Full casting has been announced for Victoria & Frederick for President, running August 15th- 22nd at the New School for Drama in the 2009 New York International Fringe Festival. Official opening night is scheduled for Monday, August 17th.
Mel Johnson Jr. (Two Gentleman of Verona at
The Public Theatre, The Lion King, and the original casts of On the Twentieth Century, The Rink, and Fosse's Big Deal on Broadway) will star in the production as Frederick Douglass. Audiences may also know Mel Johnson Jr. from co-starring with
Arnold Schwarzenegger in the blockbuster film Total Recall, and also as Broca on the hit TV-series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Antoinette LaVecchia (The Bottle House at
The Public Theatre, String of Pearls at
Primary Stages, Kimberly Akimbo at MTC), will also star in the production, playing
Victoria Woodhull.
Joining them in the cast are Devin E. Haqq (Strange Weather at The
Roundabout Theatre Company),
Edward James Hyland (Festen, The Man Who Had All The Luck, and Ah Wilderness! on Broadway),
Kate MacCluggage (The Farnsworth Invention on Broadway),
Brenda Pressley (The American Plan at MTC, Cats and the original cast of Dreamgirls on Broadway), and
Ariel Shafir (starring opposite André De Shields this fall in Mamet's A Life in the Theater at The Alliance), and
Liza Vann (Machiavelli, upcoming Good Ol' Girls on PBS) as Susan B. Anthony.
Adrian Grenier, star of the hit HBO series Entourage (currently in its sixth season) is presenting the production with New York based non-profit MOSON Productions and the Create Carolina Arts Festival. Written by Jonathan L. Davidson (HBO's "Shot in the Dark"), Victoria & Frederick for President will feature direction from
Charles Randolph-Wright, writer/director of the upcoming feature film Mama I Want to Sing. Charles has directed productions at Lincoln Center,
The Public Theatre,
Manhattan Theatre Club, and is also the playwright of Blue, which starred
Phylicia Rashad at the
Roundabout Theatre Company. The production will also feature original music by 5-time Grammy Award-winner Roy Wilfred Wooten (a.k.a. Future Man), percussionist and member of the jazz quartet Béla Fleck and the Flecktones.
"Before there was
Barack Obama, there was Frederick Douglass; and before there was
Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin, there was
Victoria Woodhull and Susan B. Anthony. A little known fact in American history is that in 1872,
Victoria Woodhull, the first female stockbroker, ran for President of the United States and chose former slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass as her Vice-Presidential nominee. Victoria & Frederick for President is the untold story of a campaign and moment in American History that has taken 137 years to come again. The play was commissioned by the Create Carolina Arts Festival and Winthrop University to combine elements of traditional theater and modern multimedia to give historical context to the presidential candidacies of both
Hillary Clinton and
Barack Obama."
Victoria & Frederick for President will run at the New School for Drama (151 Bank Street) from August 15th- August 22nd. The performance schedule is: Saturday, August 15th at 1:45pm, Monday, August 17th at 6:30pm, Wednesday, August 19th at 7:30pm, Friday, August 21st at 3:45pm, and Saturday, August 22nd at 9:30pm. The 8/19 performance will be followed by a talkback with members of the cast and creative team.
Tickets are $15, and can be purchased online at
www.FringeNYC.org
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