Cast and Creative Team Set for New York Premiere of BLOOD OF THE LAMB at 59E59 Theaters

59E59 Theaters has revealed the cast and creative team for the Occasional Drawl Productions and Harbor Stage Company production of Blood of the Lamb by Arlene Hutton (The Nibroc Trilogy, According to the Chorus). The show will hold its New York premiere at 59E59 Theaters from September 14 through October 20, 2024 as one of the first productions under the Off Broadway company's new rent-free model. Opening night is September 23. 

Blood of the Lamb will be directed by Margot Bordelon (John Proctor is the Villain,...what the end will be) and produced by Brian Letchworth and Christa Scott-Reed of Occasional Drawl Productions, in association with Harbor Stage Company.

The production will star Johanna Day, a two-time Tony Award nominee for Lynne Nottage's Sweat and David Auburn's Proof, and Meredith Garretson, who stars as Kate Hawthorne in the hit TV show “Resident Alien.” 

Initially conceived as a work of speculative fiction, playwright Hutton wrote Blood of the Lamb in a state of rage immediately following the 2022 Dobbs Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. Since that time, the tangled and horrifying legal web cast in the play has gone from imaginative to factual in states across America. In a chilling case of truth being stranger than fiction, laws that the playwright invented for the script have gone into effect since the writing of this play. Blood of the Lamb was originally commissioned by B Street Theatre in Sacramento, CA, and debuted to rave reviews at the 2023 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The play won the 2024 Critics' Circle Award, the top honor at the Adelaide Fringe Festival. 

Blood of the Lamb tells the story of a pregnant woman, Nessa (Meredith Garretson), who finds herself detained in a Texas airport with an unexpected adversary: a court-appointed attorney, Val (Johanna Day), assigned to represent her baby. This electrifying thriller features two women with opposing beliefs, forced to navigate the bureaucratic chaos of post-Roe America. It is an urgent new play about choices: the choices that are taken from us and the choices we can still make.

Johanna Day (Val) has appeared on Broadway in How I Learned to Drive, The Nap, You Can't Take it with You, August: Osage County, and Lombardi. Other theater credits include Floyd's (Guthrie Theater), Peace for Mary Francis (The New Group), Peter and Jerry (Second Stage; Drama Desk nomination), Appropriate (Signature Theatre; Obie Award, Lilly Award), Poor Behavior (Mark Taper Forum), The Realistic Joneses (Yale Repertory Theatre), Choice (Huntington Theatre), The Rainmaker (Arena Stage; Helen Hayes Award), and How I Learned to Drive (Vineyard Theatre). Among her many television and film credits are roles on “Madam Secretary” (five years recurring), “For Life,” “New Amsterdam,” “Bull,” “The Good Fight,” “The Blacklist,” “Escape at Dannemora,” “The Knick,” “The Affair,” “The Americans,” “Masters of Sex,” “Alpha House,” “Royal Pains,” Worth, The Post, The Great Gilly Hopkins, How Far She Went and The Breatharians.

Meredith Garretson (Nessa). Garretson's past TV credits include: Ali MacGraw in “The Offer” (Paramount+), “Fosse/Verdon” (FX), “Stargirl” (CW), “Chicago Med” (NBC), “New Amsterdam” (NBC), “Prodigal Son” (Fox), “The Good Fight” (Paramount+), and “Elementary” (CBS). She stars in the upcoming feature film Friendship opposite Paul Rudd (director: Andrew DeYoung). Theater credits include: Rosalind in As You Like It, Maid Marian in Robin Hood (The Old Globe), Christina Mundy in Dancing at Lughnasa (Two River Theater), and PAINT MADE FLESH (The Cell). Meredith is a founding member of Society Theatre Company and is an NYU Grad Acting alumna.

Arlene Hutton (Playwright) is the author of Last Train to Nibroc, which received a Drama League Best Play nomination and has had over 300 productions in the US, Canada and the UK. Her play Blood of the Lamb won the 2024 Critics Circle Award at Adelaide Festival Fringe. An alumna of New Dramatists and member of Ensemble Studio Theatre, Hutton is a three-time winner of the Samuel French Short Play Festival, nine-time finalist for the Heideman Award, Francesca Primus Prize finalist, and recipient of an EST/Sloan Commission, a Bushwick Starr grant and NYFA Fellowship. Residencies include the William Inge Center, the Lark, the MacDowell Colony, SPACE at Ryder Farm, and Yaddo. Hutton's many plays have been published by DPS, Playscripts, and TRW and she teaches playwriting at The Barrow Group.

Margot Bordelon (Director) is a New York-based director who specializes in new work. Her Off Broadway credits include …what the end will be, Something Clean, Too Heavy for your Pocket (Roundabout); Let's Call Her Patty, Plot Points in our Sexual Development (LCT3); peerless (Primary Stages and Cherry Lane); Wives (Playwrights Horizons); Do You Feel Anger (Vineyard);  Eddie and Dave (Atlantic); Wild or Gone (Clubbed Thumb); and more. Margot has directed regionally at ACT Seattle, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Alliance, Arena Stage, Denver Center, Geffen Playhouse, Huntington, Steppenwolf, the Wilma, Yale Rep, and more. She has developed work at Ars Nova, Berkeley Rep, Ma-Yi, MTC, New Dramatists, NYTW, P73, The Public and Rattlestick. Margot received her MFA from the Yale School of Drama. 

The creative team includes scenic design by Andrew Boyce (LCT: Plot Points in Our Sexual Development, Verite; NYTW: Run Boy Run), costume design by Sarita Fellows (Broadway: Death of a Salesman), lighting design by Amith Chandrashaker (Broadway: Prayer for the French Republic, Tony nomination) and sound design by UptownWorks (Baltimore Center Stage: Lady Day…; Barrington Stage Company: tiny father). Hethyr (Red) Verhoef will serve as production stage manager. General management is by Mott/Fischer Productions. Casting by Benton Whitley, C.S.A. and Micah Johnson-Levy, C.S.A. 

Tickets for Blood of the Lamb are on sale for the general public on the 59E59 Theaters website. Information on 59E59 Theaters Membership can be found here. The box office is available via phone at (646)-892-7999 and open daily from 12pm-6pm.

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