Harry Groener, Sally Wingert and More Set for CHRISTOPHER HAMPTON CELEBRATION at Guthrie Theatre, 9/15-10/27

The Guthrie Theater today announced the full casts, comprising 39 actors, for the three plays of the Christopher Hampton Celebration. The previously announced celebration of the multi-faceted writer's work will occupy all three of the Guthrie's stages in an immersive and illuminating theatrical experience, with diverse casts tackling dynamic roles torn from the pages of world history.

Tales from Hollywood, a biting comedy about German intellectual émigrés escaping Nazi Germany for the film industry in Los Angeles, running from September 15 – October 27 on the Guthrie's Wurtele Thrust Stage, will be directed by Ethan McSweeny (Guthrie: Arms and the Man, A View from the Bridge; non-Guthrie: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare Theatre Company; The Pirates of Penzance, Stratford Shakespeare Festival).

Tales from Hollywood features Lee Sellars in his Guthrie debut (Twelve Angry Men, George Street Playhouse, Brunswick, N.J.; West Side Story, Palace Theatre, New York) as the wry and knowing narrator Ödön von Horváth, who takes the audience through a world of expatriates in Tinseltown. Keir Dullea (Film: 2001: A Space Odyssey; Theater: I Never Sang For My Father, Harold Clurman Theater, New York) appears for the first time at the Guthrie as novelist Heinrich Mann, with Allison Daugherty (The Time of Your Life, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey) as his much younger wife Nelly Mann. Guthrie favorite Stephen Yoakam (Guthrie: The Birds, The Burial at Thebes) will appear as the turbulent and cynical Bertolt Brecht.

The cast for Tales from Hollywood will also include Julia Coffey (Maple and Vine, American Conservatory Theater, San Francisco; The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Washington, D.C.) as Ödön's love interest Helen Schwartz, Bob Davis (Guthrie: A Christmas Carol, Much Ado About Nothing) will play the Nobel Prize-winning writer Thomas Mann, with Laura Esping (Guthrie: Much Ado About Nothing, A Christmas Carol) portraying his wife Katja Mann. The cast will also include Summer Hagen (Guthrie: The Birds) as Angel, ChariTy Jones (Guthrie: Hay Fever, M. Butterfly) in the role of Marta Feuchtwanger, Barbara Kingsley (Guthrie: Jane Eyre) as Salka Viertel, Bill McCallum (Guthrie: Time Stands Still, God of Carnage) in the dual roles of Art Nicely and Lion Feuchtwanger, Kris L. Nelson (Guthrie: A Christmas Carol, Arsenic and Old Lace) as Hal, Dan Shor (Film: Air Force One, Tron: The Next Day; Television: Star Trek: Voyager) in the dual roles of Charles Money and Jacob Lomakhin, John Skelley (Guthrie: Hay Fever, Charley's Aunt) as Young Man and Anna Sundberg (Guthrie: A Christmas Carol) as Helene Wiegel.

Appomattox, Hampton's new play bridging 1865 and 1965 and the American Civil War and Civil Rights Era, will run from September 29 – November 11 and will be directed by David Esbjornson (Guthrie: The Great Gatsby, Resurrection Blues; non-Guthrie: The Lady from Dubuque, Signature Center, New York; Driving Miss Daisy, productions in New York and London).

This epic new political drama will feature Harry Groener (Television: "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"; Broadway: Oklahoma!-Tony Award nomination; Crazy for You-Tony Award nomination) in the pivotal dual roles of Abraham Lincoln and Lyndon B. Johnson, paired with Guthrie favorite Sally Wingert (Guthrie: Charley's Aunt, Arsenic and Old Lace), as Mary Todd Lincoln and Lady Bird Johnson. Shawn Hamilton (Guthrie: Little House on the Prairie, The Falls) will appear in the role of Martin Luther King, Jr., paired with Greta Oglesby (Guthrie: The Sunshine Boys, Penumbra Theatre's The Amen Corner) playing Coretta Scott King as well as Mary Todd Lincoln confidante Elizabeth Keckley.

