Steinbeck's Of Mice & Men Comes to Urban Stages May 10

John Steinbeck's timeless classic graces the New York stage for its 70th Anniversary production.

OF MICE AND MEN is one of the most celebrated works of American literature, a compelling human drama about friendship and loyalty during one of our nation's most challenging times. 

Set against the backdrop of the Great Depression, John Steinbeck's masterpiece tells the story of two migrant workers who find employment on a California ranch and finally seem to be within reach of having a home to call their own. But "the best laid schemes o' mice and men" begin to unravel, forcing ordinary people to make profound choices.

The design team will feature Scott Bolman (light designer), David M. Lawson (Sound Designer) and Christie Carroll (Costume Designer).

OF MICE AND MEN plays Off-Broadway at Urban Stages (259 West 30th Street, between 7th and 8th Avenues).  Performances are Wednesday - Saturday at 8:00 P.M. with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:00 P.M.  Tickets are $18.  Tickets and information are available at Smarttix.com, (212) 868.4444.  Visit the official website at www.cyclopsproductions.com

BIOGRAPHIES
VINCENT ALLOCCA (Lennie)  Other credits: Henry' Lunchroom (The Metropolitan Playhouse), The Zoo Story (Arena Repertory), Ramona Quimby (The Hangar Theater), Where Are you? (Ensemble Studio Theater) A Christmas Carol with Barry Williams, (National Tour). A graduate of the Neighborhood Playhouse and a member of Actors Equity Association.

JAMES BRODERICK (The Boss) A veteran actor of stage screen and TV dating back to 1956. Most recently appearing Off-Broadway as The Old Man co-lead in The Hat Left Behind at the Studio Theatre on Theatre Roe, he appeared as Larry Patterson in Hallmarks Broadway production of Christmas From The Heart staring Kenny Rogers, Senator-Seedy Man-Frankie Scarpini-Tough Man-and Heckler in Fiorello staring Tony LoBianco at the Re-opening of the Music Hall at Snug Harbor, Senator Walter Crush in Rubicon at the Wings Theatre, Carl Spector in Holy Ghost at the Flatiron Theatre, Fred-Monsignor Devlin-Lorenz Hart-Soldier at the Ollantay Center for the Arts. James won the 1998 Team Award recognizing merit and excellence for his performance as Joe Keller in All My Sons. 

ELIZABETH A. DAVIS (Curly's Wife) NY: The World is Round (Horizon Theatre Rep), Burial at Thebes (Handcart Ensemble), Tomorrow –reading (HB Studios), The Coffee Trees; Domino (Ensemble Studio Theatre) Regional: Grace, OPUS (Ensemble Studio Theatre Cincinnati), A Streetcar Named Desire, Stella; Well, Lisa – US; Room Service, Hilda; Enchanted April, Lotty – US (The Cleveland Play House). You Can't Take It With You, Alice; The Merry Wives of Windsor, Ann Page (Great Lakes Theatre Festival). Triumph of Love, Leonide;  A Midsummer Night's Dream, Puck;  The Real Thing, Annie;  Bus Stop, Cherie (MFA Cleveland Play House) Other favorites include Arcadia, Lady Croom and The Oresteia, Athene (Baylor University).

GENERAL FERMON JUDD JR. (Crook)  Off-Broadway: The Blue Man Group from 1998-2004 (Astor Place Theater), Modern Missionary which won outstanding play award in the 2006 New York International Fringe Festival (Prod. by Dane Neal from Law & Order: SVU), A Patch of Blue (SoHo Playhouse. Other works include: The Moth (Joe's Pub), Symphonics (Bowery Poetry Club), American Gothic and Stephen King's, The Night Flier.  Feature films: Lead role in Rambling Rose (staring Robert Duvall and Laura Dern) and will be appearing with Haley Joel Osment in the upcoming feature Home of the Giant
EIRIK GISLASON (Curly) is a proud to be a part of this production.  Eirik is a graduate of St. Olaf College and a founding member of NYC's Anonymous Ensemble and Minneapolis' Gremlin Theatre Company.  Favorite credits include The Best (Ethan), Moby Dick (Flask), The Nerd (Rick Steadman) and Candide (Candide).  Television:  Sex and the City, Sensing Murder, All My Children.

JASON GROSSMAN (Carlson) is the founder and director of the comedy group Funny... Sheesh, and he regularly performs improv with National Comedy Theatre.  He most recently played Nick in The Apotheosis of Vaclav Drda by Christopher Cartmill.  He portrayed Jack Driscoll in Radiotheatre's production of King Kong, and every Christmas he plays 30 characters in It's a Wonderful One-Man-Show Life!  He has appeared in numerous Making Light productions written and directed by Sharon Fogarty including: the human lab rat Freddie in the acclaimed The Overdevelopment of Scott, Dr. Victor Frankenstein in Bride of Frankenstein: An Experiment In Intimacy and Elvis Presley in Putnam.  He has appeared in numerous films including Xtacy, Master of the Kennel, The Sound of Time and A Very Corporate Christmas.  He has written for numerous TV programs including Laughtracks and TV Land's Ultimate Fan Search.  He teaches improvisation, comedy writing and The Art of Socializing and Networking at several NYC Colleges. 

