BTG Casting News: Darren Pettie Joins 'FRANKIE AND JOHNNY'; Ariana Venturi Boards 'I SAW MY NEIGHBOR'

Berkshire Theatre Group is excited to announce that Broadway, Film and Television actor Darren Pettie will join the cast of Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune as Johnny, and BTG Alum Ariana Venturi, who played Gilda in last year's celebrated production of Design for a Living, will join the cast of I Saw My Neighbor On the Train and I Didn't Even Smile as Sadie.

Darren Pettie (Johnny in Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune) was born/bred in Alabama, served in Desert Storm, and attended Juilliard. London: (National Theatre) Strange Interlude. Broadway: Butley. Off Broadway: Detroit (Playwrights Horizons); Dinner with Friends, The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore (Roundabout Theatre Company);The Collection (Atlantic Theatre Company); This, Spattern Pattern (Playwrights); Hillary (New Georges); Dedication of the Stuff of Dreams (Primary Stages); Hobson's Choice (Atlantic Theatre); Unwrap Your Candy (Vineyard Theatre); Measure for Measure (Delacorte); Regional and Festivals: How the Other Half Loves (Westport); Don't Dress for Dinner (Royal George);The Cry of the Reed (Huntington); The Taming of the Shrew (Commonwealth Shakespeare Festival); Dedication of the Stuff of Dreams (WTF). Film and Television: Taking Woodstock, The International, Ghost Town, Four Single Fathers, AMC pilot Line of Sight, The Good Wife, Mad Men, Ringer, Scandal, Rizzoli & Isles, Pan Am, Castle, Prime Suspect, Gossip Girl, Cashmere Mafia, Brothers and Sisters, Without a Trace, Numb3rs, CSI, Crossing Jordan, Charmed.

Ariana Venturi (Sadie in I Saw My Neighbor On the Train and I Didn't Even Smile) is thrilled to return to BTG, where she appeared last summer as Gilda in Design for a Living, and creepy undertaker Mrs. Underwood in The Cat and the Canary in 2013. Regional: These Paper Bullets! and In a Year with 13 Moons (Yale Repertory Theatre), Michael von Siebenburg Melts Through the Floorboards (Actor's Theatre Louisville, 2012 Humana Festival). New York: Dance Dance Revolution (Les Freres Corbusier), Vendetta Chrone (Clubbed Thumb), The Great Recession (The Flea Theatre). She has a BA in English from Vassar college and an MFA from Yale School of Drama.

I Saw My Neighbor On the Train and I Didn't Even Smile, written by Suzanne Heathcote and directed by Jackson Gay, will feature Linda Gehringer, Adam Langdon, Keira Naughton, Adam O'Byrne, Andrew Rothenberg and Ariana Venturi.

This is Rebecca's life: she wakes up, eats a sensible breakfast, wraps herself in three layers, drives to the train station, commutes to her bookkeeping job in the city, watches the clock, goes home, cooks dinner for her domineering mother, watches TV, and falls asleep grieving for her dead dog. Every day is the same as the next until Rebecca's underachieving brother begs her to take care of her troubled niece-and she does what she always does-she lets it happen. In an unforgivingly bitter month, three generations of women with nothing in common, except a deeply buried ache, try to keep the cold away.

A co-production with New Neighborhood, the show plays at The Unicorn Theatre, Stockbridge, The Larry Vaber Stage. Previews: Thursday, July 16 through Friday, July 17. Press Opening/Opening Night: Saturday, July 18 at 8pm. Talkback: Monday, July 20 after 7pm performance. Closing: Saturday, August 15 at 8pm. Tickets: Preview: $42. Tickets: A: $50.

Born out of the Low Brow/Hi Fi 2014 Yale Rep production of These Paper Bullets! and the unintended financial backing of Rupert Murdoch, New Neighborhood is a theater and television company whose sincerity and authenticity are so combustible, it cannot be housed under one roof for too long without doing severe structural damage. With new work, bruised work, all-singing, all-dancing, foul-mouthed musical work, New Neighborhood seeks to harvest the organs of its audience and sell them back to their owners within the time houselights dim and rise, or the DVR records and you delete. Founded in 2015 by a collective of artists scattered across the country, New Neighborhood is a particular ordinance of Actors, Designers, Directors, Dramaturgs (all the hot D's!), Musicians, Graphic Novelists, Producers, Writers, Widows, Widowers (all the lousy W's) and bad, browned-on-both-sides Balladeers. New Neighborhood finds a show, produces the sh*t outta it, and disappears into a cloud of train. For more information about New Neighborhood, visit www.newneighborhood.net.

Frankie And Johnny In the Clair de Lune by Terrence McNally, directed by Karen Allen, will star Angel Desai and Darren Pettie.

The bewildering journey of finding love in the modern world sets the premise for Terrence McNally's (Master Class, Love! Valour! Compassion!) bittersweet comedy, Frankie And Johnny In the Clair de Lune. After a one-night rendezvous in Manhattan's West Side, Johnny, played by Darren Pettie (Broadway: Butley) a compulsive, starry-eyed, short-order cook, is convinced he has found his life companion in Frankie, Angel Desai (Broadway: Company), a wisecracking waitress. Frankie's poor history with men leaves her hesitant to commit, but as the night progresses, she lets her guard down and an unlikely romance begins to blossom. This contemporary love story will be directed by beloved BTG Alum Karen Allen (BTG: Moonchildren, Extremities).

Performances run at The Fitzpatrick Main Stage, Stockbridge Campus. Previews: Wednesday, July 29-Friday, July 31. Press Opening/Opening Night: Saturday, August 1 at 8pm. Talkback: Monday, August 3 at 7pm. Closing: Saturday, August 22 at 8pm. Tickets: Preview: $42. Tickets: $62.

Making her Fitzpatrick Main Stage directorial review, Karen has previously directed Moonchildren and Extremities in the Unicorn theatre. Karen Allen is an award-winning theatre and film actress and director, starring in countless renowned films including: Raiders of the Lost Ark, Scrooged, Animal House, The Perfect Storm and The Glass Menagerie. Allen has been in acclaimed On and Off-Broadway productions such as, The Monday After the Miracle, Extremities, and most recently, A Summer Day.

For more information about Berkshire Theatre Group and our upcoming season, visit www.BerkshireTheatreGroup.org.

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