Sam Waterston Returns To The Long Wharf Theatre Stage In HAVE YOU SEEN US?

Sam Waterston, star of TV's "Law and Order" and countless film and stage appearances, returns to the Long Wharf Theatre stage in the 2009-10 world premiere of Athol Fugard's play Have You Seen Us?, directed by Artistic Director Gordon Edelstein.

Waterston, who last appeared at Long Wharf Theatre in the 2004-05 season's hit production of Travesties, by Tom Stoppard, will play the role of Henry Parsons, a South African professor forced by a chance encounter to deal with the demons in his heart. The show will run from November 24 through December 20 on the Mainstage.

"Sam is one of the great American stage actors of our time. He was at the very top of my list to take on this challenging role, combining intelligence, humor, and great depth; thank God he said yes," Edelstein said.

Master playwright Athol Fugard has a long history with Waterston, having worked with him on the film The Killing Fields. "I cannot think of better casting for the role in this play than Mr. Sam Waterston. Everything I've seen him do bears witness to his extraordinary command of his craft and also the generosity and humanity he brings to every role he undertakes," Fugard said.

Have You Seen Us? takes place on Christmas Eve in a diner in a Southern California strip mall. Henry Parsons, a South African transplant comes in for his usual-a turkey sandwich and insulting banter with Adela, the Mexican-American waitress. The two creep towards a fragile understanding until Solly and Rachael, an eastern European Jewish couple sit down to eat. The couple's entrance forces Henry to a reckoning with his inward struggles and, for a moment, unites four lost souls. "Sam brings dignity, intelligence, a brilliant command of language, charisma, power and vulnerability to the role," Edelstein said.

Waterston's portrayal of charismatic, tough District Attorney Jack McCoy, in Wolf Films/Universal Network Television's Law & Order, has earned three Emmy nominations for Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series, the 1999 Screen Actors Guild Award, a Screen Actors Guild nomination in 1998 and a Golden Globe nomination in 1995.

Waterston received a Best Actor Oscar nomination for The Killing Fields, three Emmy nominations and a Golden Globe Award for I'll Fly Away, and Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actor and Most Promising Newcomer for the "Nick Carraway" role in The Great Gatsby. He was awarded an Emmy as host of the ten-part NBC informational series Lost Civilizations, and, in England, has received numerous BAFTA nominations.

Waterston's extensive film credits include Woody Allen's films Interiors, Hannah and Her Sisters and Crimes and Misdemeanors, John Waters' Serial Mom, Hopscotch and Heaven's Gate and two Anthony Harvey films; Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie with Katharine Hepburn, Michael Moriarty, and Joanna Miles and Eagles Wing with Martin Sheen and Harvey Keitel. He starred opposite Jeff Bridges in Tom McGuane's Rancho Deluxe and with Reese Witherspoon in Man in the Moon. On television, he played "Oppenheimer" in mini-series of the same name, produced and starred opposite Jennifer Beals and Lisa Gay Hamilton in the cable movie A House Divided, and portrayed Abraham Lincoln opposite Mary Tyler Moore in Gore Vidal's television mini-series, Lincoln. Waterston starred in the NBC movie, The Matthew Shepard Story, opposite Stockard Channing and his recent films include The Commission with Martin Landau and Le Divorce with Kate Hudson, Glenn Close and Stockard Channing.

Waterston earned a Tony Award nomination as Lincoln in Abe Lincoln in Illinois at the Lincoln Center Theater in New York, and an Obie Award and a Drama Desk Award for his "Benedick" in Much Ado About Nothing. His stage work includes the New York Shakespeare Festival, productions As You Like It, Cymbeline, Measure for Measure and Hamlet. In 2000 Waterston played "James Tyrone" in Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night, with his son James as "Edmund" at Syracuse Stage, with John Slattery and Elizabeth Franz. In 2003 Waterston starred in the world premiere production of David Rabe's The Black Monk at the Yale Repertory Theater. In 2004 Waterston returned to The Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park in a reprise production of Much Ado About Nothing, portraying "Leonato" opposite his daughter, Elisabeth (The Prince and Me) starring in the "Hero" role. Most recently, Waterston appeared as "Polonius" in Michael Stuhlbarg's Hamlet.

Waterston is a graduate of Yale University and currently serves on the board of Oceana, the world's preeminent ocean conservation organization. Waterston lives in Connecticut with his wife. Their children James, Elisabeth, and Katherine, are a new generation of ever more successful actors, playing important roles on stage in New York, as well as on film and television. Their son Graham is a writer and director. They have two grandchildren.

Long Wharf Theatre (Gordon Edelstein, Artistic Director and Ray Cullom, Managing Director), entering its 45th season, is recognized as a leader in American theatre, producing fresh and imaginative revivals of classics and modern plays, rediscoveries of neglected works and a variety of world and American premieres. More than 30 Long Wharf productions have transferred virtually intact to Broadway or Off-Broadway, some of which include Durango by Julia Cho, the Pulitzer Prize-winning plays Wit by Margaret Edson, The Shadow Box by Michael Cristofer and The Gin Game by D.L. Coburn. The theatre is an incubator of new works, including last season's A Civil War Christmas by Paula Vogel and Coming Home by Athol Fugard. Long Wharf Theatre has received New York Drama Critics Awards, Obie Awards, the Margo Jefferson Award for Production of New Works, a Special Citation from the Outer Critics Circle and the Tony® Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre.

www.LongWharf.org

 

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