TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS, Starring Nia Vardalos, Opens Tonight at The Public Theater

The Public Theater presents TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS, based on the acclaimed book by best-selling author Cheryl Strayed and adapted for the stage by Academy Award-nominated writer Nia Vardalos, with direction by Thomas Kail. This richly funny, uplifting new show is co-conceived by Marshall Heyman, Thomas Kail, and Nia Vardalos and will also feature Vardalos as the anonymous online advice columnist "Sugar."

TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS officially opens tonight, December 7. The show has been extended an additional two weeks through Saturday, December 31.

The complete cast features Phillip James Brannon, Alfredo Narciso, and Natalie Woolams-Torres playing multiple letter writers to the online advice columnist "Sugar," played by Nia Vardalos. Miriam Silverman will be the cover for "Sugar" and will be performing on November 20 and November 27 at 6:30 p.m.

Academy Award-nominated writer and actress Nia Vardalos makes her Public Theater debut with a new play she has adapted from the bestselling book Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed, the internationally acclaimed author of Wild. Vardalos is Sugar, the online advice columnist who thousands of people have turned to for words of wisdom, honesty and hope. As anonymous readers come to her with their deepest and most personal problems, Sugar-who ultimately revealed herself to be Strayed-finds a way to weave her own life experiences together with theirs, creating a beloved column about the monstrous beauty, endless dark and glimmering light at the heart of being human. Tony Award winner Thomas Kail (Dry Powder, Hamilton) directs this powerful new play about reaching when you're stuck, healing when you're broken, and finding the courage to take on the questions which don't have an answer.

TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS features scenic design by Rachel Hauck, costume design by Jennifer Moeller, lighting design by Jeff Croiter, and sound design by Jill BC Du Boff.

Public Theater Member and Partner tickets, and single tickets starting at $85, are available now and can be accessed by calling (212) 967-7555, www.publictheater.org, or in person at the Taub Box Office at The Public Theater at 425 Lafayette Street. Post-show talkbacks with the creative team are scheduled to take place immediately following the performances on Tuesday, November 29 and Wednesday, December 14.

Continuing The Public's mission to make great theater accessible to all, The Public's First Performance "Free for All" returns this fall; free tickets to the first preview of TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS on Tuesday, November 15 will be available beginning November 8 via TodayTix mobile lottery. $20 tickets will be available for main stage productions in The Public's downtown season at Astor Place through a TodayTix Mobile Lottery. The Library at The Public is open nightly for food and drinks, beginning at 5:30 p.m., and Joe's Pub at The Public continues to offer some of the best music in the city.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Cheryl Strayed (Original Book) is the author of Tiny Beautiful Things, Torch, Brave Enough, and the number one New York Times bestseller, Wild. Her books have been translated into more than forty languages around the world. The Oscar-nominated film adaptation of Wild, directed by Jean-Marc Vallée, was released by Fox Searchlight in 2014 and stars Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern. Strayed's essays and stories have appeared in the Best American Essays, Vogue, The New York Times, the Washington Post and elsewhere. Strayed is the co-host of the Dear Sugar Radio podcast, which originated with her popular Dear Sugar column.

Nia Vardalos (Adapter, Co-Conceiver, Sugar). Her films include My Big Fat Greek Wedding, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress, winning the Independent Spirit Award and People's Choice Award. Vardalos wrote, co-produced and acts in the sequel My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 set to hit theaters March 25, 2016. Recently, Vardalos hosted ABC's "The Great Holiday Baking Show" with her husband Ian Gomez; and plays a savvy political consultant on the upcoming EPIX series "Graves" opposite Nick Nolte and Sela Ward. She wrote and acted in Connie and Carla; acted in My Life In Ruins and For A Good Time Call; co-wrote Larry Crowne with Tom Hanks; and directed her screenplay in which she acted, I Hate Valentine's Day. She has appeared on "Law & Order: SVU"; "Grey's Anatomy"; "Cougar Town"; "Curb Your Enthusiasm"; "Jane the Virgin"; voices Angie Diaz in Disney XD's animated series "Star vs. the Forces of Evil"; and has hosted "Saturday Night Live." Vardalos wrote her memoir Instant Mom, a New York Times bestseller, on adopting her daughter at the age of three from American Foster Care and donates all book proceeds to adoption organizations. Currently, via WGA and Universal, she mentors six writers.

Thomas Kail (Co-Conceiver, Director) recently directed Dry Powder at The Public Theater. He also directEd Hamilton at The Public Theater, which is currently running on Broadway and in Chicago. His additional Broadway credits include In the Heights; and two new plays, Lombardi and Magic/Bird. His Off-Broadway credits include In the Heights; New York City Center Randy Newman's Faust and The Wiz; Lincoln Center Theater's Broke-ology and When I Come to Die; The Flea Theater's Family Furniture; and Second Stage Uptown's The Tutors. He is the co-creator and director of the hip-hop improv groupFreestyle Love Supreme. He is a graduate of Wesleyan University, CT.

