Westport Country Playhouse to Host THE COUNTRY CLUB Reading, 6/22

Westport Country Playhouse will present a Script in Hand playreading of "The Country Club," a wry comedy by Tony Award nominee Douglas Carter Beane, on Monday, June 22, at 7 p.m., followed by a post-performance "Meet the Cast" reception in the courtyard. Director is Anne Keefe, Playhouse associate artist and curator of the playreading series. Tickets are $20 each.

"I just love the convention that forms this play," said Keefe. "Douglas Carter Beane sets the play in a small town country club and a series of parties that take us through a year - from New Year's Eve on to Christmas and every holiday in between. It is so funny, and at the same time very moving. It gives me the opportunity to bring back some of our younger actors as well. This will be a fun one!"

In "The Country Club," a young, witty and charmingly neurotic named Soos retreats from a failed marriage to her upper-class hometown and returns to her circle of old friends: her onetime boyfriend, the ever-charming Zip; the highly strung party planner Froggy; the wry and sarcastic Pooker; and the drunken good ol' boy Hutch. They meet once a month in the club's "cub room" for a theme party. As Pooker observes between cocktail sips, "We all have our little stories and nobody brings them up. That's what's known as community spirit."

The cast includes Matthew Amendt as Zip. His Westport Country Playhouse credits include "Tartuffe," and Script in Hand playreadings of "Over the River and Through the Woods" and "The Mousetrap." Most recently, he was in Off-Broadway's "'Tis Pity She's a Whore." Monique Barbee, as Pooker, was in Westport Country Playhouse's "The Liar," Metropolitan Opera's "Die Fledermaus," and Berkshire Theatre Festival's "A Little Night Music."

Rebekah Brockman, as Froggy, appeared in Westport Country Playhouse's "The Liar," Yale Rep's "Arcadia," and the film "Bridge of Spies" with Tom Hanks, directed by Steven Spielberg. Chris Henry Coffey, as Bri, was in Westport Country Playhouse's "The Dining Room," "Lips Together, Teeth Apart," and a Script in Hand playreading of "Other People's Money." On Broadway, he was in "Bronx Bombers." Robert Eli, as Hutch, appeared at Westport Country Playhouse in "The Show-Off," Script in Hand playreadings of "Mister Roberts," "Mary, Mary," and "The Mousetrap," Broadway's "Tartuffe," and TV's "House of Cards." Kate MacCluggage, as Soos, was in Westport Country Playhouse's "The Liar," Broadway's "The Farnsworth Invention," and Long Wharf Theatre/Hartford Stage's "Bell, Book, and Candle." Amelia Pedlow, as Chloe, was in Off-Broadway's "'Tis Pity She's a Whore," "The Heir Apparent," and "You Never Can Tell." All artists are subject to change.

Playwright Douglas Carter Beane's plays include "As Bees in Honey Drown" (Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Playwriting Award, Drama Desk nomination); "The Country Club" (LA Times Critics' Choice, Dramalogue awards); "Advice from a Caterpillar" (Outer Critics Circle nomination); "The Little Dog Laughed" (Tony nomination); "Xanadu" (Drama Desk Award, Tony nomination); "Sister Act" (Tony nomination); "Lysistrata Jones"; Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Cinderella"; and "The Nance." Beane is currently the artistic director of the Drama Dept. in New York.

Director Anne Keefe served as artistic director of Westport Country Playhouse with Joanne Woodward in 2008, and as associate artistic director from 2000-2006, also with Ms. Woodward. She co-directed with Ms. Woodward the Westport Country Playhouse production of "David Copperfield," and directed many Script in Hand playreadings.

Script in Hand sponsors are Marc and Michele Flaster; Script in Hand partners are Ann Sheffer and Bill Scheffler. Script in Hand corporate sponsor is People's United Bank Wealth Management. The series is supported, in part, by the White Barn Program of the Lucille Lortel Foundation.

For more information and to buy tickets, visit www.westportplayhouse.or or call the box office at (203) 227-4177, toll-free at 1-888-927-7529, or visit Westport Country Playhouse, 25 Powers Court, off Route 1, Westport. Stay connected to the Playhouse on Facebook (Westport Country Playhouse), follow on Twitter (@WCPlayhouse), and on YouTube (WestportPlayhouse).

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