Classic Stage Company to Host FIRST LOOK FESTIVAL Showcasing Caryl Churchill, 4/7

Classic Stage Company, under the leadership of Artistic Director Brian Kulick and Executive Director Greg Reiner, will present its popular First Look Festival, a series of one-night only staged readings, this year focusing on the remarkable work of playwright Caryl Churchill, whose plays have provoked, captivated and astounded audiences since she burst onto the scene in the late 1960s.

The Churchill First Look Festival begins Monday evening, April 7 at 7 pm with Cloud Nine, featuring Tina Benko, Blair Brown, Jordan Dean, Jason Butler Harner, Taylor Mac, Elizabeth Marvel and Steven Rattazzi, with direction by Tyne Rafaeli.

On Monday, April 14 at 7 pm, Annika Boras and Ari Brand will perform Churchill's Mad Forest, with direction by Anna Brenner. And on Monday, April 28 at 7 pm, Rebecca Hall and Elizabeth Marvel will perform in Fen, directed by Osh Jones. Tickets are $30 and available at the CSC box office (136 East 13th Street), at www.classicstage.org or by calling 212-352-3101 or 866-811-4111.

Classic Stage Company is the award-winning Off-Broadway theatre committed to re-imaging the classical repertory for a contemporary American audience. Founded in 1967, CSC uses works of the past as a way to engage in the issues of today. Highly respected and widely regarded as a major force in American theatre, it has become the home to New York's finest established and emerging artists, the place where they gather to grapple with the great works of the world's repertory. CSC has been cited repeatedly by all the major Off-Broadway theatre awards: Obies, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Drama League and the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Body of Work.

CSC's 2013/2014 Season began in September with Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet, starring Elizabeth Olsen and Julian Cihi, directed by Tea Alagi?, and continued with The Last Two People On Earth: An Apocalyptic Vaudeville, performed by Mandy Patinkin and Taylor Mac, directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman; followed by Bertolt Brecht's A Man's A Man, directed by Brian Kulick with new music by Duncan Sheik. The current season concludes with The Heir Apparent, by David Ives, directed by John Rando, currently in previews.

Past productions include: Anton Chekhov's Ivanov, starring Ethan Hawke, Joely Richardson and Juliet Rylance; the highly-acclaimed, sold-out production of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Passion, starring Melissa Errico, Judy Kuhn and Ryan Silverman; Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle, starring Christopher Lloyd, with music by Duncan Sheik; Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream with Bebe Neuwirth; Brecht's Galileo with F. Murray Abraham; Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard with Dianne Wiest and John Turturro; Chekhov's Three Sisters with Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jessica Hecht, Juliet Rylance and Peter Sarsgaard; David Ives' The School for Lies with Hamish Linklater; Unnatural Acts conceived by Tony Speciale; Ostrovsky's The Forest with Dianne Wiest and John Douglas Thompson; David Ives' Venus in Fur with Nina Arianda (Broadway transfer 2011/2012, Tony Award nom. Best Play); Shakespeare's The Tempest with Mandy Patinkin; Chekhov's Uncle Vanya with Maggie Gyllenhaal, Denis O'Hare and Peter Sarsgaard; Anne Carson's An Oresteia; Chekhov's The Seagull with Dianne Wiest and Alan Cumming; David Ives' New Jerusalem with Richard Easton; Richard III, Richard II and Hamlet with Michael Cumpsty; Yasmina Reza's A Spanish Play with Zoe Caldwell; Steve Martin's adaptation of The Underpants; Philip Glass's In the Penal Colony; Bill Irwin's adaptation of Texts for Nothing; Waiting for Godot with John Turturro, Tony Shalhoub and Christopher Lloyd; Entertaining Mr. Sloane with Brian Murray; Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party with David Strathairn and Faust Parts I and II.

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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