Wendie Malick & Gary Cole to Lead World Premiere of CLOSURE at NJ Rep This Summer

New Jersey Repertory Company, located at 179 Broadway in Long Branch, has announced the World Premiere of Closure by Richard Dresser for a limited engagement from June 25 through July 19, 2015.

When Jane and Peter's daughter disappears while on spring break, Detective Hadley steps-in to save the day, however the Detective has ulterior motives, complicating this tongue and cheek "noir-style" drama.

The cast includes Wendie Malick of TV Land's "Hot in Cleveland" and "Just Shoot Me" and Gary Cole of "Talladega Nights", HBO's "Entourage" and the cult classic "Office Space"; and is directed by Joe Cacaci.

Sneak preview performances to this limited engagement begin Thursday, June 25 with opening night Saturday, June 27 at New Jersey Repertory Company (179 Broadway, Long Branch, NJ), and will run through Sunday, July 19, 2015. Tickets may be purchased by calling 732-229-3166 or online at www.njrep.org.

The production team includes: Jessica Parks (Set Design & Props), Brian Snyder (Technical Director,) Jill Nagle (Lighting Design), Merek Royce Press (Sound Design), Patricia Doherty (Costume Design), and Jennifer Tardibuono (Stage Manager).

Richard Dresser (Playwright) Richard Dresser's seventeen published plays have been produced in New York, regional theater, and Europe. His trilogy of plays about happiness in America includes Augusta (working class), The Pursuit Of Happiness (middle class), and A View Of The Harbor (upper class). Other plays are: Rounding Third, which started in Chicago and appeared off-Broadway and has had hundreds of productions. Below The Belt and Gun-Shy, both started at the Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville before moving off-Broadway. Also, Something In The Air, The Downside, Alone At The Beach, Wonderful World, and Better Days, plus many short plays. Other projects include the book for a musical, Johnny Baseball (lyrics by Willie Reale, music by Robert Reale), about the Curse of the Red Sox, which premiered at A.R.T. in Cambridge, and moved on to the Williamstown Theatre Festival in July 2013 where it set a box office record. His play The Last Days Of Mickey & Jean, about a notorious Boston gangster in early retirement, has had a number of regional productions. A new play, Trouble Cometh, about two executives locked in an existential struggle against an impossible deadline will premiere at the San Francisco Playhouse in the spring. Another new play, Closure, will premiere this season at New Jersey Repertory Theatre in Long Branch. His most recent play, 100 Years, appeared in the Berkshire Playwrights Lab reading series last July. A new bluegrass ghost musical, The Holler (also with the Reale brothers) was work-shopped in August at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. His short play Love, Dad was in the Boston Theatre Marathon this spring and another short piece, Halftime premiered in June in Miami at City Theatre's Summer Shorts. He is a former member of New Dramatists and twice attended the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference. He currently teaches at Rutgers and is on the board of the Writers Guild Initiative, which does writing workshops with veterans and caregivers among other groups.