The cast of Appomattox will also feature M. Cochise Anderson (Guthrie: The Master Butchers Singing Club) as Col. Ely S. Parker/Chef), Mark Benninghofen (Guthrie: Time Stands Still, The Intelligent Homosexual ... ) in the dual roles of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and Nicholas Katzenbach, Ernest Bentley (Guthrie: Julius Caesar, The Burial at Thebes) as Union Guard/Jimmie Lee Jackson/John Lewis, Mark Boyett (Masquerade, Triad Stage, Greensboro, S.C., Dracula, Pioneer Theatre Company, Salt Lake City) as George Wallace, David Anthony Brinkley (Guthrie: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Scottsboro Boys) as David Porter/James Bonard Fowler, Stephen Cartmell (Guthrie: The Caretaker) as Edward Alexander/Cartha DeLoach, Danny Robinson Clark as Old Man/Cager Lee, Tonia Jackson (Guthrie: The Darker Face of the Earth) as Viola Jackson, Philip Kerr (Guthrie: Harper's Ferry, The House of Atreus) as Robert E. Lee/Richard Russell, Karen Landry (Guthrie: The Darker Face of the Earth, Goodbye to the Hill) as Mary Custis Lee, Michael Milligan (The Gaming Table, Folger Theatre, Washington, D.C.; August: Osage County, Imperial Theatre, New York) as John Wilkes Booth/John Rawlins/Lee Harvey Oswald/Jack Valenti, Richard Ooms (Guthrie: A Christmas Carol, The Burial at Thebes) as Howell Cobb/Edgar Ray Killen, Angela Pierce (Love Goes to Press, The Mint Theater Company, New York; A Streetcar Named Desire, Intiman Theatre, Seattle) as Julia Grant/Viola Liuzzo, and Brian Reddy (A Free Man of Color, Vivian Beaumont Theatre, New York; Finian's Rainbow, St. James Theatre, New York) as Wilmer McLean and J. Edgar Hoover. The cast is rounded out by Shá Cage (Guthrie: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), brian james (Guthrie: Penumbra Theatre's The Amen Corner) and Joe Nathan Thomas (Guthrie: The Burial at Thebes).

The American premiere of Embers, Hampton's adaptation of a novel by Sándor Márai about passion, truth and the passing of time, depicts two long-estranged friends reunited amid piercing unanswered questions. The Joe Dowling-directed production will run from October 9 – 27 and will feature James A. Stephens (Guthrie: Shadowlands) as Henrik, Barbara Bryne (Guthrie: Hay Fever, When We Are Married) as Nini and Nathaniel Fuller (Guthrie: Much Ado About Nothing, Arsenic and Old Lace) as Konrad.

Single tickets for the Guthrie's Christopher Hampton Celebration are now on sale through the Guthrie Box Office at 612.377.2224, toll-free 877.44.STAGE, 612.225.6244 (Group Sales) and online at www.guthrietheater.org.

The GUTHRIE THEATER (Joe Dowling, Director) was founded by Sir Tyrone Guthrie in 1963 and is an American center for theater performance, production, education and professional training. The Tony Award-winning Guthrie Theater is dedicated to producing the great works of dramatic literature, developing the work of contemporary playwrights and cultivating the next generation of theater artists. With annual attendance of nearly 500,000 people, the Guthrie Theater presents a mix of classic plays and contemporary work on its three stages. Under the artistic leadership of Joe Dowling since 1995, the Guthrie continues to set a national standard for excellence in theatrical production and performance. In 2006, the Guthrie opened its new home on the banks of the Mississippi River in Minneapolis. Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Jean Nouvel, the Guthrie Theater houses three state-of-the-art stages, production facilities, classrooms and dramatic public lobbies. www.guthrietheater.org

 

 

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