Banes, Bogardus, Hopper And More Join GO BACK TO WHERE YOU ARE

Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) has announced complete casting for the World Premiere of GO BACK TO WHERE YOU ARE, a new play by five-time Obie Award winner David Greenspan (author/performer of She Stoops to Comedy, performer in The Wax and director of Kate's Diary, all at PH; Coraline; Some Men; The Argument; The Myopia; The Boys in the Band).

Directed by Leigh Silverman (Blue Door and The Retributionists at PH, Well on Broadway, In the Wake at The Public, Coraline, Drama Desk nomination for From Up Here), the production will begin previews Thursday, March 24 at 7:30 PM. With an Opening Night set for Tuesday, April 12 at 7PM, the limited engagement will play through Sunday, May 1 at Playwrights Horizons' Peter Jay Sharp Theater (416 West 42nd Street). GO BACK TO WHERE YOU ARE will be the fifth production of the theater company's 2010/2011 40th Anniversary Season.

As previously announced, the cast will be headed David Greenspan. He'll be joined by Obie Award winner Lisa Banes (My Sister in This House, PH's Isn't It Romantic/Drama Desk nomination, Broadway's Present Laughter and Arcadia, Off-Broadway's Look Back in Anger/Theatre World Award), Tony Award nominee Stephen Bogardus (Love! Valour! Compassion!, PH's March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland, Broadway's James Joyce's The Dead, Irving Berlin's White Christmas and Falsettos), Obie Award winner Tim Hopper (More Stately Mansions, PH's Three Changes, Broadway's Present Laughter, Off-Broadway's Almost an Evening, The Dying Gaul and Picasso at the Lapin Agile), Brian Hutchison (PH's People Be Heard, Broadway's Exit the King, Proof and The Invention of Love), Michael Izquierdo (New Jerusalem at CSC, Mother Courage at The Public) and Obie Award winner Mary Shultz (Sustained Excellence, PH's Small Tragedy, The Wax and Little Egypt, Off-Broadway's Slavs! and Mad Forest).

A forgotten chorus boy (Mr. Greenspan) from the theater of Ancient Greece, stuck in a lonely purgatory these past 2000 years, is sent back to Earth on a mission from God. He now finds himself among a vacationing family in Montauk, caught off-guard by his re-discovered ability to feel love. GO BACK TO WHERE YOU ARE is a melancholy comic romance, told with Greenspan's unique brand of theatrical wit and exquisite lyricism.

The production will feature scenic design by Rachel Hauck, costume design by Theresa Squire and lighting design by Matt Frey. Production Stage Manager is Kyle Gates.

The performance schedule for GO BACK TO WHERE YOU ARE will be Tuesdays through Fridays at 7:30 PM, Saturdays at 2PM & 7:30 PM and Sundays at 2PM & 7PM. Single tickets, $55, may be purchased online via www.TicketCentral.com, by phone at (212) 279-4200 (Noon-8pm daily), or in person at the Ticket Central Box Office, 416 West 42nd Street (between Ninth & Tenth Avenues). There is a special added performance on Monday, April 11 at 7:30 PM.

Three special performances of GO BACK TO WHERE YOU ARE will offer PLAYTIME! at Playwrights Horizons, a brand new program offering affordable, professional childcare while patrons see a show. Playwrights Horizons has teamed up with Sitters Studio, a bonded and insured company made up of sitters who are working artists, which will provide and operate the program at Playwrights Horizons. PLAYTIME! is free to Playwrights Horizons subscribers and available to non-subscribers for a flat fee of $15 per child. PLAYTIME! care will be offered during the following three matinee performances: Saturday, April 2 at 2PM; Sunday, April 10 at 2PM; and Saturday, April 30 at 2PM.

For more information, visit the PLAYTIME! web page at www.playwrightshorizons.org/playtime.asp, or call Casey York at (212) 564-1235, ext. 3152. For additional information about Sitters Studio, please visit www.sittersstudio.com. To book tickets to GO BACK TO WHERE YOU ARE and reserve your child's spot in the PLAYTIME! program, visit www.ticketcentral.com, or call Ticket Central daily from Noon to 8 PM at (212) 279-4200. You must reserve childcare at the time you book your performance tickets, and no fewer than 10 days prior to your desired performance.

The PLAYTIME! program is made possible with generous funds from the Theater Subdistrict Council (TSC).

