Cast Set for THE ADVENTURES OF ORLANDO AND VIRGINIA at The Acting Company

The Acting Company has revealed the cast for their reading of The Adventures of Orlando and Virginia, adapted and directed by Kevin Kuhlke inspired by the novel Orlando and the life of Virginia Woolf (Mrs. Dalloway, A Room of One's Own, To the Lighthouse), with music by Heather Christian (Off-Broadway's Oratorio for Living Things at Ars Nova and Animal Wisdom at The Bushwick Starr). This music infused, open hearted play interfaces aspects of the novel Orlando with the life of Virginia Woolf. While staging an open rehearsal, Virginia's characters from Orlando take over and lead her on a wild, joyous and loving adventure. Fact and fiction collide in a play that celebrates theater's ability to embrace the fluidity of identity, location and time and the ways in which an artist both creates and is created by her art.

Artistic Director Kent Gash said "I'm delighted to welcome my New York University colleague Kevin Kuhlke to The Acting Company. This youthful activation of Virginia Woolf's extraordinary novel brings a unique musical perspective to a classic and breathes new life into a story we think we know."

The cast for The Adventures of Orlando and Virginia features Jonah Beckett (Max's "The Sex Lives of College Girls"), Maddie Boudov (Off-Off-Broadway's The Body at Foul Fiend Theater Troupe), Ihsanah Iman (NYU Tisch Experimental Theater Wing), Chase Junchaya (NYU Tisch Drama), Colin Konstanty (Trevor: The Musical Off-Broadway and on Disney+), Kira Lukasik (Off-Off-Broadway's Sense & Sensibility at West 14th Theater Company), Nora Lullo (Off-Off-Broadway's Hamlet at Weak Tree Theater Company), Cooper Musser (Marvel Studio's "Avengers: Age of Ultron," Camp Hollywood's "Second Chances"), Tali Papouchado (Off-Off-Broadway's Boobah: The Rise and Fall of an Empire at Asylum NYC), Maya Patridge (Off-Off-Broadway's Justice in a Time of Need at Theater for the New City), Greaves Ponder (NYU Tisch Experimental Theater Wing), Anabella Ross (Julius Caesar and Othello at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts), Kayta Thomas (Nickelodeon's Dora and Friends: Into the City!), and Rowan Trowbridge-Wheeler (NYU Tisch Experimental Theater Wing).

Each season, The Acting Company hosts a series of staged readings. A mixture of new texts, classics of the canon, and forgotten favorites, these readings are a showcase of The Acting Company's alumni and a chance to explore other works by playwrights and directors featured in the company's National Tours. The Acting Company gratefully recognizes the generous supporters of The Louanna O. Carlin and John McDonald Reading Series, including Ann C. James (Underwriter, Spell #7), Ro Spaziani, (Underwriter, The Adventures of Orlando and Virginia) and Richard J. Reilly, Jr. (Series Producing Sponsor).

The Acting Company's Louanna O. Carlin & John McDonald 2024-2025 Reading Series includes:

Spell #7

By Ntozake Shange
Directed by Ann C. James
Produced in association with Hedgepig Ensemble Theatre as part of Expand the Canon's 4th Season

Monday, October 21, 2024
7:00 pm

The Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street (at Astor Place), New York

A striking choreopoem by the playwright of for colored girls..., this bold play examines the irony of Black performers in a white-led entertainment industry. Written in the 1960s, its language, rhetoric, and intent are blisteringly relevant to this day.

The Shadow of a Gunman

By Seán O'Casey
Directed by Ian Belknap

Monday, November 4, 2024
7:00 pm

The Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street (at Astor Place), New York

Set against the backdrop of the Irish War of Independence, this is a tale of a young poet who lets the rumor that he is an IRA assassin run wild as he enjoys the mysterious allure this lends him in the eyes of his neighbors, including a young woman. Moving from the comedic to the tragic, this is one of O'Casey's Dublin Trilogy, exploring conflict, national identity, and the human cost of revolution.

The Tragedy of Hoffman, or Revenge for a Father

By Henry Chettle
Directed by Nathan Winkelstein
Produced in association with Red Bull Theater

Monday, January 27, 2025
7:30pm
Symphony Space's Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre, 2537 Broadway (at 95th St), New York

The captivating story of a young man seeking to avenge the murder of his father with the help of a diabolical servant. He joins the household of his enemies, enacting convoluted plots of deceit, betrayal, poisoning and violence to pursue his ends. But unchecked vengeance has a way of catching up with you. This is a gripping tale of revenge, and betrayal that sweeps an audience along to a conclusion not to be missed.

The Adventures of Orlando and Virginia

Adapted and Directed by Kevin Kuhlke
Music by Heather Christian

Monday, February 17, 2025
7:00pm
The Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street (at Astor Place), New York

This music infused, open hearted play interfaces aspects of the novel Orlando with the life of Virginia Woolf. While staging an open rehearsal, Virginia's characters from Orlando take over and lead her on a wild, joyous and loving adventure. Fact and fiction collide in a play that celebrates theater's ability to embrace the fluidity of identity, location and time and the ways in which an artist both creates and is created by her art.

A Clockwork Orange

By Anthony Burgess
Directed by Artistic Director Kent Gash

Monday, March 17, 2025
7:00pm
The Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street (at Astor Place), New York

A theatrical adaptation of the controversial and provocative book by the author, Anthony Burgess, himself, this authoritative theatrical text is filled with "ultra-violence," capturing the chaotic tone of the novella in a dramatic experience both dystopian and satirical.

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