Plays by Theresa Rebeck, Billy Porter and David Ives Set for Primary Stages' 30th Anniversary Season

Primary Stages (Casey Childs, Founder & Executive Producer; Andrew Leynse, Artistic Director; Elliot Fox, Managing Director) announces their 30th Anniversary Season (2014-2015). In their upcoming season, the award-winning company will present three new premieres.

POOR BEHAVIOR

A New York premiere of a new comedy by Theresa Rebeck

Directed by Evan Cabnet

July-September, 2014

Theresa Rebeck, the creator of NBC's "Smash" and writer of such hit plays as Seminar, Mauritius, and The Understudy, presents a devilish argument about infidelity and America in this new comedy about two couples spending a not-so-idyllic weekend in the country. Evan Cabnet (The Model Apartment, A Kid Like Jake) directs.

WHILE I YET LIVE

A world premiere of a new play by Billy Porter

Directed by Sheryl Kaller

September-November, 2014

The Tony-winning star of Kinky Boots and Angels in America, Billy Porter, is also a fine playwright. This newest work explores coming of age in Pittsburgh amongst a bevy of fascinating and strong-willed women. Tony nominee Sheryl Kaller (Next Fall, Adrift in Macao) directs this World Premiere.

LIVES OF THE SAINTS

A new collection of short plays by David Ives

Directed by John Rando

February-March, 2015

The writer and director of All in the Timing return to Primary Stages with a new collection of delightfully funny and unforgettable short plays including New York premieres and a couple of World Premieres. David Ives is undoubtedly the master of the short form and his collaborations with Tony winner John Rando are not to be missed!

Primary Stages will be producing its 30th Anniversary Season (2014-2015) at The Duke on 42nd Street and concludes its decade-long residency at 59E59 Theaters in April, 2014. Charles Busch's The Tribute Artist will be the last production of the 59E59 residency. The Duke on 42nd Street's location in the heart of the Theater District is convenient for both theatergoers and the Primary Stages family, whose administrative offices, rehearsal studios and school (The Einhorn School of Performing Arts) are located just a few blocks away on West 38th Street.

Primary Stages was founded in 1984 and opened 59E59 Theaters in January, 2004 with a production of Terrence McNally's The Stendhal Syndrome. Since then they have produced over 35 world and New York premieres of plays by such writers as AR Gurney (Indian Blood, Buffalo Gal and Black Tie), Horton Foote (Dividing The Estate, The Day Emily Married and Harrison, TX...), Athol Fugard (Entrances And Exits), Charles Busch (Olive and The Bitter Herbs), Michael Hollinger (Opus), Charlene Woodard (The Night Watcher), Lee Blessing (Going To St Ives and A Body Of Water), Tina Howe (Chasing Manet), Christopher Durang and Peter Melnick (Adrift In Macau), Kate Fodor (Rx), Willy Holtzman (The Morini Strad, Something You Did and a revival of Sabina), Danai Gurira and Nikkole Salter (In The Continuum), Cusi Cram (A Lifetime Burning), revivals of David Ives (All In The Timing) and Donald Margulies (The Model Apartment) and many others.

"We look forward to working with our colleagues at The Duke on 42nd Street, which offers us a terrific space for our artists and our audiences," said Primary Stages Founder and Executive Producer, Casey Childs. "We have been the resident theater company at 59E59 Theaters since they opened in 2004, but over the course of the last decade the audiences and the seasons have grown tremendously for both Primary Stages and 59E59 Theaters, increasing both organizations' needs for access to the main stage."

SUBSCRIBE TO THE Primary Stages 30TH ANNIVERSARY SEASON:

3-play subscriptions for the Primary Stages 2014-2015 season range from $105 to $135. Flex Pass subscriptions will also now be offered and begin at $45 per ticket (with a minimum purchase of 4 Flex Pass tickets for the season.) Subscription packages can be purchased by visiting PrimaryStages.org or by calling Ticket Central at 212.279.4200. Single tickets for all productions will go on sale at a later date with The Duke on 42nd Street box office.

Primary Stages is Off-Broadway theater company dedicated to inspiring, supporting, and sharing the art of playwriting. We operate on the strongly held belief that the future of American theater relies on nurturing playwrights and giving them the artistic support needed to create new work. Since our founding in 1984, we have produced more than 120 new plays, including Donald Margulies' The Model Apartment (1995 premiere and current season hit revival); David Ives' All in the Timing (original 1993 production and 2013 revival); Kate Fodor's Rx; Charles Busch's Olive and the Bitter Herbs; A.R. Gurney's Black Tie; Horton Foote's Harrison, TX and Dividing the Estate (Two 2009 Tony Awardnominations); Brooke Berman's Hunting and Gathering (one of New York Magazine's Top TenPlays of 2008); Terrence McNally's Dedication or the Stuff of Dreams (starring Nathan Lane andMarian Seldes) and The Stendhal Syndrome (featuring Isabella Rossellini and RichardThomas); Danai Gurira and Nikkole Salter's In the Continuum (which went on to tour the U.S., Africa, and Scotland); and Conor McPherson's St. Nicholas (which marked the playwright's U.S. debut). In 2008, Primary Stages was honored with the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Body of Work, which encompasses much more than the plays we produce for the stage. Primary Stages supports playwrights and develops new works through commissions, workshops, readings, and our education and training programs: The Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group, the Marvin and Anne Einhorn School of Performing Arts (ESPA), and the Fordham/Primary Stages MFA in Playwriting. Through these programs, Primary Stages advocates for our artists, helping them make important-and often transformative-connections within the theater community.

