Susan Miller's 20TH CENTURY BLUES Gets New York Premiere

Producer Lida Orzeck and Executive Producer Eva Price are pleased to announce The New York premiere of the new play, 20TH CENTURY BLUES, from Susan Smith Blackburn Prize-winner and two-time OBIE Award-winning playwright Susan Miller (My Left Breast). Two-time OBIE Award-winner and Tony Award-nominee Emily Mann (Having Our Say, Anna in the Tropics) will direct the 10-week limited engagement beginning November 12 with performances through January 28 and an official opening night set for November 26. 20TH CENTURY BLUES will play at The Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre at The Pershing Square Signature Center (480 W. 42nd Street).

The award-winning design team includes scenic design and projection design by Tony Award-winner Beowulf Boritt (Act One), costumes by OBIE Award-winner Jennifer Von Mayrhauser (Disgraced), lighting by Tony Award-winner Jeff Croiter (Bandstand), and sound by Tony Award-winner Darron L West (Peter and the Starcatcher). [Editor note: 'L' is not a middle initial and there should NOT be a period after it.]

American Express pre-sale for 20TH CENTURY BLUES will begin on Monday, August 14 at 10:00 AM through Thursday, August 17 at 9:59 AM. Audience Rewards pre-sale will run from Thursday, August 17 at 10:00AM through Monday August 21 at 9:59 AM. General on-sale will begin on Monday August 21 at 10:00 AM through Ticket Central via www.ticketcentral.com, by calling 212.279.4200, or in person at 416 W. 42nd Street (12-8pm daily).

A reunion. An argument. A Ted Talk. Emotional mutiny. And a bond that connects four women who meet once a year for a photo shoot, chronicling their changing (and aging) selves as they navigate through love, careers, children, and major world events. But, when these private photographs have the potential to go public, their relationships are tested, forcing the women to confront who they are, what they've become, and how they'll deal with whatever lies ahead. Sharply funny and evocative, 20TH CENTURY BLUES is a new play by Susan Miller that questions our place in the world and with one another.

Peter Marks of The Washington Post declared that "20TH CENTURY BLUES has a promising future" when it was first staged in 2016 at the Contemporary American Theater Festival in Sheperdstown, WV.

Casting by David Caperelliotis. Maximum Entertainment Productions serves as general manager and Samantha Flint is the production stage manager.

Susan Miller is a two-time OBIE Award winner and Guggenheim Playwriting Fellow, known for her critically acclaimed one person show, My Left Breast, which premiered in Louisville's Humana Festival and has been performed across the U.S, Canada, and France. She also received the coveted Susan Smith Blackburn Prize as well as The Pinter Prize for her play, A Map of Doubt and Rescue. She has been a Core Writer at The Playwrights Center in Minneapolis and her plays, which include Nasty Rumors and Final Remarks (OBIE); Average American; Flux; Confessions Of A Female Disorder; Cross Country; The Grand Design; For Dear Life; It's Our Town, Too; and Reading List, have been done at The Public Theatre, Second Stage, Naked Angels, New York Stage & Film, The Mark Taper Forum, Theatre J, Trinity Rep, Walnut St. Theatre, The O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, and Ojai Playwrights Conference, among others. Miller was a Consulting Producer/Writer on Showtime's "The L Word" and ABC's "Thirtysomething." She won The Writers Guild of America Award for her hit Indie web series, "Anyone But Me," which has earned over 50 million views worldwide.

Emily Mann has overseen 150+ productions as Artistic Director and Resident Playwright of the Tony Award-winning McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, New Jersey. Her McCarter directing credits include the world premieres of: Ken Ludwig's adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express, her co-adaptation with Pierre Laville of Baby Doll, Rachel Bonds' Five Mile Lake, Danai Gurira's The Convert; Sarah Treem's The How and the Why; Christopher Durang's Miss Witherspoon; Edward Albee's Me, Myself & I. Mann will direct this spring the McCarter commissioned World Premiere of Chris Durang's Turning Off the Morning News. Broadway: A Streetcar Named Desire, Anna in the Tropics, Execution of Justice, Having Our Say. Her plays: Having Our Say, adapted from the book by Sarah L. Delany and A. Elizabeth Delany with Amy Hill Hearth; Execution of Justice; Still Life; Annulla, An Autobiography; Greensboro (A Requiem); Meshugah; Mrs. Packard, and Hoodwinked (a Primer on Radical Islamism). Adaptations include: Baby Doll, Scenes from a Marriage, Uncle Vanya, The Cherry Orchard, A Seagull in the Hamptons, The House of Bernarda Alba, Antigone. She is also writing a play with Gloria Steinem to premiere fall of 2018. Awards include: Peabody, Hull Warriner, NAACP, OBIEs, Guggenheim fellowship; Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle nominations; a Princeton University Honorary Doctorate of Arts, a Helen Merrill Distinguished Playwrights' Award, and the Margo Jones Award given to a "citizen-of-the-theatre who has demonstrated a lifetime commitment to the encouragement of the Living Theatre everywhere."