Matthew Floyd Miller (Slim) Broadway: Not About Nightingales (dir. Trevor Nunn, starring Corin Redgrave); The Invention of Love, ensemble/understudy to Robert Sean Leonard (dir. Jack O'Brien).  Off-Broadway/NY: Letters From Cuba (written/directed by Maria Irene Fornes, Signature Theatre Co.); The Seagull (NYU Director's Lab); The Three Sisters (Mud/Bone Collective); Much Ado About Nothing (Holderness Co.). Regional: Katurian in The Pillowman; The Underpants (ACT Theatre, Seattle); This Wonderful Life, a one-man stage adaptation of  It's a Wonderful Life (Portland Center Stage);The Violet Hour, (Dallas Theatre Center); The Matchmaker (dir. Mark Lamos, starring Andrea Martin, Ford's Theatre); Theophilus North (Arena Stage Rose Robison Cowen Fellow, world premiere, Arena Stage/Geva Theatre Center); A Prayer For Owen Meany (American Premiere, Playmaker's Rep); Desire Under The Elms (1999 Dean Goodman Choice Bay Area Theatre Award, San Jose Rep.);Alexander Dumas And The Lady Of The Camelias; The Mousetrap (Pioneer Theatre Co.); Two Rooms (Chester Theatre Co.); A Midsummer Night's Dream (The Old Globe); The Tempest (Playmaker's Rep.); Romeo and Juliet (Portland Stage Co., Maine); Quills and Wilder, Wilder... (Berkshire Theatre Festival). Film/TV: Pop Rocks, Orphan Films, 2006; As The World Turns. M.F.A., NYU Graduate Acting Program.

TRIP PLYMALE (Candy) Broadway: Created the role of Goat in The Robber Bridegroom.  Off-Broadway: Played both sets of roles in Greater Tuna, Dromio in Comedy of Errors, (Joe Papp/Riverside Shakespeare), La Mama, Ubu Rep, Manhattan Theatre Club, New Dramatists, Hudson-Guild, The West End, Nat Horne, Jan Hus. Other credits include: Senex in the national tour of Forum (with Rip Taylor). Most recently in OH, LADY! LADY! (Musicals Tonight!) and The Legend Of Pearl Hart at TBG Theater.  Many moons ago he was one of THE DIAMONDS of "Little Darlin'" fame.

JUSTIN SWAIN (Whit) Film/TV: Law&Order SVU, Breaking Vegas,  Catch Me if You Can, A Beautiful Mind, Over the GW. Regional Theatre: Sweet Bird of Youth, Williamstown Theater Festival (director David Hughe Jones);Miss Julie, Williamstown Theater Festival; F%&king Ibsen Takes Time, SOHO Playhouse and BAM; Office Sonata ,Irish Arts Center; Post Mortem 29th Street Rep; 9/11 Tribute, Irish Arts Center; What Sprang Off a Gypsy RoosterAccess Theater.  Justin Swain is also the author of Treesfall, part of "DreadAwakening" performed at Primary Stages 45th Theater produced by The Thursday Problem as well as the play Bump: Miami and New York City at the Henry Street Settlement and the Ground Floor Theatre, produced by Jay Harris and The Juggerknot Theatre Company.

DOUGLAS TAUREL (George) Performed both Lee and Austin in True West (dir. by Tim Phillips) here in New York and at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland where it received a 4 and 5 star review from the fringe. Other credits: The Ring (dir. by Stephen Jobes), Edward Albee's Workshop (dir. Edward Albee),  The New York Shakespeare Project, Abingdon Theater, The Drilling Company, Looking Glass Theater, Naked Angles, Trilogy Theater, The Rope by Plautus (The Strand Theater), The Lost Colony ( Wayside Theater N.C. dir. Fred Chappell) New York's Fringe Festival, New York's Strawberry Festival (Finalist). Feature films: A Beautiful Mind, Immigration at HBO Latin Films Festival, Help Wanted (voted Cinequest Online Viewers Choice award for 2005) and recently finished filming The Better Born (dir. by Robert Lopuski). TV: Law & Order, Guiding Light, All My Children, PBS, Nickelodeon.

PAT DIAMOND (Director) Pat's work includes both opera and plays, ranging from new works, to Shakespeare, Calderòn and Mozart.  Most recently, at Sarasota Opera, he directed a new production of Moniuszko's Polish opera Halka – the first to grace American stages in over fifty years.  His work was last seen in New York in a collaboration with Working Man's Clothes directing Eric Sanders' Oblivia as part of their "Binge Festival". Other credits include- Opera: Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, Janacek's The Diary of One Who Vanished (Aspen Music Festival); Puccini's La bohème (Maryland Opera Studio), Turandot (Madison Opera); Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni (Sarasota Opera), and Cosí fan tutte (University of Michigan).  Plays - New York City: A critically acclaimed production of Roberto Aguirre- Sacasa's Bloody Mary (part of Dread Awakening by the Thursday Problem), Kathryn Walat's Out of Nothing, (Production Company's Australia Project), A. Rey Pamatmat's HIGH/ LIMBO/ HIGH (Queer @HERE), Aury Wallington's The Virgin of the Vieux-Carre (One Festival).  Yale School of Drama: Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa's The Mystery Plays, Calderón's The Great Magician, Twelfth Night, A.Rey Pamatmat's Picture 24, New, Kathryn Walat's Know Dog. This year, Pat will be directing Conrad Susa's operatic adaptation of Anne Sexton;s Transformations at the Maryland Opera Studio, a new production of Don Giovanni in France, and Il trovatore at Kentucky Opera. Pat is adjunct faculty at the University of Maryland, Graduate Opera Studio Program.  He has taught acting at the Aspen Music Festival, and is the Director of the Yale Summer Drama Program.