Lincoln Center Theater's production of BLOOD AND GIFTS, a new play by J.T. Rogers, directed by Bartlett Sher, beings previews tomorrow (Thursday, Oct. 27) at 8 pm at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater (150 West 65 Street). The cast features Michael Aronov, Jeremy Davidson, Robert Hogan, Jefferson Mays, Andrés Munar, Rudy Mungaray, J. Paul Nicholas, Paul Niebanck, John Procaccino, Liv Rooth, Gabriel Ruiz, Pej Vahdat, Andrew Weems and Bernard White. Opening night is Monday, November 21.
Commissioned by
Lincoln Center Theater, and presented last year at
The National Theatre, BLOOD AND GIFTS tells the story of the secret spy war behind the official Soviet-Afghan War of the 1980s. Spanning a decade and playing out in Washington DC, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, the play follows CIA operative Jim Warnock (
Jeremy Davidson) as he struggles to stop the Soviet Army's destruction of Afghanistan. The ground constantly shifts for Jim and his counterparts in the KGB and British and Pakistani secret service as the political and personal alliances between the men keeps changing. And as the outcome of the entire Cold War comes into play, Jim and a larger-than-life Afghan warlord find the only person they can trust is each other.
BLOOD AND GIFTS has sets by
Michael Yeargan, costumes by
Catherine Zuber, lighting by
Donald Holder and sound by
Peter John Still.
J.T. Rogers is the author of the play The Overwhelming (produced in New York by the
Roundabout Theater Company and in London at
The National Theatre, in association with Out of Joint), Madagascar, White People, Murmuring in a Dead Tongue and Seeing the Elephant which was nominated for the Kesselring Prize for Best New American Play. An earlier version of BLOOD AND GIFTS was presented as part of a cycle of 11 plays about Afghanistan titled The Great Game: Afghanistan at the
Tricycle Theatre in London.
Bartlett Sher, Resident Director at
Lincoln Center Theater, directed the LCT productions of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Joe Turner's Come and Gone (Tony nomination), South Pacific (Tony Award), Awake and Sing! (Tony nomination,) and The Light in the Piazza (Tony nomination). Former Artistic Director of Seattle's Intiman Theater, his other NY credits include productions at
Playwrights Horizons and Theatre for a New Audience. His opera credits include the MET productions of The Barber of Seville, The Tales of Hoffman and Comte d'Ory.
BLOOD AND GIFTS plays Tuesday through Saturday evenings at 8pm, with matinees Wednesday and Saturdays at 2pm and Sundays at 3pm. (Exceptions: There is no matinee on Saturday, Oct. 29 and no performance on Thursday, Nov. 24. There are two performances at 2 and 8 pm on Friday, Nov. 25.) Tickets, priced at $80 and $85, are available at the
Lincoln Center Theater box office (150 West 65 Street) or by visiting telecharge.com or
www.lct.org.
This fall, in addition to BLOOD AND GIFTS and the open-ended run of its Tony Award-winning production of
War Horse at the Vivian Beaumont Theater,
Lincoln Center Theater is producing
Jon Robin Baitz' Other Desert Cities, directed by
Joe Mantello at the Booth Theater on Broadway. In addition, LCT3,
Lincoln Center Theater's programming initiative devoted to the work of new artists, is presenting the world premiere of All-American, a new play by
Julia Brownell, directed by
Evan Cabnet, at the Duke on 42nd Street (229 West 42 Street). In spring 2011 LCT3 will move to its new home, the 131-seat Claire Tow Theater, currently under construction on the roof of the Vivian Beaumont Theater.