A ticketing initiative created as part of Playwrights Horizons' Arts Access program, LIVEforFIVE makes available $5 tickets for the first preview performance of each Playwrights Horizons production through a lottery via the company's website. The LIVEforFIVE lottery for GO BACK TO WHERE YOU ARE will be for tickets to the first preview on Thursday, March 24 at 7:30 PM. Details for the lottery are as follows: beginning Wednesday, March 16 at 10 AM, theatergoers can enter the lottery by filling out an entry form at www.playwrightshorizons.org. Entries will be accepted until Monday, March 21 at 12 Noon. Winners of the lottery will be notified via email no later than 3PM on Monday, March 21 with instructions on how to book their $5 tickets. Unclaimed tickets will be offered via email starting at 12 Noon on Tuesday, March 22 on a first-come, first-served basis. One or two tickets may be purchased for $5 each. A total of 40 tickets will be available for Sharp shows via the lottery.

Reflecting Playwrights Horizons' ongoing commitment to making its productions more affordable to younger audiences, the theater company will offer HOTtix, $25 rush tickets, subject to availability, day of performance only, starting one hour before showtime to patrons aged 30 and under. Proof of age required. One ticket per person, per purchase. STUDENT RUSH, $15 rush tickets, subject to availability, day of performance only, starting one hour before curtain to full-time graduate and undergraduate students. One ticket per person, per purchase. Valid student ID required.

LIVEforFIVE, HOTtix and STUDENT RUSH are some of Playwrights Horizons' popular Arts Access initiatives, which allow the institution to reach out to those who may not be able to afford the cost of a full-price theater ticket. This program is supported, in part, by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, The McGraw-Hill Companies and the Elroy and Terry Krumholz Foundation.

Special Post-Performance Discussions with members of the creative team will take place immediately after the following three performances: Friday evening, March 25 at 7:30 PM, Thursday evening, March 31 at 7:30 PM and Saturday matinee, April 9 at 2PM.

GO BACK TO WHERE YOU ARE is the result of a Playwrights Horizons Kathryn and Gilbert Miller Commission.

GO BACK TO WHERE YOU ARE has received generous leadership support from The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation. Playwrights Horizons' season productions are generously supported by The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

Playwrights Horizons is supported in part by public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the New

York State Assembly and the New York State Senate. In addition, Playwrights Horizons receives major support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, Time Warner Inc., the Charina Endowment Fund and the Peter Jay Sharp Foundation.

Prior to GO BACK TO WHERE YOU ARE, the next production at Playwrights Horizons is the World Premiere of Bathsheba Doran's KIN, directed by Sam Gold. Starting previews Friday, February 25 at Playwrights Horizons' Mainstage Theatre, the production will open Monday, March 21 as a limited engagement through Sunday, April 3.

Following both KIN and GO BACK TO WHERE YOU ARE, the final production for Playwrights Horizons' 2010/2011 40th Anniversary Season will be THE SHAGGS: PHILOSOPHY OF THE WORLD, the New York premiere of a new musical with book by Joy Gregory; music by Gunnar Madsen; lyrics by Ms. Gregory & Mr. Madsen; and story by Ms. Gregory, Mr. Madsen & John Langs. Directed by Mr. Langs, it will begin performances Thursday, May 12 at Playwrights Horizons' Mainstage Theater. THE SHAGGS is a co-production between Playwrights Horizons and New York Theatre Workshop.

For subscription and ticket information to all Playwrights Horizons productions, call Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200, Noon to 8 pm daily, or purchase online at the Playwrights Horizons website at www.playwrightshorizons.org.

