Chisa Hutchinson's SOMEBODY'S DAUGHTER Finds Full Company at Second Stage

As previously announced, Second Stage Theatre will begin the 2017 Uptown Series with the world premiere of Chisa Hutchinson's SOMEBODY'S DAUGHTER, directed by May Adrales.

SOMEBODY'S DAUGHTER will feature Vanessa Kai, Collin Kelly-Sordelet, Michelle Heera Kim, Rodney Richardson, David Shih and Jeena Yi.

SOMEBODY'S DAUGHTER will begin previews on Tuesday, May 23, 2017 and will officially open on Tuesday, June 6, 2017.

Alex is a fifteen year old Asian-American girl going to extremes to get her own mother to notice her. She's a dream child-- except to her parents who wish she was a boy. Luckily she finds a sympathetic ear in Kate, her irreverent guidance counselor who knows all too well what it's like to walk in Alex's shoes. As three generations of women find their identity in question, each needs to decide who makes the rules and what happens when you break them.

SOMEBODY'S DAUGHTER is presented at Second Stage Theatre's uptown home, the McGinn/Cazale Theatre on Broadway at 76th Street. The play is commissioned by Second Stage as part of the Time Warner Commissioning Program.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Vanessa Kai (Millie Chan) is thrilled to make her Second Stage debut! Most recent credits include The Christians (as the Wife) at Riverside Theatre, Florida. Favorite New York Theatre: The Architecture of Becoming (Women's Project Theater @ NY City Center Stage II), What We Know (One Year Lease Theater), Soot and Spit (Our Voices Theatre). Regional: Brownsville Song (B-Side for Tray) (Seattle Repertory Theatre), Far East (Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Debut by Connecticut Critics Circle) and An Infinite Ache (both Stamford Theatreworks). Vanessa has also helped develop new works at the Lark Play Development Center, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Civilians, The Working Theater, Center Stage Baltimore, TheatreWorks USA and Flux Theatre Ensemble. Vanessa's film work has been presented in various film festivals including Sundance Film Festival, Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, TV: "The Blacklist," "Gotham," "The Mysteries of Laura," "Orange Is The New Black," "The Leftovers," "Law & Order:SVU." Select film credits include: Off The Rails, Old Acquaintance Be Forgot, Behind The Mirror. Special thanks to Chisa Hutchinson, Christopher Burney, May Adrales, and Karyn Casl.

Collin Kelly-Sordelet (Russ Mitchell) most recently starred in the independent feature Radium Girls, directed by Virginia Mohler. He also starred opposite Bel Powley in Fritz Bohm's Wilding. As a freshman at Juilliard, Collin was cast in the lead in The Last Ship on Broadway, for which he won a Theatre World Award and was nominated for the Clive Barnes Award. On TV, Collin has appeared on Hulu's "The Path."

Michelle Heera Kim (Alex Chan) was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA. At a young age, she found a passion for performing as an actor, singer, and dancer - creating skits and performing in school productions. She recently completed her degree in Theatre at Drew University in New Jersey, where she could be seen in numerous theatre productions such as Top Girls and Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them. While in school, she studied abroad in London, where she was cast in the short film, The Violence on Her Body. She also participated in internships at various theatre companies, such as the National Asian American Theatre Company. Shortly after graduating, she moved back to Los Angeles, where she is currently based. She hopes to continue to study and is excited for what's to come.

Rodney Richardson (Reggie Ward) Theatre: Squash (The Flea), The Tempest (The Public/Delacorte - Dir. Michael Greif), Pulse (The Guthrie - Dir. Marcela Lorca), The Broken Record (New York Fringe Festival). TV/FILM: "Elementary" (CBS), "Law & Order: SVU" (NBC), Cubby (Dir. Ben Mankoff), "Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll" (FX), The Good Wife (CBS), Three Sisters Film Project, The Instrumentalist, Kings to You. MFA, New York University, Tisch School of the Arts.