Joe Cacaci (Director) Joe Cacaci co-created the CBS prime time series The Trials of Rosie O'Neill, starring Sharon Gless and has been the Executive Producer (Show Runner) of two prime time series, Showtime's The Hoop Life, starring Mykelti Williamson, Dorian Harwood, Dan Lauria and Gregory Hines (Cacaci wrote and directed the final episode, starring Charles Durning, Edward Asner and Roger Robinson) and CBS' The Education of Max Bickford, starring Richard Dreyfuss and Marcia Gay Harden. He wrote the episodes that brought Eli Wallach and Peter O'Toole to the show. He was an Executive Producer with David Black and Mr. Dreyfuss of Mr. Black's series Copshop, for PBS, and directed the pilot episode, which starred Mr. Dreyfuss, Blair Brown and Jay Thomas. He has written and produced numerous movies for all the major networks, starring actors like Helen Hunt, Brian Dennehy, Meredith Baxter, Joanna Kerns and Adam Arkin. He directed the indie feature Stranger in My House, that starred Lindsay Crouse, and which now plays repeatedly on Lifetime. Joe recently wrote Invisible Men, a screenplay about the Negro Leagues, for Lightworks Picturesand just completed post production as director of the National Lampoon indie feature Snatched, starring Andrew McCarthy, Jonathan Silverman, and Ernest Borginine. He produced the award winning Boston premiere of David Mamet's American Buffalo (directed byTom Bloom, starring Paul Guilfoyle) and was Producing Director of NY's Provincetown Playhouse, where he co-produced Mr. Mamet's OBIE winning play Edmond. He was the founding Artistic Director of East Coast Arts where he produced twenty world premiere plays over seven seasons, including work by Shel Silverstein (which Cacaci directed) and Jack Gelber (starringMandy Patinkin). He was Producing Director of The Playwrights Kitchen Ensemble in Los Angeles (with founding Artistic Director, Dan Lauria), where over 500 new plays were given staged readings in the Monday Night Reading Series. He has directed plays for The NY Shakespeare Festival at The Public Theater (for Joseph Papp), The Westport Playhouse, Coconut Grove Theatre and commercially in NY and LA, starring actors like Joe Silver, Alan Rosenberg,and Harold Gould. He directed the world premiere of Victor Bumbalo's Questa, which was produced by David Milch, featuring Wendie Malick, Mr. Harwood and Mr. Lauria. Most recently, he directed and co-produced the world premiere of Against the Rising Sea, by Kelly Masterson (screenwriter of Before the Devil Knows You're Dead) at Queens Theater in the Park. It starred Elizabeth Franz and Patricia Connelly.Mr. Cacaci's own plays have been produced at The Public, The Long Wharf and at The Alley Theatre in Houston as well as commercially in NY and LA. His latest play, Keeping Time, featuredLarry Bryggman and Joanna Rhinehart in a world premiere workshop this past summer at The Berkshire Playwrights Lab, where Joe is a founding co-Artistic Director with Jim Frangione, Bob Jaffe and Matthew Penn. A new summer theater in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, BPL was created to develop and present new plays by established and emerging writers. Joe has been teaching television writing in the graduate program of the Columbia University Film School since 2007.

Wendie Malick (Jane) Following college, this tall and slim character actress put her prominent features to work as a fashion model for the Wilhelmina modeling agency in the '70s before leaving to work for her native Buffalo Congressman Jack Kemp in Washington, D.C. After a brief stay, she turned to acting and appeared in a number of stage productions in New York. Relocating to Hollywood, aided by her raspy voice and crack comic timing, Malick found her niche in sitcoms. Her six seasons as Brian Benben's neurotic but endearing ex-wife on Dream On earned her four CableACE awards, and during her tenure, she popped up on other series, notably in a harrowing dramatic turn as a battered socialite on NYPD Blue. In 1997 Malick graduated to regular network prime-time player on Just Shoot Me, portraying a bitchy ex-model turned fashion editor, a role that earned her two Emmy nods. Although she made occasional forays onto the big screen, Malick remained a formidable small-screen presence, elevating subpar material (Jake in Progress) and holding her own on classic shows (her stint as a lounge singer on Frasier). In 2010, she took on the role of a former soap opera diva in TV Land's Hot in Cleveland. Off screen, Malick leads a much more down-to-earth life, devoting much of her downtime to humanitarian causes and animal rights.

Gary Cole (Roy) Co-founded Chicago's Remains Theater in 1974. In 1987, he won Chicago's prestigious Joseph Jefferson Award for his stage work in Bang. After his daughter was diagnosed with autism, he and his wife became involved with Canine Companions for Independence, a nonprofit group that trains assistance dogs for individuals with disabilities. Did voice work for the animated series Family Guy, Kim Possible and Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law. Gary is a member of Chicago's Steppenwolf Theater Company. Long a favorite of critics for his work on such diverse fare as the Brady Bunch movies and the TV drama Midnight Caller, Cole again drew praise for his guest-starring TV work as a con man on Chuck. His memorable comic role as Bill Lumbergh in the 1999 cult classic Office Space was cited in lists of worst movie bosses in 2011, spurred by the release of the film Horrible Bosses.

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