BIOGRAPHIES

David Greenspan's (Playwright/Passalus) work at Playwrights Horizons includes acting in and directing his play She Stoops to Comedy (Obie Award), acting in Kathleen Tolan's The Wax and directing Ms. Tolan's Kate's Diary. Other playwriting credits include Principia, Jack, The Home Show Pieces and 2 Samuel 11, Etc. (HOME); Dead Mother, or Shirley Not All in Vain (The Public); The Argument (Obie); Old Comedy (Target Margin); and The Myopia, an epic burlesque of tragic proportion (The Foundry). He has collaborated with songwriter Stephin Merritt on The Orphan of Zhao (Lincoln Center Theater) and Coraline with director Leigh Silverman (MCC/True Love). He has received two performance Obies: one in 1997 for Mart Crowley's The Boys in the Band and another in 2007 for both Terrence McNally's Some Men (Second Stage) and Goethe's Faust (Target Margin). Other performance credits include The Royal Family (MTC), Cornbury (Theatre Askew), The Beebo Brinker Chronicles with director Leigh Silverman (Hourglass Group/37 Arts), Saved Or Destroyed (Rattlestick), Lipstick Traces (The Foundry), High Life and Second-hand Smoke (Primary Stages). An alumnus of New Dramatists, he has received Rockefeller, McKnight, Guggenheim, Lortel, NYFA and NYSCA fellowships and an Alpert Award. In 2010, he received an Obie Award for Sustained Achievement.

Leigh Silverman (Director). Broadway: Lisa Kron's Well. Recent New York (World Premieres): In the Wake (The Public/Center Theatre Group/Berkeley Repertory Theatre); From Up Here (Manhattan Theatre Club, Drama Desk nomination); Coraline (MCC/True Love); Creature (New Georges/P73); The Retributionists (Playwrights Horizons); Yellow Face (Center Theater Group/The Public Theater); Beebo Brinker Chronicles (Hourglass Group/ 37 Arts); Hunting and Gathering (Primary Stages); Well (The Public Theater, The Huntington Theater and ACT, San Francisco); Blue Door (Playwrights Horizons and Seattle Repertory Theatre); Oedipus At Palm Springs (New York Theatre Workshop); The Treatment (The Culture Project); Jump/Cut (Woolly Mammoth Theatre/Theater J and Women's Project); Big Times (W.E.T.) and Finder's Fee (Rattlestick). Also: Danny and the Deep Blue Sea (Second Stage Theatre). West End: Wit (Vaudeville Theatre). Recent regional: Of Equal Measure (world premiere, CTG); The Road to Mecca (Seattle Repertory Theatre). Upcoming: David Henry Hwang's Chinglish.

Lisa Banes (Claire). Playwrights Horizons: Isn't It Romantic (also Lortel Theatre; Drama Desk nomination), Fighting International Fat. Broadway: Present Laughter, Accent on Youth, High Society, Arcadia, Rumors. Off-Broadway includes My Sister in This House (Obie); Look Back in Anger (Theatre World Award); Emily, Three Sisters (MTC) and Antigone (Public). Film includes Freedom Writers, Dragonfly, Young Guns, Cocktail, Hotel New Hampshire. Television appearances including series roles on "Girls Club," "Son of the Beach," "The Trials of Rosie O'Neil" and recurring roles on "Saved," "Six Feet Under," "The King of Queens" and "China Beach." Television films include The Doris Duke Story; Mother, May I Sleep with Danger?; Hemingway and Kane and Able.

Stephen Bogardus (Tom). Playwrights Horizons: March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland, (also in The Combined Broadway production Falsettos), plus the Broadway transfer of James Joyce's The Dead. Broadway: Irving Berlin's White Christmas, Old Acquaintance, Man of La Mancha, High Society, King David, Love! Valour! Compassion! (Tony nomination), The Grapes of Wrath, Les Misérables, West Side Story. Off-Broadway: Sweet Adeline, Allegro (City Center Encores!); Love! Valour! Compassion! (MTC); Genesis, Umbrellas of Cherbourg (NYSF); The Pavilion (Rattlestick). Regional: Some Men (Philadelphia Theatre Co.), A Little Night Music (Center Stage), M. Butterfly (Arena Stage), Show Boat and Chess (national tours), City of Angels (Shubert, L.A.), 80 Days (La Jolla), Progress (Long Wharf). Film: Julie and Julia, Love! Valour! Compassion!, States of Control, Second Best. TV: "Eleventh Hour," "Life," "Without a Trace," "Monk," "Ed," "Law & Order."

Tim Hopper (Malcolm). Playwrights Horizons: Three Changes. Broadway: Present Laughter. Other credits include A Midsummer Night's Dream (La Jolla); A Doll's House (Long Wharf); The Tempest (Steppenwolf); Almost an Evening (Atlantic); After Ashley, The Dying Gaul (Vineyard); More Stately Mansions (NYTW, Obie Award), title role in Steve Martin's Picasso at the Lapin Agile (Promenade). Film/TV: Tenderness, Gardener of Eden, The School of Rock, Vanilla Sky, The Last of the Mohicans, "White Collar," "Grey's Anatomy," "Medium."

