World Premiere of Tanya Barfield's BRIGHT HALF LIFE Opens Tonight at New York City Center

Women's Project Theater, under the leadership of newly-appointed Producing Artistic Director Lisa McNulty, is pleased to present the World Premiere of BRIGHT HALF LIFE - a new play by Pulitzer Prize finalist Tanya Barfield and directed by Tony Award nominee Leigh Silverman - in a five-week limited engagement at New York City Center Stage II (131 W. 55th Street) through March 22, 2015. Opening night is set for tonight, February 25.

Erica meets Vicky. Vicky marries Erica. Lives collide. Rewind. Pause. Fast forward. Starring Rebecca Henderson (Appropriate Behavior) and Rachael Holmes (Ruined), BRIGHT HALF LIFE is a kaleidoscopic new play about love, skydiving and the infinite moments that make a life together. Completing the creative team are Set Designer Rachel Hauck (This Wide Night), Costume Designer Emily Rebholz (If/Then), Lighting Designer Jen Schriever (The Other Josh Cohen) and Sound Designer Bart Fasbender (Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson).

BRIGHT HALF LIFE marks the third collaboration between Barfield - described by the Los Angeles Times as an "unfailingly thought-provoking" playwright with "a vision that is both fearless and humane" - and Silverman, whose work on last season's Violet earned Tony Award nominations for Best Direction and Best Musical Revival. The duo previously partnered on the critically acclaimed plays Blue Door and The Call, the former earning Barfield a nomination for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize. BRIGHT HALF LIFE continues WP Theater's mission as the nation's oldest and largest company dedicated to developing, producing and promoting the work of theater artists who identify as women.

BRIGHT HALF LIFE was developed during a residency at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Playwrights Conference in 2014 (Preston Whiteway - Executive Director; Wendy C. Goldberg - Artistic Director).

The playing schedule for BRIGHT HALF LIFE is as follows: Tuesday- Friday at 7:30PM, Saturday at 2:30PM & 7:30PM, Sunday at 2:30PM. Tickets start at $60 and can be purchased by calling CityTix at 212-581-1212, by visiting the Box Office at 131 West 55th Street in NYC, or online at WPTheater.org.

REBECCA HENDERSON (Erica) Select theatre: The Wayside Motor Inn (Signature); Your Mother's Copy of the Kama Sutra (Playwrights Horizons); Too Much Too Much Too Many (Roundabout Theatre Company); The Whale (Playwrights Horizons); Le Brea (Clubbed Thumb); Red-Handed Otter (Playwright's Realm); Autumn Sonata (Yale Rep); The Collection and A Kind of Alaska (Atlantic Theater Company); Roadkill Confidential (Clubbed Thumb); The Retributionists (Playwrights Horizons); Spin, U.S. Drag, and Vengence (the stageFARM); bobrauschenbergamerica (American Repertory Theater). Film and Television: Mistress America, True Story, Actresses, The Mend, Appropriate Behavior, Diving Normal, Compliance, East of Acadia, Meskada, Little Horses, A Lone Star State, "The Impossibilites", "Wallflowers", "The Good Wife" and "Grand Theft Auto IV & V". MFA, Columbia University.

RACHAEL HOLMES (Vicky) just made her Yale Rep debut in the world premiere of War by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (dir. Lileana Blain-Cruz). Her New York credits include Ruined directed by Kate Whoriskey (Manhattan Theatre Club); Persephone's Cowboy: A Musical directed by Alex Timbers, 365 Days/365 Plays with directors Michael Greif, Leigh Silverman, and Hal Brooks (The Public Theater). Regional credits include: Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (Broadway World nomination for Best Supporting Actress) directed by Jonathan Moscone (Alley Theatre); Good People directed by Kate Whoriskey (Huntington Theatre); Ruined (Helen Hayes Award for Best Ensemble) directed by Charles Randolph-Wright (Arena Stage); The Book Club Play directed by Molly Smith (Arena Stage); Richard II directed by Michael Kahn, Julius Caesar directed by David Paul (Shakespeare Theatre); and Marcus; or The Secret of Sweet directed by Timothy Douglas (Studio Theatre); She recorded Lady Macbeth and Titania for the Folger Shakespeare Library's Luminary Shakespeare App. Television: The Mysteries of Laura, The Good Wife, Dirt, as well as national commercials and voice-overs. She received her MFA from NYU and teaches at New Victory Theatre and New York Film Academy. rachael.biz

TANYA BARFIELD (Playwright). Tanya Barfield's The Call premiered last spring at Playwrights Horizons in co-production with Primary Stages and was a New York Times Critic's Pick. Her play Blue Door (South Coast Rep, Playwrights Horizons) was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Tanya wrote the book for the Theatreworks/USA children's musical, Civil War: The First Black Regiment which toured public schools regionally. Other work includes: Oscar-nominated director Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu´s upcoming TV drama "One Percent"; Feast (co-writer, Young Vic/Royal Court) and Of Equal Measure (Center Theatre Group), Chat (New Dramatists' Playtime Festival), The Quick (New York Stage & Film). Short plays include: Medallion (WP Theater/Antigone Project), Foul Play (Royal Court Theatre, Cultural Center of Brazil), The Wolves and Wanting North (Guthrie Theatre Lab, named Best 10-Minute Play of 2003). A recipient of a Lilly Award, the inaugural Lilly Award Commission and a Helen Merrill Award, Tanya is a proud alumna of New Dramatists and a member of The Dramatist Guild Council.

LEIGH SILVERMAN (Director). Broadway: Violet (Tony nomination); Chinglish; Well. Off-Broadway: American Hero (2ST); Kung Fu (Signature Theatre); The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence (Playwrights Horizons); The Call (Playwrights Horizons); The Madrid (MTC); Golden Child (Signature Theatre); No Place to Go (Public Theater; Two River Theatre); In the Wake (Center Theatre Group/Berkeley Repertory Theatre and The Public Theater, Obie Award, Lortel nomination); Go Back to Where You Are (Playwrights Horizons, Obie Award); From Up Here (MTC, Drama Desk nomination); Yellow Face (Center Theatre Group/The Public Theater); Coraline (MCC/True Love); Blue Door (Playwrights Horizons); Well (The Public Theater; Huntington Theatre; ACT); Danny and the Deep Blue Sea (Second Stage Theatre). Recent regional: The Heidi Chronicles (Guthrie Theater); American Hero (WTF); Chinglish (Goodman Theater, Jeff nomination; West Coast/Hong Kong tour).

WOMEN'S PROJECT THEATRE (Lisa McNulty - Producing Artistic Director; Maureen Moynihan - Managing Director) is the nation's oldest and largest theater company dedicated to developing, producing and promoting the work of theater artists who identify as women. WP Theater supports these artists and the world-class, groundbreaking work they create, and provides a platform where women's voices can be heard and celebrated on the American stage throughout their careers. In service of that important mission, over the past 37 years WP has produced over 600 main stage productions and developmental projects, and published 11 anthologies of plays by women. WP has been the launching pad for many of our nation's most important female theater artists. Eve Ensler, María Irene Fornés, Katori Hall, Pam MacKinnon, Lynn Nottage, Leigh Silverman and Anna Deveare Smith, among many, many others, all found early artistic homes here. No other producing institution in the country can claim this kind of ongoing history of advocacy and support for women in the theater, and we look ahead to the next generation of female artists who will also begin their careers here.

Photo Credit: Joan Marcus

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