HONEY BROWN EYES Set For Off-B'way Run Starting 1/9

Honey Brown EYES by Stefanie Zadravec - winner of the Helen Hayes Award for Best New Play in 2009 at Theater J in Washington, DC - will be given its New York premiere by Off-Broadway's Working Theater, with previews beginning January 9 prior to an official opening night January 16 at the Clurman Theatre (410 W. 42 St.) on Theater Row in Manhattan, it has been announced by Mark Plesent, Working Theater's Producing Artistic Director.

Erica Schmidt - whose numerous credits include directing the musical "The Burnt Part Boys" at the Vineyard Theatre and New York Stage and Film, as well as Lorenzo Pisoni's multiple award-winning "Humor Abuse" at Manhattan Theatre Club - will direct Honey Brown EYES.

The six-member cast of Honey Brown EYES features Edoardo Ballerini (Corky Corporale on "The Sopranos," "Dinner Rush," "Romeo Must Die," "Boardwalk Empire"), Daniel Sauli ("You Belong to Me," "United 93"), Sue Cremin ("Killing the Boss"), Gene Gillette ("Lieutenant of Inishmore"), Beatrice Miller (Ridley Scott's "Tell Tale," "Toy Story 3"), and Marcia Haufrecht ("Dog Day Afternoon").

Honey Brown EYES kicks off the 26th season of the Working Theater - dedicated to developing and producing plays Off-Broadway for and about working people. Past productions - earning numerous Drama Desk Award nominations and one Drama Desk Award, along with three Audelco Awards - include EXIT CUCKOO by Lisa Ramirez and directed by Colman Domingo, the award-winning TABLETOP, KING OF SHADOWS and HOLD PLEASE.

Honey Brown EYES is Ms. Zadravec's play about how the lives of two friends - both members of a rock and roll band when they were young - are intertwined anew as they find themselves on opposite sides of the war in Bosnia, one a militiaman, the other a Muslim resister. With the lives of loved ones at stake, Honey Brown EYES -- set in two kitchens during the notorious 20th-century conflict in the former Yugoslavia -- depicts not only the day-to-day toll war takes on families and communities, but the far-reaching effect of American pop culture on people half a world away.

In addition to Honey Brown EYES - which has been published by "American Theatre" magazine - Ms. Zadravec's other plays include the Baltimore Playwrights Festival Award-winning SAVE ME, along with THE FEAR PROJECT (The Barrow Group) and 167 TONGUES (Theater 167). She is a Dramatists Guild Fellow, a member of the Women's Project Lab and has been awrded a Playwrights Realm Fellowship for 2010-11.

Honey Brown EYES has set design by Laura Jellinek, lighting design by Jeff Croiter, sound design by Bart Fasbender, and costume design by Emily Rebholz.

About WORKING THEATER
Founded in 1985, the Working Theater's mission is to produce plays for and about working people. Working Theater believes that theater should not be a privilege or a luxury, but a staple, striving to make play-going a regular part of the cultural activities of working people who may not be able to afford commercial theater or who feel that it does not resonate with their lives and experience. Toward that goal, the company offers stories that reflect a diverse population of the working majority, acknowledging their complexity and often-denied power in an increasingly complex world. By creating theater of interest to working people and by bringing this constituency to its productions, Working Theater aims to change the composition of New York's theater audience to reflect a full range of socio-economic diversity.. In a nation that is frequently divided by cultural and class distinctions and where economic disparity continues to widen, Working Theater is committed to making theater that can bridge those divisions, expanding the reach of theater's impact to all people, uniting us in our common humanity. Over the years The Working Theater has commissioned and produced more than 70 world premieres of culturally diverse new plays.

Scheduled through February 6, Honey Brown EYES will perform Tuesdays at 7 pm, Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8 pm, with matinees Saturdays at 2 pm and Sundays at 3 pm. Tickets are $25 - in keeping with Working Theater's policy of keeping Off-Broadway admissions more affordable for working class people and their families. Reservations can be made by calling Tele-charge at 212 239 6200 or online at www.telecharge.com

Working Theater has also scheduled two "pay what you can" matinees at 2 p.m. on Saturdays January 15 and 22. Tickets are available day of performance, subject to availability, at the Theatre Row box office, open daily noon to 8 p.m. at 410 W. 42 St.

 

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