In 1977, Lida Orzeck co-founded Hanky Panky, the coveted apparel brand which revolutionized the intimate apparel landscape with its World's Most Comfortable Thong. Dedicated to American manufacture and ethical business practices, the company's success has allowed Lida to support her interest in the arts and concern for social justice and educational equality. She is a board member of the Southern Poverty Law Center and a trustee of Barnard College where she endowed the Distinguished Artist-in Residence Fund in 2015. Lida is a past board member of Doug Varone and Dancers. 20th Century Blues is her first and probably only producing credit. She loves good theater!

Eva Price is a Tony Award-winning producer whose credits include over 15 Broadway plays, musicals, and concerts. She is a member of The Broadway League's Board of Governors and was named one of Crain's NY 40 Under Forty Rising Business Stars. Current and notable productions include: Dear Evan Hansen (6 Tony Awards); On Your Feet! (The Story of Gloria and Emilio Estefan); Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons on Broadway!; Peter and the Starcatcher (5 Tony Awards); Colin Quinn Long Story Short(directed by Jerry Seinfeld); Annie (Tony-Nominated Musical Revival); The Merchant of Venice starring Al Pacino (Tony-Nominated Play Revival); Carrie Fisher's Wishful Drinking; The Addams Family (starring Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth); as well as several solo shows and critically acclaimed concerts starring The Temptations & The Four Tops; Kathy Griffin; Lewis Black; and Hershey Felder. Recent off-Broadway projects include the Drama Desk-nominated Found (Atlantic Theater Company & Philadelphia Theater Company); Benjamin Scheuer's award-winning The Lion (Drama Desk winner, Off-West End winner for Best Musical); and Bess Wohl's critically acclaimed Small Mouth Sounds. International and Touring Credits include: The Hip Hop Nutcracker, featuring Rap Icon Kurtis Blow, Carefree: Dancin' with Fred and Ginger (Directed/Choreographed by Tony Winner Warren Carlyle), as well as The Magic School Bus, Live! The Climate Challenge; Ella, a biomusical about the life and music of Ella Fitzgerald; 'S Wonderful: The New Gershwin Musical; Tomie dePaola's Strega Nona The Musical, Irving Berlin's I Love A Piano (National Tour and Japan), The Great American Trailer Park Musical, Private Jokes, Public Places (London). For five years Eva worked as an assignment editor and coordinating producer for special projects at ABC News, spending her last year producing and reporting on stories relating to Broadway for ABCNEWS.COM. Upcoming: Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill.

The Pershing Square Signature Center, the permanent home of Signature Theatre, is a three-theatre facility on West 42nd Street designed by Frank Gehry Architects to host Signature's three distinct playwrights' residencies and foster a cultural community. The Center is a major contribution to New York City's cultural landscape and provides a venue for cultural organizations that supports and encourages collaboration among artists throughout the space. In addition to its three intimate theatres, the Center features a Studio Theatre, rehearsal studio, a bookstore, and the Signature Café + Bar, open to the public from noon-midnight Tuesdays - Sundays. For more information on renting the Center, please visit www.signaturetheatre.org/rentals.

LISTING INFO:

20TH CENTURY BLUES performance schedule: Monday DARK, Tuesday 7:30 PM, Wednesday 2:00 PM & 7:30 PM, Thursday 7:30 PM, Friday 7:30 PM, Saturday 2PM & 8:00 PM, Sunday 2:00 PM.

General sale tickets, from $79 - $99, will be available Monday, August 21 and can be purchased through Ticket Central via www.ticketcentral.com, by calling 212.279.4200, or in person at 416 W. 42nd Street (12-8pm daily).

For more information, visit www.20thcenturyblues.com

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