Adelaide Clemens to Lead Lincoln Center Theater's THE HARD PROBLEM

Lincoln Center Theater has announced full casting for its upcoming production of The Hard Problem, a new play by Tom Stoppard, to be directed by Jack O'Brien. The production will feature Eshan Bay, Adelaide Clemens, John Patrick Doherty, Nina Grollman, Katie Beth Hall, Eleanor Handley, Olivia Hebert, Sagar Kiran, Chris O'Shea, Madeleine Pace, Robert Petkoff, Tara Summers, Jon Tenney, Baylen Thomas, Kim N. Wong, and Karoline Xu. The Hard Problem will begin performances Thursday, October 25 and open Monday, November 19 at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater (150 West 65 Street).

In Tom Stoppard's The Hard Problem, Hilary (to be played by Adelaide Clemens) is a young psychology researcher at the Krohl Institute for Brain Science where psychology and biology meet. If there is nothing but matter, what is consciousness? This is "the hard problem" facing science, and for Hilary the possibility of genuine altruism, without a hidden Darwinian self-interest, depends on the answer. Meanwhile she is nursing a private sorrow. She needs a miracle and is prepared to pray for one.

THE HARD PROBLEM will feature sets by David Rockwell, costumes by Catherine Zuber, lighting by Japhy Weideman, sound by Marc Salzberg, and original music by Bob James.

STOPPARD continues a long association with Lincoln Center Theater where his plays Arcadia, Hapgood, The Invention of Love, and The Coast of Utopia (Tony Award - Best Play) were produced. LCT was also a co-producer of the Broadway production of Stoppard'sRock 'N' Roll. His other works include Jumpers, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Travesties, Night and Day, The Real Thing, Indian Ink, and his first full-length play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, which was staged by the National Theatre in 1967. Stage adaptions and translations: Undiscovered Country (Schnitzler), On the Razzle (Nestroy), Rough Crossing (Molnar), The Seagull (Chekhov), Henry VI(Pirandello), Heroes (Sibleyras), Ivanov (Chekhov), The Cherry Orchard (Chekhov). Screenplays: Brazil, Empire of the Sun, Enigma, Shakespeare in Love (Academy Award - Best Original Screenplay). He also directed the film version of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival). Stoppard received a knighthood in 1997 and in 2000 was awarded the Order of Merit by Her Majesty the Queen.

Jack O'Brien directed the LCT productions of Tom Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia (Tony Award), The Invention of Love (Drama Desk Award), and Hapgood (Lucille Lortel Award). His other LCT productions include Macbeth, The Nance, Henry IV (Tony Award), Pride's Crossing, The Little Foxes, and Two Shakespearean Actors (Tony nomination). His Broadway credits include the current Carousel, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Front Page, It's Only a Play, Dead Accounts, Catch Me If You Can, Impressionism, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,Hairspray (Tony Award), Imaginary Friends, The Full Monty, More to Love, Getting Away With Murder, Damn Yankees, and Porgy and Bess. Metropolitan Opera: Il Trittico. Carnegie Hall: Guys and Dolls. Central Park: Much Ado About Nothing. London: Love Never Dies, Hairspray, His Girl Friday (National Theatre). He was the Artistic Director of The Old Globe Theatre from 1981-2007 and directed six movies for PBS's "American Playhouse." Book: Jack Be Nimble, published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux. O'Brien directed the critically acclaimed national tour of The Sound of Music and the world premiere of the Jake Heggie/Terrence McNally opera Great Scott for The Dallas Opera. Mr. O'Brien was nominated for an Emmy Award for his documentary "Becoming Mike Nichols" (HBO).

This fall, in addition to The Hard Problem, LCT is also producing the ongoing run of its award-winning production of Lerner & Loewe's My Fair Lady, directed by Bartlett Sher, at the Vivian Beaumont Theater; the LCT3 production of Plot Points in our Sexual Development, a new play by Miranda Rose Hall, directed by Margot Bordelon, beginning performances Saturday, October 6 at the Claire Tow Theater; and will be a co-producer of the Broadway production of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, a new play by Aaron Sorkin, also directed by Bartlett Sher, which will begin performances Thursday, November 1 at the Shubert Theatre.

American Express is the sponsor of LCT's Mitzi E. Newhouse season. The Hard Problem is supported by the Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater. The Mitzi E. Newhouse season is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.