LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT at Iowa Stage Theatre Company to Begin Performances March 25

Iowa Stage Theatre Company, central Iowa's home for award-winning theater that inspires, enlightens and entertains, is shifting its production of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night from 11 February to 25 March, due to the COVID surge central Iowa is experiencing. Sweat, originally slated to open at that time, will be rescheduled later in 2022.

"Our first priority has to be the safety of our artists and audiences," says Artistic Director Matthew McIver. "With the surge in cases, it is more prudent for us to push this show back, and look for cases to decline. We look forward to presenting Sweat later this year. With its larger cast, it seems appropriate to shift it further in the calendar."

Long Day's Journey Into Night is Eugene O'Neill's masterpiece of the American family, which he never allowed to be performed in his lifetime. Based on O'Neill's own loving but damaged family, it shares the story of heartbreak and addiction through one long day in the life of the Tyrone family. The set and lighting design are by ISTC Director of Production Jay Jagim, winner of a Cloris Lifetime Achievement Award, and the production is directed by ISTC Artistic Director Matthew McIver. The production will be performed at the Stoner Theater of Des Moines Performing Arts.

Sweat is Lynn Nottage's Pulitzer-prize winning masterpiece about race, work, friendship, family and struggle in the American heartland. ISTC will present it later in 2022, also at the Stoner Theater of Des Moines Performing Arts. "Nottage's play is one of the great scripts of the 21st century, and speaks to our nation's reckoning with our fears and divisions in an extraordinary way," said McIver. "We are committed to bringing this story to central Iowa audiences, at the right time."

For more information visit www.iowastage.org.