Cast Completed For THE WENDY CHRONICLES: A THREE-PLAY TRIBUTE TO WENDY WASSERSTEIN

The talented, award-wining cast for The Wendy Chronicles, a three-play tribute to Pulitzer Prize and Tony-Winning feminist playwright Wendy Wasserstein, is now complete and ready to open on January 5 at The Braid in Santa Monica.

Director Stan Zimmerman has added Hollywood Fringe Festival award winner Chris Farah, tv regulars Ken Lerner (The Goldbergs) and Jon Sprik (Younger) and film, tv and video performer Natalie Whittle to his exceptional 15 actor ensemble that includes: Lucy DeVito (Always Sunny in Philadelphia), Andrea Bowen (Desperate Housewives), Amanda Bearse (Married with Children), Olivia Hack (Gilmore Girls), and Mindy Sterling (Austin Powers). Mindy Cohn (Facts of Life) will be reading stage directions. Lerner and Sterling can currently be seen as a married couple in the popular tv show The Goldbergs.

Zimmerman's tribute to Wasserstein includes Uncommon Women and Others, Isn't It Romantic and the Pulitzer and Tony-Winning The Heidi Chronicles. The trio of Wasserstein's plays will be presented at The Braid on two Sundays in January. Audiences may purchase tickets to one show, or see all three, which will take them along on young women's journeys from traditional roles to feminist consciousness and liberation.

On January 5 and January 12, performances of Uncommon Women and Others will be at 12:30 p.m., Isn't It Romantic plays at 4:00 p.m., and the Pulitzer Prize winning The Heidi Chronicles begins at 7:30 p.m. Tickets may be purchased individually or in multiple show packages at www.jewishwomenstheatre.org.

Uncommon Women and Others was Wasserstein's thesis at Yale Drama School. When it opened off-Broadway in 1977, The New York Times called it, "movingly real" and praised its "dramatic wit and wisdom" as it focused on the "lacerations, hopes, despairs and confusions" that the times inflict upon the characters."

Wasserstein's 1981 Broadway hit Isn't It Romantic, continues the story of young women as they struggle to free themselves from parental domination and create their own identities. This "compulsively funny new comedy," according to the New York Times, compliments Wasserstein by calling her "a tummeler at the typewriter, spritzing the stage with laughter."

The Heidi Chronicles, the final play in The Wendy Chronicles trilogy tribute, which opened in 1988, focuses on what critic Wade Bradford called the "emotional trials that women and men confront when they try to figure out exactly what they should do with their lives." This Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning play will climax both January Braid events and will include a talk back with the actors and a reception each night.

The new cast members are:

Chris Farah (MUFFET - Uncommon Women and Others, ENSEMBLE - The Heidi Chronicles) has performed at Upright Citizen's Brigade LA and NYC, in Perezprov, There's No Crying in Improv, Girls Gone Blue, The Quick & Funny Musicals, Sketch Cram, The Dirtiest Sketch Show in LA, her own musicals Lil' Tw*t of Horrors and Oh Well! Oh Well! and many, more. She is also a pop-culture writer and panelist on shows like Chelsea Lately and Hello Ross. TV credits include Superstore, Modern Family and Married. In 2012, her cult character Fancy was nominated for Best Solo show and won the Veterans for Virgin award at Hollywood Fringe 2013. In 2014, Fancy returned with a new show and won Best Cabaret/Variety for Hollywood Fringe 2014 and the Bitter Lemons Trailer Trash Award.

KEN LERNER (SIMON BLUMBERG - Isn't It Romantic) is an American television, stage and film actor who has appeared on over 40 films and 100 television shows such as The Goldbergs, The Mentalist, NCIS, In Plain Sight, Two and a Half Men, Desperate Housewives, Castle, Weeds, CSI, Without a Trace and Buffy The Vampire Slayer. He's also starred in productions at Pasadena Playhouse, Falcon Theatre, and off-Broadway. Ken was born in Brooklyn, New York and graduated from Brooklyn College.

JON SPRIK (VLAD - Isn't it Romantic, ENSEMBLE - The Heidi Chronicles) Most recently he appeared in The Road Theatre's West Coast Premiere of At the Table where he is a company member. Favorite companies he has worked with include Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, The Sierra Madre Playhouse, Powerhouse Theatre (WA), Titan Theatre, Door Shakespeare, and The Texas Shakespeare Festival. He has also appeared on Darren Star's Younger, My Crazy ExGirlfriend, and in Amish Horror Stories. He earned an MFA from The University of Houston Professional Actor Training Program.

NATALIE WHITTLE (RITA - Uncommon Women and Others) is an actress and TV host and has performed in numerous plays, feature films, and web-series productions. She appeared in Orbital Redux as Lilly, on Project Alpha.com. This was Project Alpha's first live scripted television show. She was in the popular music video and short film Shame, produced by Denzel Washington starring Tyrese Gibson and Jennifer Hudson, which has won numerous awards. Natalie reunites with Zimmerman after appearing in his first play, Meet & Greet.

All three shows will be presented on January 5 and January 12 at Jewish Women's Theatre (JWT), 2912 Colorado Ave., Santa Monica. Uncommon Women and Others (at 12:30 p.m.), Isn't It Romantic (4:00 p.m.), and the Pulitzer Prize winning The Heidi Chronicles (7:30 p.m.). Tickets may be purchased individually or in multiple show packages at: www.jewishwomenstheatre.org.

To post a comment, you must register and login.