CSC's A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY, Starring Peter Dinklage and Taylor Schilling, Opens Tonight

Classic Stage Company welcomes Emmy Award-nominee and Golden Globe-winner Anthony Edwards ("ER"), Annabella Sciorra ("The Sopranos") and Tony Award-winner Elizabeth Franz (Death of A Salesman, Brighton Beach Memoirs), alongside Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister on HBO's Game of Thrones) and Taylor Schilling (Piper Chapman on Netflix's Orange Is The New Black) in Ivan Turgenev's A Month in the Country, opening at CSC (136 East 13th Street) tonight, January 29, for a limited engagement through Sunday, February 22.

The cast will also include Peter Appel, Ian Etheridge, Mike Faist, James Joseph O'Neil, Elizabeth Ramos, Thomas Jay Ryan, Frank Van Putten and Megan West. A Month in the Country will be directed by Erica Schmidt.

Scenic design for A Month in the Country is by Mark Wendland, costume design by Tom Broecker, lighting design by Jeff Croiter and sound design by Bart Fasbender.

A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY chronicles the comic and erotic turmoil that befalls an otherwise quiet country estate when a handsome young tutor arrives to teach Natalya Petrovna's young son. But it is Natalya who soon becomes interested in a tutelage of another kind, much to the consternation of her husband and her long suffering friend, Rakitin, who is hopelessly and secretly smitten with her.

Classic Stage Company is the award-winning Off-Broadway theatre committed to re-imagining the classical repertory for contemporary audiences. For more than 45 years, CSC has been a home for New York's finest established and emerging artists to grapple with the great works of the world's repertory that speak directly to the issues of today. CSC serves an average of 35,000 audience members annually, including more than 4,000 students through its nationally-recognized education programs. CSC is currently presenting Rodgers & Hammerstein's Allegro directed by John Doyle. Recent productions include: Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Passion with Melissa Errico, Judy Kuhn and Ryan Silverman; Brecht's A Man's A Man with Justin Vivian Bond, The Caucasian Chalk Circle with Christopher Lloyd, and Galileo with F. Murray Abraham; Chekhov's Ivanov with Ethan Hawke, The Cherry Orchard with Dianne Wiest and John Turturro, Three Sisters with Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jessica Hecht, Juliet Rylance and Peter Sarsgaard, Uncle Vanya with Maggie Gyllenhaal, Denis O'Hare and Peter Sarsgaard, and The Seagull with Dianne Wiest and Alan Cumming; David Ives' The Heir Apparent, Venus in Fur with Nina Arianda (Broadway transfer 2011/2012, Tony Award nom., Best Play), The School for Lies with Hamish Linklater, and New Jerusalem with Richard Easton; Unnatural Acts, conceived by Tony Speciale; Anne Carson's An Oresteia; and Shakespeare's The Tempest with Mandy Patinkin, A Midsummer Night's Dream with Bebe Neuwirth, and Richard III, Richard II and Hamlet with Michael Cumpsty. CSC productions have been cited repeatedly by all the major Off-Broadway theatre awards: Obie, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Drama League, and the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Body of Work.

PETER DINKLAGE (Rakitin) currently appears in the wildly popular HBO series Game of Thrones as Tyrion Lannister for which Dinklage received the 2011 Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award for his performance. His theater credits include the title role in Richard III at the Public Theater, Charlie Kaufman's radio play Theater of the New Ear at St Ann's Warehouse, Things We Want by Jonathan Marc Sherman at The New Group, and Uncle Vanya at Bard Summerscape directed by Erica Schimdt. Dinklage's film credits include The Station Agent, X-Men:Days of Future Past, Death at a Funeral and Living in Oblivion. He will be seen next summer in Columbia's Pixels, opposite Adam Sandler.

TAYLOR SCHILLING (Natalya) currently stars in the critically-acclaimed and wildly popular Netflix original series, Orange is the New Black, as Piper Chapman, for which she has received a 2014 Emmy Award nomination as Best Actress in a Dramatic Series. She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award last year for her performance. Schilling recently completed production on the independent comedy, The Overnight with Adam Scott and Jason Schwartzman, directed by Patrick Brice. This past year, Schilling appeared in the Wiebke von Carolsfeld film Stay opposite Aiden Quinn. In 2013, Schilling was seen in the Academy Award winning film Argo opposite Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston and John Goodman. Earlier in 2012, Schilling starred opposite Zac Efron in The Lucky One.

ANTHONY EDWARDS (Arkady) starred on the hit series "ER" (1994), where he received four Emmy nominations and a Golden Globe for his role as Dr. Mark Greene. His film credits include Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Revenge of the Nerds, Top Gun, Miracle Mile, The Client, Don't Go Breaking My Heart, and The Forgotten.

ELIZABETH FRANZ (Anna) received a Tony award for her role as Linda Loman in the 1999 Broadway revival of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. She received Tony nominations for her performances in Brighton Beach Memoirs (1983) and Morning's at Seven (2002). Additional works include Sam Shepard's Buried Child at London's Royal National Theatre, Kelly Masterson's Against the Rising Sea, Frank McGuinness's Bird Sanctuary, Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You, The Piano Teacher, The Glass Menagerie, The Cripple of Inishman, The Comedy of Errors, Madwoman of Chaillot, Lion in Winter, A View from the Bridge, The Matchmaker, The Wizard of Oz, and Great Expectations.

ANNABELLA SCIORRA (Lizaveta). Broadway: The Motherf**er with the Hat. Off-Broadway: Those the River Keeps, The Vagina Monologues, Roar, Spain. Film credits include: True Love, Internal Affairs, Cadillac Man, Reversal of Fortune, The Hard Way, Jungle Fever, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, Whispers in the Dark, The Night We Never Met, Romeo Is Bleeding, Mr. Wonderful, The Addiction, The Cure, The Innocent Sleep, Underworld, The Funeral, Highball, Little City, Cop Land, Asteroid, Mr. Jealousy, New Rose Hotel, What Dreams May Come, Above Suspicion, King of the Jungle, Once in the Life, Sunday, Sam the Man, Chasing Liberty, 12 and Holding, Find Me Guilty, Marvelous, A Green Story, The Maid's Room, The Locals. Television credits include: "The Sopranos" (Emmy nomination), "Queens Supreme," "Law & Order," "The L Word," "ER," "Mental," "The Whole Truth," "The Good Wife," "Blue Bloods," "CSI," "Taxi Brooklyn."

ERICA SCHMIDT (Direction). Directing credits include: Taking Care of Baby by Dennis Kelly at Manhattan Theatre Club; Jonas Hassen Khemiri's Obie Award winning Invasion! and I Call My Brothers for The Play Company; Humor Abuse (co-creator with performer Lorenzo Pisoni at Manhattan Theatre Club, the show won: Lucille Lortel, Outer Critics, Drama Desk and Obie Award also played The Taper, ACT, Philadelphia Theatre Company and Seattle Rep); Rent (Tokyo); Moliere's Imaginary Invalid, Chekhov's Uncle Vanya (with Peter Dinklage and Taylor Schilling), Gilbert and Sullivan's The Sorcerer and Copland's The Tender Land (all at Bard Summer Scape); Carnival (The Paper Mill Playhouse); People Be Heard (Playwrights Horizons); Trust (The Play Company, Callaway Award nominee); As You Like It (The Public Theater/NYSF, chashama and New York International Fringe Festival Winner for Best Direction); Debbie Does Dallas (wrote the adaptation and directed Off-Broadway at the Jane Street). Princess Grace Award recipient 2001

Photo Credit: Joan Marcus