Signature's INCIDENT AT VICHY Airs on THIRTEEN's THEATER CLOSE-UP Series Tonight

Theater Close-Up -- the unique collaboration between THIRTEEN and the large community of New York City area non-profit Off-Broadway theaters -- will present Pulitzer Prize-winner Arthur Miller's play INCIDENT AT VICHY in an acclaimed production from Signature Theatre, captured live on-stage, in THIRTEEN's trademark "up-close" style.

INCIDENT AT VICHY will premiere tonight, April 21 at 9 p.m. on THIRTEEN, with an encore presentation on Sunday, April 24 at 1 a.m. The play will also air Sunday, April 24 at 11 p.m. with an encoreFriday, April 29 at 3 a.m. on WLIW21.

Beginning Friday, April 22, the play will be available online in the tri-state area (www.thirteen.org/topic/programs/theater-close-up/).

The broadcast - recorded at The Irene Diamond Stage at The Pershing Square Signature Center -- will again be presented by Blythe Danner, Tony Award-winning star of stage, screen, and television. No stranger to public television, Danner memorably starred in the GREAT PERFORMANCES productions of Chekhov's The Seagull and Tennessee Williams' Eccentricities of a Nightingale.

In Vichy, France at the height of World War II, nine men and a boy are rounded up under suspicious circumstances. As ominous reports of far-off camps and cattle cars packed with prisoners begin to circulate, the men battle over politics, philosophy and how to escape.

Longtime Signature director Michael Wilson Wilson (Horton Foote's The Old Friends and The Orphans' Home Cycle) helmed this haunting examination of the cold, bureaucratic efficiency of evil-and the shared humanity that might overcome it.

The ensemble cast includes David Abeles, Curtis Billings, James Carpinello, AJ Cedeño, Demosthenes Chrysan, Quinlan Corbett, Brian Cross, Jonathan Gordon, Jonathan Hadary, Alex Morf, Jonny Orsini, Darren Pettie, John Procaccino, Alec Shaw, Derek Smith, Richard Thomas, and Evan Zes.

When this production opened in November, AM NY proclaimed it "a superb, highly compelling revival!" Talkin' Broadway rated it "a first-rate revival...Wilson's Incident at Vichy could scarcely feel more alive." And The Hollywood Reporter found "its powerful themes of guilt and responsibility, tautly dramatized and well-defined."

Theater Close-Up's second season will continue with Sam Shepard's Buried Child at a date to be announced.

In October 2014, THIRTEEN debuted nine plays on Theater Close-Up, encompassing works ranging from vintage playwright John Van Druten to today's Richard Nelson, and drawing on the resources of some of New York's finest theater companies.

The second season of Theater Close-Upon THIRTEEN has thus far featured Rasheeda Speakingfrom The New Group, Fashions for Men from Mint Theater, Wiesenthal filmed at the Acorn Theatre at Theatre Row, and Repairing a Nation from Crossroads Theatre Company in New Brunswick, New Jersey

THIRTEEN is using its UNRIVALED expertise in producing national PBS arts programming -- which began with such classic series as Theater in America, part of the award-winning series Great Performancesand special limited series such as Stage on Screen -- to provide New Yorkers with unparalleled access to one of the City's greatest underexposed cultural assets.

James Houghton is Signature Theatre's Founding Artistic Director and Erika Mallin is its Executive Director. .

Directed for television by David Horn, Incident at Vichy is a production of THIRTEEN Productions LLC for WNET and Signature Theatre Company in association with Broadway HD. Mitch Owgang is producer; Bill O'Donnell is series producer; and David Horn is executive producer. Stewart F. Lane and Bonnie Comley are executive producers for Broadway HD. Executive-in-charge for WNET is Neal Shapiro.

Photo Credit: Joan Marcus