Photo Flash: AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY Opens Tonight at The Hilberry Theatre

The 2008 Tony Award winner for Best Play August: Osage County, by Tracy Letts, closes the Hilberry Theatre's 51st season in Midtown Detroit. Playing tonight, April 18 through May 10, 2014, this Pulitzer Prize-winning play arrives at the Hilberry Theatre fresh off the critically-acclaimed movie adaptation in theatres nationwide. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

August: Osage County is set on the plains of modern day, middle-class Oklahoma. Each member of the Weston family is intelligent and sensitive with an uncanny ability of making the others absolutely miserable. When the patriarch of the household, Beverly, mysteriously vanishes, the Weston clan gathers together to simultaneously support and attack one another. His body is found five days later in the lake; his death is deemed a suicide. Violet, the drug-addicted matriarch, her three daughters, and their families try, unsuccessfully, to work out their problems from the time they arrive, through his funeral, and on into the next day. Darkly comic and bitingly witty, August: Osage County explores painful issues all American families have to face, and then some.

Lavinia Hart, Head of the MFA Acting Program at Wayne State University, will play the role of Violet, the drug-addled family matriarch. Hart was the Artistic Director of the Attic Theatre in Detroit for 19 years where she acted, directed, and produced more than 100 professional productions. She is a winner of the Detroit Free Press Lee Hills Award, and has been named Michiganian of the Year by the Detroit News Magazine.

Director James R. Kuhl returns home to the Hilberry Theatre where he earned his MFA in acting. Kuhl is the Artistic Director for the Tipping Point Theatre and has worked as an actor with the Purple Rose Theatre Company, Williamston Theatre, The Michigan Shakespeare Festival, Boarshead Theatre, Icarus Falling, Spotlight Theatre, Croswell Opera House, Magenta Giraffe, and the Summer Studio Theatre in Illinois.

This production contains harsh language and portrays adult/mature themes.

Cast (in alphabetical order): Alec Barbour (Beverly Weston), Megan Barbour (Karen Weston), Bevin Bell-Hall (Mattie Fae Aiken), Miles Boucher (Bill Fordham), Danielle Cochrane (Barbara Fordham), Brandon Grantz (Steve Heidebrecht), Lavinia Hart (Violet Weston), Annie Keris (Ivy Weston), Egla Kishta (Jean Fordham), Sarah Hawkins Moan (Johnna Monevata), Topher Alan Payne (Sheriff Deon Gilbeau), Brandy Joe Plambeck (Charlie Aiken), David Sterritt (Little Charles Aiken).

Production Team: James R. Kuhl (Director), Sarah Drum (Stage Manager), Lyndee Hallahan (Asst. Stage Manager), Leazah Behrens (Scenic Design), Clare Hungate-Hawk (Costume Designer), Heather DeFauw (Lighting Design), Leah McCall (Sound Designer), Brian Dambacher (Technical Director), Mike Sabourin (Properties Master), Michael "Mick" Keathley (Master Electrician), Maxwell Bolton (Publicist).

Tickets for August: Osage County range from $10 - $30 and are available by calling the Hilberry Theatre Box Office at (313) 577-2972, online at Hilberry.com, or by visiting the box office at 4743 Cass Avenue on the corner of Hancock Street.

Photo Credit: Maxwell Bolton

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