Long Wharf Theatre Presents ITALIAN AMERICAN RECONCILIATION, Closes 5/22

Long Wharf Theatre, under the leadership of Artistic Director Gordon Edelstein, concludes its 2010-11 season with Italian American Reconciliation, by John Patrick Shanley, directed by Eric Ting, closing May 22.

Tickets are $40-$70 and are available at 203-787-4282 or at www.longwharf.org.

The cast features Lisa Birnbaum (Janice), Mike Crane (Huey), Stephanie DiMaggio (Teresa), John
Procaccino (Aldo) and Socorro Santiago (Aunt May.) The production team is comprised of Scott Bradley (sets), Linda Cho (costumes), Russell Champa (lights), Sarah Pickett (sound), James Calleri, CSA (casting), and Megan Schwarz Dickert (stage manager).

Huey Maxmillian Bonfigliano has a problem. He's still stuck on his ex-wife, even though she tore out his heart three years ago. He feels that he can't be a man again until he gets her back. Enlisting the help of his best friend Aldo, Huey tries to woo her back just one final time in the fanciful, light-hearted and zestfully comic play called "Irresistible" by the New York Daily News.

"Shanley's characters don't sidle up and ask - they demand to be seen and heard. Saying exactly what they feel, almost without appearing to think about it, they're posturing and naked at once, far-fetched, mercurial and profane, and they effortlessly own the stage," said American Theatre magazine in 2004.

This will be the first time Long Wharf Theatre has produced a play by Shanley, a Pulitzer Prize, Tony and Oscar-winning writer. Shanley reached the pinnacle in his career with the production of his play Doubt: A Parable, in 2004. He had previously been critically lauded as an Off-Broadway playwright for such plays as Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, Four Dogs and a Bone, and as an Oscar winning screenwriter for Moonstruck. Doubt: A Parable received rave reviews during it's Off-Broadway run and became Shanley's first transfer to Broadway. The production won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, the Drama Desk, the Tony and the Pulitzer. Doubt became a major motion picture, directed by Shanley. His long list of acclaimed plays, many of which he directed in their original productions, include Defiance, Savage in Limbo, Big Funk, and Sailor Song.

Italian American Reconciliation marks John Procaccino's sixth Long Wharf Theatre appearance, having previously been seen in Sylvia, Prayer for My Enemy, A Moon for the Misbegotten, We Won't Pay, We Won't Pay!, and Down the Garden Paths. His Broadway work includes Art, An American Daughter, A Thousand Clowns, and Conversations with My Father. Michael Crane is making his Long Wharf Theatre debut. His New York credits include The Glass Cage, The Leopard and the Fox, West Moon Street, St. Joan of the Stockyards and the Hamlet Project. His television credits include "Law & Order," "White Collar," "Kings," "Forget My Name," "Party of Five," and "Clueless."

Lisa Birnbaum is making her Long Wharf Theatre debut. A graduate of the Yale School of Drama,
Birnbaum has appeared on stage in Lizzie Borden, Cry of the Reed (Huntington Theater), Taming of the Shrew (Folger Shakespeare), Romeo and Juliet, Anything Goes, and Spring Awakening (Williamstown), among others. Her television credits include "Guiding Light."

Stephanie DiMaggio has appeared in A Free Man of Color (Lincoln Center Theatre), Othello
(Shakespeare on the Sound), All My Sons (Huntington Theatre Company), Haroun and the Sea of Stories (Williamstown Theatre Festival), among others. She has appeared on television in "Rubicon" and "Law and Order" and on film in Generation Um. She is also making her first Long Wharf Theatre appearance.

Socorro Santiago has appeared in the films The Devil's Advocate, Freedomland, Night Falls on
Manhattan, Lulu on the Bridge and others. Her television work includes "Kings," "All My Children," "Dora the Explorer," "Law and Order" and "The Cosby Mysteries." She has been in the Broadway plays The Bacchae, L'Illusion, De Donde and Take II.

For more information call 203-787-4282 or visit www.longwharf.org

 

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