David Shih (Richard Chan) recurs as Isiah on "The Path" (Hulu). Recently: Tiger Style! (La Jolla). Off-Broadway: Awake and Sing! (The Public/NAATCO), The World of Extreme Happiness (MTC), Bike America (Ma-Yi), Crane Story (Playwrights Realm), Dojoji (Pan Asian Rep), Sake with the Haiku Geisha (Gotham Stage). Film/TV: The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Fan Girl, Old 37, Saving Face, "Madam Secretary," "The Blacklist," "Mozart in the Jungle," "Unforgettable," "Blue Bloods," "Law & Order: SVU." Voice of Eddie Toh in Grand Theft Auto V (Rockstar Games). Performs with Only Make Believe for kids in hospitals and care facilities.

Jeena Yi (Kate Wu) is thrilled to make her Second Stage Theatre debut. She was recently seen playing Tong in Vietgone at The Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Seattle Rep. Other credits include Adriana in Comedy of Errors (Classic Stage Company), Emilia in The Winter's Tale(Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Grace in Lights Rise on Grace (Woolly Mammoth Theatre Co.), Bo in The Hard Problem (Wilma Theater), Brin inChairs and a Long Table (Ma-Yi Theatre Co.) TV: "Royal Pains". MFA, Columbia University.

Chisa Hutchinson (Playwright) is the current recipient of the 2016 Tow Foundation grant for the creation, development and production of this new play through Second Stage Theatre. Hutchinson's socially probing plays, which include She Like Girls, Sex on Sunday, The Subject, Dead & Breathing, and Somebody's Daughter among others, have been presented by such venues as City Parks' Summerstage, the Lark, the National Black Theater, the Contemporary American Theater Festival, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, and Atlantic Theater Company. She's won a GLAAD Award, the John Golden Award for Excellence in Playwriting, a Lilly Award, a New York Innovative Theatre Award, the Paul Green Award, a Helen Merrill Award, the Lanford Wilson Award, and has been a finalist for the highly coveted PoNY Fellowship. She's also been a Lark Fellow, a Dramatists Guild Fellow, a resident at the William Inge Center for the Arts a New York NeoFuturist, and a staff writer for the Blue Man Group. Currently, she is a Humanitas Fellow, Resident Playwright at Second Stage Theatre, and a proud fourth-year year member of New Dramatists. (B.A. Vassar College; M.F.A NYU - Tisch School of the Arts).

ADRALES (Director) has helmed several world premieres including Qui Nguyen's Vietgone (Manhattan Theatre Club, South Coast Rep, Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Seattle Rep); Chisa Hutchinson's The Wedding Gift (Contemporary American Theater Festival); JC Lee's Luce(LCT3); Katori Hall's Whaddabloodclot!!! (Williamstown Theatre Festival); A. Rey Pamatmat's Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them (Actors Theatre of Louisville) and after all the terrible things I do (Milwaukee Rep); Thomas Bradshaw's Mary (The Goodman Theatre) and The Bereaved (Partial Comfort Productions); Zakiyyah Alexander and Imani Uzuri's girl shakes loose her skin (Penumbra); In This House (Two River Theater Company); Richard Dresser's Trouble Cometh (SF Playhouse); Qui Nguyen's Five Days 'Til Saturday (NYU Tisch) and Tommy Smith's The Wife (Access Theater). She directed David Henry Hwang's The Dance and the Railroad at Signature Theater; Kimber Lee's Tokyo Fish Story (Old Globe); Stefanie Zadravec's The Electric Baby (Two River); Katori Hall's The Mountaintop (Milwaukee Rep); Chinglish (Portland Center Stage, Syracuse Stage); Everything You Touch, (CATF); In the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play and Disgraced (Syracuse Stage); and Breath and Imagination (Cleveland Playhouse). She is a Drama League Directing Fellow, Women's Project Lab Director, Soho Rep Writers/Directors Lab and NYTW directing fellow, and a recipient of the TCG New Generations Grant, Denham Fellowship and Paul Green Directing Award. She proudly serves as an Associate Artist at Milwaukee Rep. She is a former Director of On Site Programs at the Lark Play Development Center and Artistic Associate at The Public Theater. May has directed and taught at Juilliard, ART, ACT, Fordham, NYU and Bard College. May is on faculty at the Yale School of Drama and Brown/Trinity MFA program. MFA, Yale School of Drama.