MARSHALL HEYMAN (Co-Conceiver) writes the daily "Heard and Scene" social column for the Wall Street Journal. Over the years, he has contributed to such publications as The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Vogue, Glamour, InStyle, W, Harper's Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, New York and many others. He has also written for television.

Phillip James Brannon has appeared off-Broadway and regionally in Nat Turner In Jerusalem at NYTW; BootyCandy at Playwrights Horizons, earning him an Obie Award; The City Of Conversation at Lincoln Center; Love and Information, Belleville at NYTW; We Are Proud To Present... at Soho Rep; A Confederacy of Dunces at The Huntington; The March, The Brother/Sister Plays at Steppenwolf; As You Like It, Richard III, Macbeth, Amadeus at Chicago Shakespeare Theater; The Ballad Of Emmett Till, The Cook at the Goodman Theatre; and Titus Andronicus at the Court Theatre. His film and television credits include Contagion, "The Plug," and "Law & Order: SVU."

Alfredo Narciso. He has appeared on Broadway in The Motherf***er With The Hat and A Streetcar Named Desire. Off-Broadway he has appeared in The Way West, Basilica,Good Mother, Red Dog Howls, Chimichangas & Zoloft, The Ugly One, among others. Regionally he has appeared in Elevada, Miracle At Naples, Britannicus, among others. His film and television credits include Jacqueline Argentine, Demolition, Like Sunday, Like Rain, Elliot Loves, among others. "House of Cards," "Elementary," "The Family," "Beauty and the Beast," "The Following," "Madam Secretary," "The Good Wife,"among others.

Miriam Silverman (Sugar Cover) has appeared at The Public in Hamlet. Her additional Off-Broadway credits include A Delicate Ship at Playwrights Realm; Everything You Touch at Rattlestick; You Got Older at Page 73; The Hour of All Things, Finks at EST, which earned her a Drama Desk Nomination; Septimus and Clarissa at Ripe Time; The Witch of Edmonton at Red Bull; and Bone Portraits at Walkerspace. Regionally she has appeared as 'The Sign in' Sidney Brustein's Window at the Goodman Theater, earning her a JEFF nomination; The Moors at Yale Rep; Measure for Measure, All's Well That Ends Well, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, As You Like It, The Liar, The Dog in The Manger; Extremities, Moonchildren at Berkshire Theatre Festival, Peer Gynt at The Guthrie; Awake and Sing! At Arena Stage; and numerous with Trinity Rep. Her Film and television credits includeBetter Days Ahead; "Elementary"; "Pan Am"; "Law & Order: C.I." She received a B.A. and M.F.A. from Brown and is a recipient of a 2011 TCG Fox Fellowship.

Natalie Woolams-Torres recently appeared in The Public Theater's Mobile Unit tour of Hamlet. Other Public Theater credits include Shakespeare in The Park productions of The Taming of the Shrew and The Comedy of Errors. New York Theater credits include Death For Sidney Black directed by Kip Fagan, Magdalena's Crossing directed by Elena Araoz. Recent film credits include Tramps directed by Adam Leon and After Louie directed by Vincent Gagliostro. She attended SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Theater Arts and Film.

The Public Theater, under the leadership of Artistic Director Oskar Eustis and Executive Director Patrick Willingham, is the only theater in New York that produces Shakespeare, the classics, musicals, contemporary, and experimental pieces in equal measure. Eustis has created new community-based initiatives designed to engage audiences like Public Lab, Public Studio, Public Forum, Public Works, and a remount of the Mobile Unit. The Public continues the work of its visionary founder, Joe Papp, by acting as an advocate for the theater as an essential cultural force, and leading and framing dialogue on some of the most important issues of our day. Creating theater for one of the largest and most diverse audience bases in New York City for over 60 years, today the Company engages audiences in a variety of venues-including its landmark downtown home at Astor Place, which houses five theaters and Joe's Pub; the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, home to free Shakespeare in the Park; and the Mobile Unit, which tours productions to underserved audiences throughout New York City's five boroughs. The Public's wide range of programming includes free Shakespeare in the Park, the bedrock of the Company's dedication to making theater accessible to all; Public Works, an expanding initiative that is designed to cultivate new connections and new models of engagement with artists, audiences and the community each year; and audience and artist development initiatives that range from Emerging Writers Group and to the Public Forum series. The Public is located on property owned by the City of New York and receives annual support from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; and in October 2012 the landmark building downtown at Astor Place was revitalized to physically manifest the Company's core mission of sparking new dialogues and increasing accessibility for artists and audiences, by dramatically opening up the building to the street and community, and transforming the lobby into a public piazza for artists, students, and audiences. The Public is currently represented on Broadway by the Tony Award-winning acclaimed American musical Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda. The Public has received 59 Tony Awards, 168 Obie Awards, 53 Drama Desk Awards, 54 Lortel Awards, 32 Outer Critics Circle Awards, 13 New York Drama Critics Awards, and five Pulitzer Prizes. Visit www.publictheater.org.

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