T Fellowship Sees First Yield Of Efforts WIth GROUNDSWELL At The Acorn Theater

The T Fellowship, the ambitious Theater program created in an effort to encourage, support and develop a new generation of creative theatrical producers, is now seeing the first yield of its considerable efforts with the critical hit GROUNDSWELL, the U.S. premiere of the award-winning play by Ian Bruce and directed by Scott Elliott. Presented by The New Group, GROUNDSWELL is produced in association with Orin Wolf, the first recipient of the T Fellowship for Creative Producing. The production marks the culmination of Wolf's fellowship work, which began with the program's launch in the fall of 2007.

Honoring the legacy of the late theatrical producer T. Edward Hambleton (co-founder of New York's legendary Phoenix Theatre and recipient of a Special Lifetime Achievement Tony® Award in 2000), the T Fellowship is a collaboration between theater professionals and Columbia University. The program is run by Columbia University's School of the Arts in partnership with the Theatre Development Fund, the Columbia University Arts Initiative and the T Fellowship Committee including Harold Prince, Ed Wilson, Margo Lion, Jack O'Brien, Victoria Bailey, Gregory Mosher, Steven Chaikelson and Annette Niemtzow.

The play and production opened Monday, May 18 to glowing reviews. Charles Isherwood in The New York Times called it, "An engrossing play in a crisply acted production. Mr. Bruce's drama could be described as a cross between David Mamet and Athol Fugard and he draws his characters in admirable depth and telling detail. All three actors give layered, effective performances." Mike Kuchwara of the Associated Press called it, "skillfully constructed, superbly cast and highly theatrical." And David Rooney of Variety cheered the play and its writing as "marvelously economical, heart-tearing and eloquent."

The T Fellowship grew out of an idea that Mr. Hambleton first had in the 1990s, and he worked with the program's co-founders, Geraldine Stutz, Harold Prince and Ed Wilson, to help it take shape. Feeling the needs of the Fellowship would be best served in an educational environment, the founders worked in cooperation with the Columbia University Arts Initiative (Gregory Mosher, Director), the Theater Arts Program of the Columbia University School of the Arts (Steven Chaikelson, Director of the MFA Program in Theatre Management & Producing) and the Theatre Development Fund (Victoria Bailey, Executive Director) to define its vision. Each year, the T Fellowship selects one or two outstanding individuals to participate in the program. President of Off-Broadway Booking, Mr. Wolf was the Fellowship's first recipient and was named the 2007 Geraldine Stutz Fellow.

A legendary figure of New York Theater, T. Edward Hambleton was a founder and managing director of The Phoenix Theatre, the trailblazing Off-Broadway institution that helped develop the careers of actors, writers and directors for three decades. From 1953 through 1982 and 164 productions, The Phoenix would provide an artistic home for many theatrical luminaries, including Tyrone Guthrie, Uta Hagen, Jerome Robbins, Marcel Marceau, Helen Hayes, Jessica Tandy, Wendy Wasserstein, RoseMary Harris, John Houseman, Carol Burnett, Montgomery Clift and Meryl Streep, to name a very few. The APA Phoenix Repertory Company (a revered collaboration between The Phoenix Theatre and the Association of Producing Artists) earned a Special Tony® Award in 1968.

Presented by The New Group as the third production of its 2008-2009 Season, GROUNDSWELL is the U.S. premiere of the thrilling drama by South African native (and Executive Director of the New Africa Theatre Association) Ian Bruce. Starring Larry Bryggman, David Lansbury and Souleymane Sy Savane, the production is playing a limited Off-Broadway run through June 27 at The New Group @ Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street).
On the barren diamond-diving coast of South Africa, Johan (Mr. Lansbury) and Thami (Mr. Savane), an ex-cop and a gardener from starkly contrasting backgrounds, maintain a beachfront guest lodge during the off-season while looking for a way to escape their dead-end lives. When Smith (Mr. Bryggman), a retired businessman, shows up one foggy night, the two men think they've found an ideal investor for their scheme to buy into a government-run diamond mining concession. Soon, these rootless men find themselves in a power struggle fueled by greed, desperation and entitlement. GROUNDSWELL is a psychological thriller about hunger and hope, and the glittering promises of a transforming society.
Hailed as "absolutely essential theater" by The Cape Times, GROUNDSWELL premiered in Ian Bruce's native South Africa in 2005 at the Intimate Theatre in Cape Town. It then appeared at the Grahamstown National Arts Festival before moving to the Baxter Theatre, where it earned the Fleur du Cap award for Best New Indigenous Play. It has subsequently enjoyed successful runs at the Theatre On The Square in Johannesburg, and the Royal Swedish Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm.

The production features Set Design by two-time Tony® Award nominee Derek McLane, Costume Design by Eric Becker, Lighting Design by Jason Lyons and Sound Design by Shane Rettig.

The New Group (Scott Elliott, Artistic Director; Geoff Rich, Executive Director): The current 2008-2009 season began with the U.S. premiere of Kevin Elyot's Mouth to Mouth followed by Eugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra. The company's 2007-2008 season featured the premiere of Jonathan Marc Sherman's Things We Want directed by Ethan Hawke, Mike Leigh's Two Thousand Years and Ayub Khan-Din's Rafta, Rafta.... The 2006-07 season featured Jay Presson Allen's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Wallace Shawn's The Fever and Bernard Weinraub's The Accomplices. Other past productions include David Rabe's Hurlyburly; Mike Leigh's Abigail's Party, Smelling a Rat, Goose-Pimples and Ecstasy; Wallace Shawn's Aunt Dan and Lemon; Kenneth Lonnergan's This is Our Youth; Kevin Elyot's My Night With Reg; and many more. The New Group is a recipient of the 2004 Tony® Award for Best Musical (Avenue Q).

GROUNDSWELL plays at The New Group @ Theatre Row (The Acorn Theatre / 410 West 42nd Street, between 9th & 10th Avenues) as follows: Monday at 8PM, Tuesday at 7PM, Wednesday - Friday at 8PM, Saturday at 2PM (matinee) & 8PM. Tickets may be arranged through Ticket Central at www.ticketcentral.com or (212) 279-4200, or at the Theatre Row Box Office (12:00-8PM daily). Tickets are $49.00.

For more information on GROUNDSWELL, visit www.thenewgroup.org.

For more information on the T FELLOWSHIP, visit www.tfellowship.com.