Created as a program to help develop and provide exposure for the voices of a new generation of theatre artists, Second Stage Theatre UPTOWN (Christopher Burney, Curator & Associate Artistic Director), seeks to develop the skills of emerging playwrights, to provide early-career artists with the support of a major artistic institution, and to create new plays for the American Theatre. Each show has a limited rehearsal period, as well as a streamlined budget. Lead funding for Second Stage Uptown Series is provided by the Time Warner Foundation.

The series was among the first established by a prominent Off-Broadway institution to help nurture and advance the careers of young up and coming playwrights. Since its founding in 2002 the Uptown Series has showcased the works of several established playwrights including Rajiv Joseph (Gruesome Playground Injuries and Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, "Nurse Jackie"), Leslye Headland (Bachelorette), Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (Good Boys and True, HBO's "Big Love" and "Looking," "Glee"), Adam Bock (A Small Fire, The Drunken City), and Brooke Berman (Hunting and Gathering); actors Gavin Creel, Ari Graynor, Marin Hinkle, Halley Feiffer, Rosemarie Dewitt, Lorenzo Pisoni, Tracie Thoms and Tracee Chimo, among many others; and directors Davis McCallum, Trip Cullman, Carolyn Cantor, Evan Cabnet and Jackson Gay.

The series premiered in 2002 with three new American plays: ...in the absence of spring..., written and directed by Joe Calarco; The Notebook, by Wendy Kesselman and directed by Evan Yionoulis; and Hunt Holman's Spanish Girl, directed by Erica Schmidt. Second Stage Theatre Uptown was on hiatus in 2003 due to theatre repairs. The 2004 season saw the New York premiere of Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa's The Mystery Plays, as well as Brooke Berman's The Triple Happiness, starring Ally Sheedy. In 2005, the series presented the New York premiere of the critically acclaimed comedy Swimming in the Shallows, by Adam Bock and starring Logan Marshall-Green, as well as the world premiere of Dan O'Brien's The Dear Boy. The 2006 series featured two world premiere comedies: Getting Home, by Anton Dudley and directed by David Schweizer, and Rajiv Joseph's All This Intimacy, directed by Giovanna Sardelli. The 2007 series featured Marisa Wegrzyn's The Butcher of Baraboo, directed by Judith Ivey, and Joshua Tobiessen's Election Day, directed by Jeremy Dobrish. The 2008 series featured Carly Mensch'sLen, Asleep in Vinyl, directed by Jackson Gay, and Rajiv Joseph's Animals Out of Paper, directed by Giovanna Sardelli. The 2009 series presented two world premiere plays: Zakiyyah Alexander's 10 Things To Do Before I Die, directed by Jackson Gay, and Lila Rose Kaplan'sWildflower, directed by Giovanna Sardelli. The 2010 season's series featured the New York premiere of Michael Golamco's Year Zero, directed by Will Frears, and the New York premiere production of Leslye Headland's critically acclaimed hit comedy Bachelorette, directed by Trip Cullman. The 2011 season featured two world premiere comedies: Michael Mitnick's Sex Lives of Our Parents, directed by Davis McCallum and Anna Kerrigan's The Talls, directed by Carolyn Cantor. The 2012 season brought The Bad Guys by Alena Smith and Warrior Class by Kennth Lin to Uptown. The 2013 series brought the world premiere of The Tutors by Erica Lipez as well as the off-Broadway transfer, Murder for Two by Joe Kinosian and Kellen Blair. The 2014 series featured Bess Wohl's American Hero, directed by Leigh Silverman, and Tanya Saracho's Mala Hierba, directed by Jerry Ruiz. The 2015 series featured two world premiere productions: Emily Schwend's The Other Thing, directed by Lucie Tiberghien, and King Liz by Fernanda Coppel, directed by Lisa Peterson. The 2016 series brought the world premiere of Sofia Alvarez's Friend Art, directed by Portia Krieger, and the New York premiere of Lucy Teitler's Engagements, directed by Kimberly Senior.

