Plays by Ruhl, Bock, Etc. at Playwrights Horizons in '07-'08

Playwrights Horizons has announced the first five productions of its 2007-2008 Season.  The productions, to be presented at the theater company's home at 416 West 42nd Street, will be:

100 Saints You Should Know (August/September 2007) will be presented as the World Premiere of a new play by Kate Fodor (Hannah and Martin), directed by Ethan McSweeny (Broadway revival of The Best Man, Never the Sinner). The play will be the first production of the season.  "Theresa cleans the rectory of the local parish to support her unruly teenage daughter. When its priest is forced to leave the church under uncertain circumstances and return home to his protective mother, Theresa finds herself compelled to pursue him.  One eventful night joins them all, forcing a reckoning with the broken memories and shaken faith that divides them – and the discovery of a shared, tenuous common ground," state press materials.

A Feminine Ending (September 2007) will be performed as the World Premiere of a new play by Sarah Treem (Mirror, Mirror developed at Playwrights Horizons, Empty Sky), directed by Tony Award-winner Blair Brown (James Joyce's The Dead, which premiered at Playwrights Horizons, Copenhagen)." Having recently graduated from a major conservatory, and with a rocker boyfriend on the brink of stardom, aspiring composer Amanda Blue's 'extraordinary life' seems to be all mapped out. But when she's called home to answer her mother's distress call about a marital crisis, Amanda's grand plan starts to unravel."

Doris to Darlene: A Cautionary Valentine (November 2007) will be seen as the World Premiere of a new play by Jordan Harrison (Act a Lady, Finn in the Underworld), directed by Obie Award winner Les Waters (Big Love at BAM, Hot 'N' Throbbing at Signature).  "In the candy-colored 1960s, a biracial schoolgirl named Doris is molded into pop star Darlene by a whiz-kid record producer who culls a top-ten hit out of Wagner's Liebestod.  Rewind to the candy-colored 1860s, where Richard Wagner is writing the melody that will become Darlene's hit song.  Fast-forward to the not-so-candy-colored present, where a teenager obsesses over Darlene's music – and his music teacher. Three dissonant decades merge into an unlikely harmony in this time-jumping pop fairy tale about the dreams and disasters behind one transcendent song."

Dead Man's Cell Phone (Winter/Spring 2008) will be presented as the New York premiere of a new play by Pulitzer Prize finalist Sarah Ruhl (The Clean House).  Dead Man's Cell Phone is a Playwrights Horizons-commissioned play.  "Gordon is dead, but his cell phone lives on.  When Jean, an empathetic museum worker, answers his ringing phone beside her in a café, she is soon playing unwitting comforter and confessor to the man's grieving friends and family.  Before she knows it, Jean's ensnarled in the underbelly of the dead man's bizarre life.  A wildly imaginative new comedy, Dead Man's Cell Phone is the odyssey of a woman forced to confront her assumptions about morality, redemption and the need to connect in a technology-obsessed world."

The Drunken City (Spring 2008) will be performed as the New York Premiere of a new play by Adam Bock (Swimming in the Shallows, The Thugs), directed by Trip Cullman (Manic Flight Reaction at Playwrights Horizons, Some Men, Swimming in the Shallows, The Last Sunday in June). "Off on the bar crawl to end all crawls, three twenty-something brides-to-be find their lives going topsy-turvy when one of them suddenly begins to question her future after a chance encounter with a recently jilted handsome stranger.  A unique theatrical take on the mystique of marriage and the ever-shifting nature of love and identity in a city that never sleeps."

A sixth production, as well as casting information, will be announced in the coming months.

Visit www.playwrightshorizons.org for more information on the theatre, tickets and subscriptions.

Photo - Sarah Ruhl