Classic Stage Company Presents VENUS IN FUR 1/13/2010

Classic Stage Company (CSC), under the leadership of Artistic Director Brian Kulick and Executive Director Jessica R. Jenen, will present VENUS IN FUR, a new play by David Ives, directed by Walter Bobbie, beginning performances January 13 at Classic Stage Company (136 East 13th Street). VENUS IN FUR will feature Wes Bentley and Nina Arianda. VENUS IN FUR reunites Ives and Bobbie, who last worked together at CSC on the acclaimed production of New Jerusalem. Ives and Bobbie have collaborated for over 15 years on more than 10 productions as writer/producer, writer/director, co-authors, writer/actor, and writer/dramaturg. Their productions together range from Broadway, Off-Broadway, City Center Encores, Carnegie Hall and Public Television. VENUS IN FUR will play a limited engagement at CSC through Sunday, February 21. The official press opening is Tuesday, January 26 at 7pm.

VENUS IN FUR, inspired by the infamous erotic novel of the same name, takes us behind the scenes of an audition, where a man and a woman blur the lines between fantasy and reality, seduction and power, love and sex. A crackling exploration of sexual control and desire, the play is captive to David Ives' famous combination of classic rigor and contemporary wit.
Sets for VENUS IN FUR are by Tony Award winner John Lee Beatty, costumes by Anita Yavitch, lighting by Peter Kaczorowski and sound by Acme Sound Partners.

VENUS IN FUR will perform Tuesday through Friday at 8 pm; Saturday at 2 pm and 8 pm; and Sunday at 2pm. Tickets are $60 Tuesday through Thursday and $65 Friday through Sunday. For tickets and information, visit www.classicstage.org or call (866) 811-4111, or (212) 352-3101, or visit the CSC box office at 136 East 13th Street, Monday through Friday 12 pm to 6 pm.
David Ives (Playwright) also wrote New Jerusalem: The Interrogation of Baruch de Spinoza, seen last year at CSC, and co-wrote Irving Berlin's White Christmas, seen on Broadway these past two seasons, both shows directed by the incomparable Walter Bobbie. David Ives is also delighted to return to CSC with John Lee Beatty, Anita Yavich and Nevin Steinberg, experts all. His translation/adaptation of Corneille's great comedy The Liar will premiere this spring at Washington's Shakespeare Theatre. By the end of this season he will have adapted 28 musicals for Encores.
Walter Bobbie (Director) directed the holiday perenniAl White Christmas on Broadway and across the country over the last 6 seasons. His international hit Chicago has become the longest-running revival in Broadway history and won him the Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards as Best Director. Other Broadway credits include High Fidelity, Sweet Charity, Twentieth Century and Footloose. Recent productions include The Savannah Disputation at Playwrights Horizons; The Marriage of Bette & Boo at Roundabout; No, No, Nanette at Encores! and David Ives' New Jerusalem at Classic Stage. Mr. Bobbie served as the Artistic Director of City Center's Encores! and sits on the Executive Board of SDC, the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.
WES BENTLEY (Thomas/Kushemski) was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas and attended Sylvan Hills High School in Sherwood, Arkansas. At school, he was a member of the drama club and gained an interest in acting from Improv Comedy. He later attended the Juilliard School's Drama Division in New York City for a short period of time and appeared in a few stage works. Wes has since starred in several films including the Oscar-winning American Beauty, Michael Winterbottom's The Claim, The Four Feathers, and P2. He more recently starred in The Last Word and also the thriller Dolan's Cadillac, based on the novel by Stephen King. Wes just wrapped filming on the Roland Joffé film There Be Dragons in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
NINA ARIANDA (Vanda/Dunayev) has appeared with Project 400 in Measure for Measure and The Donkey Show (understudy), Dir. Diane Paulus. HERE Arts Center: Becoming Natasha. La Mama: Still the River Flows. NYU Graduate Acting: The Importance of Being Earnest, Three Sisters, The Clean House, Bus Stop, Hobson's Choice, As You Like It, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Charity, My Woman. Regional/Franklin Stage Company: Measure for Measure. Film: In Praise of Shadows, Operation Fellisha, Magic Pants Inc. M.F.A., NYU Graduate Acting Program.

Entering its 42nd year as one of New York's most exciting theatres, Classic Stage Company is the award-winning Off-Broadway theatre committed to re-imagining the classical repertory for a contemporary American audience. Led by Artistic Director Brian Kulick and Executive Director Jessica R. Jenen, last season the company presented three sold-out acclaimed productions: Shakespeare's The Tempest, starring Mandy Patinkin; Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, starring Maggie Gyllenhaal, Denis O'Hare and Peter Sarsgaard; and Anne Carson's An Oresteia. Recent productions: critically acclaimed sold-out runs of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull, starring Dianne Wiest and Alan Cumming; the world premiere of David Ives' New Jerusalem, directed by Walter Bobbie; Richard III starring Michael Cumpsty; and Zoe Caldwell in Yasmina Reza's A Spanish Play, directed by John Turturro.

CSC presents plays from the past that speak directly to the issues of today. As we return to works of the past, we endeavor to keep a clear eye on the future, particularly in terms of the next generation of artists and audiences. Classic Stage's artists are the finest established and emerging theater practitioners working in this country. Highly respected and widely regarded as a major force in New York and American theatre, Classic Stage has been cited repeatedly by all the major Off-Broadway theater awards: Obies, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Drama League and the 1999 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Body of Work. Memberships to Classic Stage Company productions are available at various price levels, including the flexible MasterPass membership, which in addition to prime seats entitles members to participate in CSC special series, including their sold-out Open Rehearsal events. For more information on Classic Stage Company visit the theatre's website at www.classicstage.org.

For further information on Classic Stage Company, call (212) 352-3101, visit the theatre in person at 136 East 13th Street, or go to www.classicstage.org.

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