William Ivey Long Joins Creative Team of THE BELLE OF AMHERST

Don Gregory, the original and current producer of The Belle of Amherst, just announced that six time Tony Award® winner William Ivey Long (The Producers, Hairspray, Bullets Over Broadway, Cinderella) has joined the creative team to design the signature period costumes for the new production of William Luce's acclaimed one-woman play of the private yet prolific poet Emily Dickinson starring Golden Globe Award® nominee Joely Richardson ("Nip/Tuck," Side Effects).

Ivey Long joins the previously announced creative team featuring Antje Ellermann (scenic design), David Weiner (lighting design), and Daniel Kluger (sound design).

THE BELLE OF AMHERST is directed by Steve Cosson (The Civilians, Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play).

Beginning Tuesday, October 7th, The Belle of Amherst will play a limited engagement at off-Broadway's Westside Theatre (407 West 43rd Street). The production officially opens on Sunday, October 19th. Tickets are now on sale through Telecharge at www.telecharge.com or by calling 212-239-6200.

In The Belle of Amherst, Emily Dickinson welcomes audiences into her lifelong Amherst homestead in mid-19th century Massachusetts. While Dickinson found solace in solitude through much of her life, acclaimed playwright William Luce weaves her poems, diaries, and letters into a one-woman portrait of one of America's greatest and most prolific poets, mixing Dickinson's encounters with close friends and family with the poet's own, often amusing observations. "Full of passion and poetry and heart" (New York Daily News), The Belle of Amherst illuminates a brilliant wordsmith through the words she left behind.

WILLIAM IVEY LONG recently was nominated for his 14th Tony Award® and won the 2014 Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for his designs for Bullets Over Broadway, which is running on Broadway alongside Cabaret, Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella (Tony Award®) and Chicago, now in its 18th year! He also currently serves as Chairman of the Board for The American Theatre Wing.

Other Broadway Credits include: Big Fish, The Mystery of Edwin Drood; Don't Dress for Dinner; Hugh Jackman: Back on Broadway; Catch Me If You Can, Pal Joey, 9 to 5, Young Frankenstein; Curtains; Grey Gardens (Tony Award®); The Producers (Tony®, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle Awards); A Streetcar Named Desire; La Cage Aux Folles; The Boy from Oz; Hairspray (Tony®, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle Awards); Cabaret; Contact (Hewes Award); The Music Man; Annie Get Your Gun;Swing; Smokey Joe's Café; Crazy for You (Tony®, Outer Critics Circle Awards); Guys and Dolls (Drama Desk Award); A Christmas Carol; Six Degrees of Separation; Lend Me a Tenor (Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle Awards); Nine (Tony®, Drama Desk, Maharam Awards). Recent Off-Broadway productions include Bunty Berman Presents; Lucky Guy and The School for Lies.

He has also designed for such artists as Mick Jagger, Siegfried and Roy, the Pointer Sisters, Joan Rivers, and for choreographers Paul Taylor, Twyla Tharp, Peter Martins, David Parsons and Susan Stroman. He serves as Production Designer for North Carolina's oldest running seasonal outdoor drama, The Lost Colony, which was the 2013 recipient of the Tony® Honor for Excellence in the Theatre. He returns in 2014 for his 44th season with the production.

Mr. Long holds honorary degrees from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, The University of North Carolina at Asheville, and The College of William and Mary. He was the recipient of the Morrison Award (1992), the UNC Chapel Hill Playmakers Award (1994), the National Theatre Conference "Person of the Year" award (2000), the Order of the Long Leaf Pine (2001), the Distinguished Career Award from the Southeastern Theatre Conference (2002), the Raleigh Medal of Arts (2010), and the 2004 North Carolina Award presented by Governor Easley.

Mr. Long earned an undergraduate degree in history from The College of William and Mary, was a Kress Fellow at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and then earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in stage design from Yale University School of Drama.

Upcoming projects include On the Twentieth Century, The Merry Widow for The Metropolitan Opera and Little Dancer at the Kennedy Center. Mr. Long has won 6 Tony Awards®. He was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame in 2005, and was elected Chairman of The American Theatre Wing in June, 2012.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / WM Photos