About The New 42nd Street: Building on the foundation of seven historic theaters, The New 42nd Street leads the dynamic evolution of the reinvented 42nd Street, cultivating a unique New York City cultural and entertainment destination through its three projects: The New Victory Theater, a performing arts theater devoted to kids and families; the NEW 42ND STREET Studios, a state-of-the-art, 10-story performing arts complex for rehearsal, performance and arts administration; and The Duke on 42nd Street, an intimate black-box theater. An independent, nonprofit organization, The New 42nd Street is committed to the transformational power of the arts.

About The Duke on 42nd Street: The Duke on 42nd Street is an intimate black-box theater available for rental to both domestic and international nonprofit and commercial organizations. Featuring a gallery along all four walls and a custom-built, state-of-the-art seating system, the flexible-use space offers full light, sound and support systems in various configurations. The Duke on 42nd Street is a fully-staffed, full service facility in the heart of the theater district. Many performing arts companies have called space their home, including The Royal Court Theatre, Transport Group, Theatre for a New Audience, Lincoln Center Theater, Steppenwolf Theater Company, Armitage Gone! Dance, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Naked Angels, Classical Theater of Harlem, Playwrights Horizons, 92nd Street Y's Harkness Dance Project, The NYC Tap Festival and Lincoln Center Great Performers and the National Theater of Great Britain.

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHTS:

David Ives (The Lives of the Saints, playwright) was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Play for Venus In Fur, which has been produced all over the country and the world, and which Roman Polanski has turned into a film. Several of his shows have premiered at Primary Stages, including All In The Timing (winner of the Outer Critics Circle Playwriting Award), Don Juan In Chicago, Ancient History, and Mere Mortals. Other plays of David Ives: New Jerusalem: The Interrogation of Baruch de Spinoza (winner of the Hull-Warriner Award); The Liar (adapted from Corneille, and winner of the Charles MacArthur Award); The School for Lies (adapted from Molière's The Misanthrope); The Heir Apparent (adapted from J-F. Regnard); Is He Dead? (adapted from Mark Twain); and Polish Joke. His adaptation of Alexis Piron's The Metromaniacs will appear in Washington D.C. at the Shakespeare Theatre next season. He is a former Guggenheim Fellow in playwriting and lives in New York City.

Billy Porter (While I Yet Live, playwright) is a native of Pittsburgh PA. He is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University where he received a B.F.A. in drama. He is a Tony Award, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award winner for Best Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of Lola in the Tony Award winning Best Musical "Kinky Boots." Other Broadway credits include: Miss Saigon, Five Guys Named Moe, Grease (all original cast), Smokey Joe's Café and Dreamgirls (20th Anniversary Broadway Concert and LA Ovation Award). Off Broadway and regional credits include: Angles in America (20th Anniversary revival at Signature Theatre & Actors Theatre Of Louisville), Birdie Blue (Second Stage), Romance In Hard Times, The Merchant of Venice, House of Lear and Radiant Baby at (The New York Shakespeare Festival), Topdog/Underdog (City Theatre), King Lear, The Further Adventures Of Hedda Gabler (Exit, Pursued By A Bear), Jason Robert Brown's Songs For A New World (original cast), Going Native (The Long Wharf), Jelly's Last Jam (Alliance), Jesus Christ Superstar, Antigone, A Chorus Line, Chicago. His one-man show, Ghetto Superstar: The Man That I Am debuted at The Public Theater in NYC in conjunction with City Theatre of Pittsburgh and was nominated for a 2005 GLAAD Media Award. He was named "Pittsburgh's Performer of the Year 2003-2004" by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Theresa Rebeck (Poor Behavior, playwright). New York productions: Dead Accounts, Seminar, The Understudy, Mauritius, The Scene, The Water's Edge, Bad Dates, The Butterfly Collection, Spike Heels, Loose Knit, The Family of Mann, View of the Dome, and Omnium Gatherum (co-written, Pulitzer finalist). Publications: Collected Plays Volumes I, II and III, Free Fire Zone, all with Smith & Kraus, and two novels, Three Girls and Their Brother and Twelve Rooms With a View, with Random House/Shaye Areheart Books. Film: Harriet the Spy, Gossip, and the independent features Sunday on the Rocks and Seducing Charlie Barker (adapted from her play The Scene). Awards include the Writer's Guild of America Award for Episodic Drama and a Peabody Award for her work on "NYPD Blue," the National Theatre Conference Award, the William Inge New Voices Playwriting Award, the PEN/Laura Pels Foundation Award, the Athena Film Festival Award, an Alex Award, a Lilly Award and in 2011 she was named one of the 150 Fearless Women in the World by Newsweek. She is the creator of the NBC drama, "Smash."

Photo Credit: Walter McBride