'Another Vermeer,' Starring Pendleton, Opens 3/29

Abingdon Theatre Company will conclude its 2007-2008 season with Bruce J. Robinson's drama Another Vermeer featuring Austin Pendleton and directed by Kelly Morgan, March 29 - April 20, 2008 at Abingdon's Dorothy Strelsin Theatre.

"Does art help one deal with the void at the center of life, or does it cause it? That's the question at the core of this fact-based drama, as accomplished Dutch painter Han Van Meegeren must prove he forged the Vermeer he sold to Goering during WWII or face the death penalty for treason", states press notes.

Bruce J. Robinson writes mainly for theatre and television. A finalist for the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, Another Vermeer was instrumental in his winning the Berrilla Kerr Playwrights Award. The Detroit Repertory Theatre production of his play Byrd's Boy was nominated as "Best Play" by Detroit Free Press's 20th Annual Award for Theatre Excellence. Among the TV shows on which he's worked are Gary Goldberg's Brooklyn Bridge and Glenn Caron's Showroom. Specials include All the Right Connections for PBS and Bell South. He's also written for the daytime series Search for Tomorrow and worked as a story consultant for Stiletto Productions.  Currently, his made-for TV film ARSON.com is under option to AFT Productions.

Director Kelly Morgan is the Founder and former Producing Artistic Director of the Mint Theater in NYC where he produced and/or directed over 50 plays, many of them new works. He is former Artistic Associate at the Riverside Shakespeare Company and is Co Founder of The American Deaf Play Creators Festival. He has directed at Steppenwolf Theater (Uncle Bob w/Austin Pendleton); Lost Tribe Theater (A Creature Craving); Mint Theater and various other NY and regional theaters. He has performed at the New York Shakespeare Festival, Women's Theater Project, Westbeth Theatre, Cleveland Playhouse, and Syracuse Stage. He has received the National Endowed Chair of Excellence in the Arts, Massachusetts Commonwealth Commendation for Service to The Arts, The Kennedy Center Faculty Directing Fellowship and is New England Chair of The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival.

Austin Pendleton has most recently been seen on the New York stage in two productions for The Public Theatre in Central Park:  Mother Courage and Her Children, with Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline, directed by George C. Wolfe; and Romeo and Juliet, with Lauren Ambrose, directed by Michael Grief.  As a director he's been represented by the revival of Lillian Hellman's Toys in the Attic, at the Pearl Theatre.  As a playwright his play Orson's Shadow, which played at the Barrow St. Theatre off-Broadway for most of 2005, has had several productions since.  Some of his recent film credits may be seen on DVD, including Dirty Work (for which he won an award), starring Lance Reddick, and Raising Flagg, starring Alan Arkin and Barbara Dana, whose play, War in Paramus, he directed at the Abingdon Theatre in 2005. Mr. Pendleton teaches directing at the New School, and acting at HB Studio in New York, where he has recently directed Gorki's Summerfolk and a new play by Barbara Eda-Young, Lillian Yuralia.

In addition to Mr. Pendleton, the cast of Another Vermeer also features Thom Christopher, Dan Cordle, Justin Grace and Christian Pedersen.

Tickets are $20 and can be purchased by calling SmartTix at 212.868.4444 at www.smarttix.com, or at the box office prior to the show.

Performances of Another Vermeer are Tuesday - Saturday at 7:30, Saturday at 2:00 and Sunday at 3:00 in the Dorothy Strelsin Theatre at the Abingdon Theatre Arts Complex, 312 W. 36th Street, 1st floor (between 8th and 9th Avenues). 

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