Good Wife," "Law & Order," "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," and "Frasier." He received his M.F.A. from New York University.

The 2016 Mainstage Season is sponsored in part by New York State through the generosity of Assemblyman Fred Thiele and State Senator Kenneth P. LaValle; the New York State Council on The Arts, a State Agency; Town of Southampton; The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust; The Shubert Foundation; and fully or partially funded by the Suffolk County Executive's Office. Support for new work comes from The New Directions Fund and the Joseph Stein New Musical Fund. Previews are sponsored by Peconic Landing.

For more information or to purchase a 2016 Mainstage Season subscription, log on to www.baystreet.org or call the Box Office at 631-725-9500, open 11am to Showtime daily.

See production photos below by Lenny Stucker/LennyStucker.com