Under the artistic direction of Carole Rothman, Second Stage Theatre produces a diverse range of premieres and new interpretations of America's best contemporary theatre, including 2015 Pulitzer Prize winner Between Riverside and Crazy by Stephen Adly Guirgis; 2010 Pulitzer Prize winner Next to Normal by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey; 2012 Pulitzer Prize winner Water by the Spoonful by Quiara Alegria Hudes; Dear Evan Hansen by Benj Pasek, Justin Paul, and Steven Levenson; The Last Five Years by Jason Robert Brown; Dogfight by Benj Pasek, Justin Paul and Peter Duchan; By the Way, Meet Vera Stark by Lynn Nottage; Trust and Lonely, I'm Not by Paul Weitz; The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity by Kristoffer Diaz; Everyday Rapture by Dick Scanlan and Sherie Rene Scott; Let Me Down Easy by Anna Deavere Smith; Becky Shaw by Gina Gionfriddo; Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl; The Little Dog Laughed by Douglas Carter Beane; Metamorphoses by Mary Zimmerman; The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee by William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin; Jitney by August Wilson; Jar the Floor by Cheryl L. West; Uncommon Women and Others by Wendy Wasserstein; Crowns by ReGina Taylor; Saturday Night by Stephen Sondheim; Afterbirth: Kathy & Mo's Greatest Hits by Mo Gaffney and Kathy Najimy; This Is Our Youth by Kenneth Lonergan; Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants by Ricky Jay; Coastal Disturbances by Tina Howe; A Soldier's Play by Charles Fuller; Little Murders by Jules Feiffer; The Good Times Are Killing Me by Lynda Barry; and Tiny Alice by Edward Albee.

The company's more than 130 citations include the 2009 Tony Awards for Best Lead Actress in a Musical (Alice Ripley, Next to Normal) and Best Score (Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey, Next to Normal); the 2007 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play (Julie White, The Little Dog Laughed); the 2005 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical (Rachel Sheinkin, ...Spelling Bee) and Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Dan Fogler, ...Spelling Bee); the 2002 Tony Award for Best Director of a Play (Mary Zimmerman for Metamorphoses); the 2002 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Body of Work, 29 Obie Awards, eight Outer Critics Circle Awards, three Clarence Derwent Awards, 13 Drama Desk Awards, nine Theatre World Awards, 17 Lucille Lortel Awards, the Drama Critics Circle Award and 23 AUDELCO Awards.

In 1999, Second Stage Theatre opened The Tony Kiser Theatre, its state-of-the-art, 296-seat theatre, designed by renowned Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas. In 2002, Second Stage launched "Second Stage Theatre Uptown" series to showcase the work of up and coming artists at the McGinn/Cazale Theatre. The Theatre supports artists through several programs that include residencies, fellowships and commissions, and engages students and community members through education and outreach programs.

In 2015 Second Stage Theatre purchased the historic Helen Hayes Theatre, located at 240 W. 44th Street. With this new home, Second Stage will be the only theatre company on Broadway dedicated exclusively to the development and presentation of contemporary American theatrical productions. The company will continue to lease and operate their original theatres on the city's Upper West Side and in Midtown Manhattan. Second Stage Theatre has enlisted David Rockwell and The Rockwell Group to make renovations and updates to the 103 year old landmark building. They will begin renovations on the theatre in 2016 and plans for its first Broadway production to be staged in the Hayes during the 2017-18 season.