Ann Dowd To Star In Online Reading Of A DOLL'S HOUSE, PART 2

Penguin Rep Theatre today announced that the Stony Point-based professional theatre will present a special online benefit reading of Lucas Hnath's A DOLL'S HOUSE, PART 2 starring Ann Dowd, Emmy Award-winning actress, and directed by founding artistic director Joe Brancato.

The recorded reading will premiere Saturday, December 26 at 8 p.m. and is available for viewing through Wednesday, December 30 at 8 p.m.

Tickets are available by making a tax-deductible donation at www.penguinrep.org/dh2. Net proceeds will benefit Penguin Rep and People to People, Rockland County's largest food pantry.

A DOLL'S HOUSE, PART 2 opened on Broadway in 2017 with a cast that included Laurie Metcalf, Chris Cooper, Jayne Houdyshell, and Condola Rashad, and marked Hnath's Broadway debut. The New York Times called it a "smart, funny and utterly engrossing new play."

Who's that knocking at the door at the start of A DOLL'S HOUSE, PART 2? 15 years after walking out, Nora's come home because she needs her not-quite-ex-husband's help. Not so fast, Nora, your family has a few things they'd like to get off their chest. "A slamming door isn't just an end," says Brancato, "but the chance for a new beginning in this entertaining work about marriage and the ways the roles of women have - and haven't - changed."

According to Brancato who co-founded Penguin Rep Theatre in 1977, his professional relationship with Dowd spans more than 25 years and that "the reading is a family affair with the cast featuring, in addition to Dowd (as Nora), her real-life husband Lawrence Arancio as Torvald, Nora's husband in the play, and her daughter Emily Arancio playing Nora's daughter, Emmy." Completing the cast is Angelina Fiordellisi as Anne Marie.

Penguin Rep Theatre executive director Andrew M. Horn is producer. Max Silverman composed original music for the reading and is technical director. Michael Herwitz is production manager.

Tickets to stream the recorded readings are available without charge to those who make a donation at www.penguinrep.org/dh2. Donors will be provided with a link where the recorded reading can be viewed for a 24-hour-period and may select for the period to begin at 8 p.m. on Saturday, December 26, Sunday, December 27, Monday, December 28 or Tuesday, December 29.

Please note that this event is NOT happening in the theatre, and tickets for this special event can only be secured in advance at www.penguinrep.org/dh2. Tickets are not available by phone or in person.

Under the dynamic leadership of Brancato and Horn, Penguin Rep Theatre (www.penguinrep.org) has grown in just over four decades from a summer theatre in a converted 1880s hay barn to one of the Hudson Valley's most influential nonprofit cultural institutions. Since its founding, Penguin Rep has entertained more than 400,000 people with outstanding productions of more than 150 plays, specializing in new works by established and emerging writers. Many plays developed and staged byPenguin, dubbed "the gutsiest little theatre' by the NY Times, have moved on to successful runs Off-Broadway and to showplaces around the country and abroad.

For decades, People to People (www.peopletopeopleinc.org) has been assisting the community's most vulnerable families, seniors and veterans because of its belief that, by helping our neighbors meet their basic needs, we make the world a better place. People to People is Rockland's largest food pantry.

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