Virginia Rep to Stage RED, 4/25-6/16

Virginia Repertory Theatre announces the opening of Red by John Logan on Friday, April 26, 2013 with a preview on April 25. The show will run through June 16 at Theatre Gym at Virginia Rep Center, 114 West Broad Street.

Winner of six Tony Awards, including Best Play, Red is a moving and compelling account of 20th century painter Mark Rothko and a young, fictional assistant named Ken. The play is set in the late 1950s as Rothko struggles to complete a major commission from New York City's Four Seasons Restaurant. The two men go head to head on the methods and purpose of art and the dynamic relationship between an artist, his work and his audience.

Christopher Owens will direct the production in his first Richmond engagemenT. Owens is the Artistic Director of the Virginia Shakespeare Festival and an Associate Professor of Theatre at the College of William & Mary. He has directed over 120 professional stage productions from Seattle to Sarasota, and will be directing Macbeth in Detroit following this production of Red. He is the 2013 recipient of the Plumeri Award for faculty excellence at William & Mary.

Veteran actor David Bridgewater will play Mark Rothko, and newcomer Maxwell Eddy will appear as Ken.

Bridgewater played Petruchio opposite Oscar and Tony-winner Rita Moreno in Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew. He was featured in the films The Contender with Joan Allen and Christian Slater, and Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood with Sandra Bullock and Dame Maggie Smith. Television credits include recurring roles on One Tree Hill, Commander in Chief and Dawson's Creek. At Virginia Rep, Bridgewater has played roles as diverse as the title characters in Cyrano de Bergerac and Hamlet, Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple, Buffalo Bill in Annie Get Your Gun, John Proctor in The Crucible, Lennie in Of Mice and Men, and a Harley-riding barkeep in Nice People Dancing to Good Country Music.

Virginia Rep welcomes NYC actor Maxwell Eddy in his Virginia debut. Eddy is a recent graduate of NYU / Tisch School of the Arts, with graduate training at The Studio / New York. Off Broadway, Off-Off Broadway and regional credits include Dionysus in The Bacchae, Elmina's Kitchen at Soho Rep (directed by Oskar Eustis), Moments Workshop with Moisés Kaufman, No They're West Indian at INTAR (directed by Eduardo Machado), Cleante in The Imaginary Invalid, Demetrius in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Torvald in A Doll's House, and Henry Percy in Richard II at Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey.

Artistic Director, Bruce Miller is very excited about this production and the opportunities to engage with Richmond's visual arts community. "Richmond is fortunate to have such a vibrant arts community and we have tapped into many resources to both inform the artistic process and to make new connections between the theater and visual artists. John Ravenal, the Sydney and Frances Lewis Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, has advised both the staff and the actors on Rothko and his contemporaries. Ravenal's assistant, Sarah Eckhardt, is providing dramaturgy on Rothko for our playbill. We have several Richmond visual artists meeting with the actors to advise them in the mechanics of painting and stretching canvases. All of these colleagues will participate also in panels and discussions surrounding the play."

Jacob Sailer, a BFA student at VCU, has designed the set with references to Rothko's actual studio. "Theatre Gym is the perfect venue to stage the show as it will provide a very intimate perspective on Rothko and his work," says Bruce Miller.

Supporting Activities:

Virginia Rep will hold a casual, in-theater conversation after every Friday evening performance. The show lasts for 1 hour and 15 minutes. The bar will remain open during the conversation.

Sunday April 7
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Book Club Reads Red by John Logan

2:00 to 3:30 p.m.

Bruce Miller will join the book discussion and add details about staging the play. Conference Room 1 $8 (VMFA Members $5) Visit http://www.vmfa.state.va.us

Friday, May 10
6:00 p.m.
The cast of Red performs an excerpt from the play in the Lewis Gallery at VMFA as part of a special docent-led tour of works by Rothko and his contemporaries.

Friday, May 17

Panel Discussion after 8:00 p.m. performance with guests John Ravenal, Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and Aimee Joyaux, Vice President of Arts Education at the Visual Arts Center.

Sunday, June 2

Panel Discussion after 2:00 p.m. performance with visual artists.

For tickets, contact the Box Office at 804-282-2620 or online www.va-rep.org. Full Price Tickets: $34 Standard. Discounted Group Rates and Rush tickets available. Utix for college and high school students $10 day of show. Available by phone or in person. Student ID required.

Evening performances at 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and 7:00 p.m. on select Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Matinee performances at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday and select Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Virginia Repertory Theatre, located in Richmond, VA, combines the talents and strengths of two nonprofit companies that shared facilities, resources, and management teams for over a decade. Now the heritages of Barksdale Theatre (founded in 1953) and Theatre IV (founded in 1975) live on in their new form, as Central Virginia's leading professional theatre company. Virginia Rep presents national caliber productions of the great dramas, comedies, and musicals as well as classics, contemporary works, and world premieres, always seeking to demonstrate the unique power of theatre to engage, enthrall, educate and inspire. Productions are staged at four distinct venues: the Sara Belle and Neil November Theatre and Theatre Gym at the downtown Virginia Rep Center, Children's Theatre of Virginia located at Willow Lawn, and Hanover Tavern, home of Virginia Rep's Barksdale Season.