Brian Hutchison (Bernard). Playwrights Horizons: People Be Heard. Broadway: Looped, Exit the King, Proof, The Invention of Love. Off-Broadway: From Up Here (MTC); Oh, the Humanity... (Flea); Mr. Marmalade (Roundabout); Indoor/Outdoor (SPF, DR2 Theatre); The Hiding Place (Atlantic); Theophilus North, Can't Let Go (Keen Company); She Stoops to Conquer (Irish Rep). Recent regional theatre credits include Dinner (Bay Street); Of Mice and Men (Westport); The Front Page (Williamstown); The Unmentionables, Black Snow (Yale Rep); Burn This, The Rivals (Huntington); Barrington Stage; Old Globe. Film/TV: Love and Other Drugs, Dealbreaker, "Hope & Faith," "Law & Order: SVU" and "CI."

Michael Izquierdo (Wally). Theater: Mrs. Warren's Profession (McCarter), New Jerusalem (Classic Stage), A Restoration Comedy (Old Globe), Mother Courage (NYSF Public Theatre), Priceless (EST), The Time of Your Life and The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other (Williamstown), Ishmael in Drama Desk nominated Moby Dick (Ohio Theatre), Much Ado About Nothing (NJ Shakespeare Festival). Film/TV: Taking Woodstock, Meet Dave, Heterosexuals, Superego, "As the World Turns."

Mary Shultz (Charlotte). Playwrights Horizons: Small Tragedy, The Wax, Little Egypt. Theater credits include: Full Circle (American Repertory Theatre); Pentecost (Berkeley Rep); Slavs! (NYTW); Mad Forest (NYTW, Manhattan Theatre Club); Baltimore Waltz (Yale Rep); Gonza the Lancer, Dead Mother, The Way of the World (NYSF). Film and Television credits include Quiz Show, "Ellis Island" and "Law & Order." Mary is the recipient of an Obie Award for Sustained Excellence and a Bessie Award.

Playwrights Horizons, celebrating its 40th Anniversary Season, is a writer's theater dedicated to the support and development of contemporary American Playwrights, composers and lyricists and to the production of their new work. Under the leadership of artistic director Tim Sanford and managing director Leslie Marcus, the theater company continues to encourage the new work of veteran writers while nurturing an emerging generation of theater artists. In its 40 years, Playwrights Horizons has presented the work of more than 375 writers and has received numerous awards and honors, including a special 2008 Drama Desk Award for "ongoing support to generations of theater artists and undiminished commitment to producing new work." Notable productions include four Pulitzer Prize winners: Doug Wright's I Am My Own Wife (2004 Tony Award, Best Play), Wendy Wasserstein's The Heidi Chronicles (1989 Tony Award, Best Play), Alfred Uhry's Driving Miss Daisy and Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Sunday in the Park with George, as well as Adam Bock's A Small Fire, Bruce Norris' Clybourne Park and The Pain and the Itch, Annie Baker's Circle Mirror Transformation (three 2010 Obie Awards including Best New American Play), Edward Albee's Me, Myself & I, Amy Herzog's After the Revolution, Melissa James Gibson's This (2010 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize finalist), Doug Wright, Scott Frankel and Michael Korie's Grey Gardens (three 2007 Tony Awards), Craig Lucas's Prayer For My Enemy and Small Tragedy (2004 Obie Award, Best American Play), Adam Rapp's Kindness, Sarah Ruhl's Dead Man's Cell Phone, Lynn Nottage's Fabulation (2005 Obie Award for Playwriting), Kenneth Lonergan's Lobby Hero, David Greenspan's She Stoops to Comedy (2003 Obie Award), Kirsten Childs's The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin (2000 Obie Award), Richard Nelson and Shaun Davey's James Joyce's The Dead, Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's Assassins, William Finn's March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland, Christopher Durang's Betty's Summer Vacation and Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You, Richard Nelson's Goodnight Children Everywhere, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty's Once on This Island, Jon Robin Baitz's The Substance of Fire, Scott McPherson's Marvin's Room, A.R. Gurney's Later Life, Adam Guettel and Tina Landau's Floyd Collins and Jeanine Tesori and Brian Crawley's Violet.

 

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