Tracy Letts's MARY PAGE MARLOWE Finds Its Director at Second Stage

Second Stage Theater has announced that Obie and Drama Desk Award winner Lila Neugebauer will direct the New York Premiere of Tracy Letts' acclaimed play, MARY PAGE MARLOWE, in June of 2018 at the Tony Kiser Theatre.

If you looked back on eleven moments from your life, would you recognize yourself, or would you see a stranger? Mary Page Marlowe is a seemingly ordinary accountant from Ohio who has experienced pain and joy, success and failure. In this sweeping but intimate play, Tracy Letts gives us a haunting portrait of a complex woman, demonstrating how a series of forgotten moments can add up to one memorable life.

Lila Neugebauer is an Obie, Drama Desk, and Princess Grace Award-winning director. Recent directing: Annie Baker's The Antipodes; Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' Everybody; Albee's The Sandbox, Fornes' Drowning, and Kennedy's Funnyhouse of a Negro (as an evening, Signature Plays), A.R. Gurney's The Wayside Motor Inn (all at Signature Theatre); Sarah DeLappe's The Wolves (The Playwrights Realm, NY Stage & Film); Abe Koogler's Kill Floor (Lincoln Center); Mike Bartlett's An Intervention (Williamstown); Amy Herzog's After The Revolution, 4000 Miles (Baltimore Center Stage); Zoe Kazan's Trudy and Max in Love, Eliza Clark's Future Thinking (South Coast Rep); Lucas Hnath's Red Speedo (Studio Theatre); Dan LeFranc's Troublemaker (Berkeley Rep); Partners, O Guru Guru Guru (Humana Festival); Annie Baker's The Aliens (San Francisco Playhouse, Studio Theatre). As co-artistic director of The Mad Ones, Neugebauer conceives and directs ensemble-devised work, including Miles for Mary, Samuel & Alasdair: A Personal History of the Robot War and The Essential Straight and Narrow. Drama League alum, Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, Ensemble Studio Theatre member, New Georges Affiliated Artist, New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect. Upcoming projects include Zoe Kazan's After The Blast (Lincoln Center), Albee's At Home at the Zoo (Signature Theatre), and Lily Thorne's Peace for Mary Frances.

Casting and additional creative team members to be announced.

Under the artistic direction of Carole Rothman, Second Stage THEATER produces a diverse range of premieres and new interpretations of America's best contemporary theatre, including 2015 Pulitzer Prize winner Between Riverside and Crazy by Stephen Adly Guirgis; 2010 Pulitzer Prize winner Next to Normal by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey; 2012 Pulitzer Prize winner Water by the Spoonful by Quiara Alegria Hudes; The Last Five Years by Jason Robert Brown; Dogfight by Benj Pasek, Justin Paul and Peter Duchan; Dear Evan Hansen by Benj Pasek, Justin Paul, and Steven Levenson; By the Way, Meet Vera Stark by Lynn Nottage; Trust and Lonely, I'm Not by Paul Weitz; The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity by Kristoffer Diaz; Everyday Rapture and Whorl Inside a Loop by Dick Scanlan and Sherie Rene Scott; Let Me Down Easy by Anna Deavere Smith; Becky Shaw by Gina Gionfriddo; Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl; The Little Dog Laughed by Douglas Carter Beane; Metamorphoses by Mary Zimmerman; The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee by William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin; Jitney by August Wilson; Jar the Floor by Cheryl L. West; Uncommon Women and Others by Wendy Wasserstein; Crowns by ReGina Taylor; Saturday Night by Stephen Sondheim; Afterbirth: Kathy & Mo's Greatest Hits by Mo Gaffney and Kathy Najimy; This Is Our Youth by Kenneth Lonergan; Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants by Ricky Jay; Coastal Disturbances by Tina Howe; A Soldier's Play by Charles Fuller; Little Murders by Jules Feiffer; The Good Times Are Killing Me by Lynda Barry; and Tiny Alice by Edward Albee.

The company's more than 130 citations include six 2017 Tony Awards for Dear Evan Hansen (Best Musical, Best Lead Actor in a Musical, Ben Platt; Best Featured Actress in a Musical, Rachel Bay Jones; Best Book of a Musical, Best Original Score, Best Orchestrations), the 2009 Tony Awards for Best Lead Actress in a Musical (Alice Ripley, Next to Normal) and Best Score (Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey, Next to Normal); the 2007 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play (Julie White, The Little Dog Laughed); the 2005 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical (Rachel Sheinkin, ...Spelling Bee) and Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Dan Fogler, ...Spelling Bee); the 2002 Tony Award for Best Director of a Play (Mary Zimmerman for Metamorphoses); the 2002 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Body of Work, 30 Obie Awards, eight Outer Critics Circle Awards, two Clarence Derwent Awards, 13 Drama Desk Awards, nine Theatre World Awards, 19 Lucille Lortel Awards, the Drama Critics Circle Award and 23 AUDELCO Awards.

In 1999, Second Stage Theater opened The Tony Kiser Theater, its state-of-the-art, 296-seat theatre, designed by renowned Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas. In 2002, Second Stage launched "Second Stage Theater Uptown" series to showcase the work of up and coming artists at the McGinn/Cazale Theater. The Theatre supports artists through several programs that include residencies, fellowships and commissions, and engages students and community members through education and outreach programs.

Second Stage Theater purchased the historic Helen Hayes Theater, located at 240 W. 44th Street, in 2015. The company will continue to lease and operate their original theaters on the city's Upper West Side and in Midtown Manhattan. Second Stage Theater has enlisted David Rockwell and The Rockwell Group to make renovations and updates to the 104 year old landmark building.

Second Stage Theater's inaugural Broadway season will begin in March 2018 with Kenneth Lonergan's Lobby Hero, directed by Trip Cullman and starring Michael Cera and Chris Evans in his Broadway debut. The season will also include the New York Premiere of Young Jean Lee's Straight White Men, directed by Anna D. Shapiro.

This inaugural season kicks off Second Stage's mission of creating and building a permanent home on Broadway dedicated exclusively to American plays and living American Playwrights.

Second Stage Theater is investing in its future on Broadway by co-commissioning established playwrights through its STAGE-2-STAGE program, launching with Los Angeles's Center Theatre Group. This ongoing program will provide a pathway to Broadway, with each play receiving an initial production in Los Angeles at one of CTG's three theatres before moving to New York. The commissioned playwrights are Jon Robin Baitz, Will Eno, Lisa Kron, Young Jean Lee, Lynn Nottage, and Paula Vogel.

Second Stage Theater is also co-commissioning a new work from Bess Wohl for Broadway, through a partnership with the Williamstown Theatre Festival, and new works for Broadway from Lydia R. Diamond and Dominique Morisseau, which will be developed in association with Kenny Leon's True Colors Theater.

Second Stage Theater's upcoming off-Broadway productions include the New York premiere of Bruce Norris's A Parallelogram, directed by Michael Greif, beginning previews July 11 and opening August 2.

Next season will bring the 35th Anniversary production of Harvey Fierstein's Torch Song, directed by Moisés Kaufman, starring Michael Urie and Mercedes Ruehl, beginning performances in September 2017.

For more information, visit www.2ST.com.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride