James Inverne's A WALK WITH MR. HEIFETZ to Premiere at Primary Stages

Primary Stages announced today that the world premiere of A WALK WITH MR. HEIFETZ, written by James Inverne (Wrestling with Elephants) and directed by Benjamin Kamine (Washer/Dryer), will now play on the Primary Stages Mainstage in January of 2018 at the Cherry Lane Theatre (38 Commerce St, New York, NY, 10014).

A WALK WITH MR. HEIFETZ will occupy the Mainstage slot previously held for a collaboration with The Sol Project, which will be postponed to allow for further development.

Based on true events, A WALK WITH MR. HEIFETZ is a World Premiere play by award-winning former Gramophone and Time Magazine journalist James Inverne. In 1925, an unforgettable event occurred when Jascha Heifetz, the most celebrated violinist in the world, played a concert in pre-Israel Palestine. People flocked from all over the globe to see this performance, including Yehuda Sharett, composer and brother of future Israeli Prime Minister Moshe Sharett. Legend has it that after the performance, Heifetz and Yehuda walked together and shared a remarkable conversation that resonated twenty years later when, in 1945, Moshe echoed Heifetz's footsteps and navigated a similar exchange with his brother. In this inspiring new play, discussions about music resonate with the harmonies and discords of a new state struggling into being, all while reminding us of dreams that still sing today and refuse to be quieted.

Subscriptions for the Primary Stages 2017/18 Season are on sale now for $180. Subscriptions include tickets to all four mainstage productions. All subscription packages can be purchased by visiting PrimaryStages.org or by calling OvationTix at 212-352-3101. Single tickets for all productions will go on sale at a later date.

Primary Stages 2017/18 season will begin with THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens AND COUNT Leo Tolstoy: DISCORD, written by Scott Carter ("Real Time with Bill Maher") and directed by Kimberly Senior (Disgraced). PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, adapted by and featuring Kate Hamill (Bedlam's Sense and Sensibility) in a co-production with Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival will follow in November-December 2017. The season will conclude with FEEDING THE DRAGON, written and performed by Sharon Washington (While I Yet Live) and directed by Maria Mileaf (A Body of Water). Presented in a co-production with Hartford Stage, FEEDING THE DRAGON will run March-April 2018.

Primary Stages is an Off-Broadway not-for-profit theater company dedicated to inspiring, supporting, and sharing the art of playwriting. We operate on the strongly held belief that the future of American theater relies on nurturing playwrights and giving them the artistic support needed to create new work. Since our founding in 1984, we have produced more than 125 new plays, including Donald Margulies' The Model Apartment (1995 premiere and 2013 revival); David Ives' Lives of the Saints and All in the Timing (original 1993 production and 2013 revival); Billy Porter's While I Yet Live; Kate Fodor's Rx; Charles Busch's The Tribute Artist and Olive and the Bitter Herbs; A.R. Gurney's Black Tie; Horton Foote's Harrison, TX and Dividing the Estate (Two 2009 Tony Award nominations); Theresa Rebeck's Poor Behavior; Deborah Zoe Laufer's Informed Consent; Terrence McNally's Dedication or the Stuff of Dreams and The Stendhal Syndrome; Danai Gurira and Nikkole Salter's In the Continuum (which went on to tour the U.S., Africa, and Scotland); and Conor McPherson's St. Nicholas (which marked the playwright's U.S. debut). Our productions and artists have received critical acclaim, including Tony, Obie, Lortel, AUDELCO, Outer Critics' Circle, Drama League, and Drama Desk awards and nominations. Primary Stages supports playwrights and develops new works through commissions, workshops, readings, and our education and training programs: The Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group, the Marvin and Anne Einhorn School of Performing Arts (ESPA), the Fordham/Primary Stages MFA in Playwriting, and the newly launched Primary Stages Off-Broadway Oral History Project. Through these programs, Primary Stages advocates for our artists, helping them make important-and often transformative- connections within the theater community.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

JAMES INVERNE (Playwright). As an award-winning journalist, British-born James Inverne was the Editor of Gramophone magazine, Performing Arts Correspondent for Time Magazine and an arts feature writer for the Wall Street Journal. Other publications for which he has regularly written include the Sunday Telegraph, Financial Times and Mail On Sunday, and he was an arts commentator for CNN. He is the author of five books on the arts, including the biography of Oscar-winning lyricist Don Black. James is perhaps best-known for exposing the sensational and widely-reported Joyce Hatto classical piano fraud and in fact, he himself appeared as a character in Victoria Wood's BBC Television drama on that subject. A Walk With Mr. Heifetz is his first full-length play, though he previously has had success in London and elsewhere with the concert drama Lorca's Songs.

Benjamin Kamine (Director) is a Manhattan-based stage director with a focus on new work. Recent credits include world premieres of Carlyle by Thomas Bradshaw (Goodman Theatre), Nibbler by Ken Urban (The Amoralists at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater), A Comedy of Manors by Zoe Samuel (Adirondack Theatre Festival), a cautionary tail by Christopher Oscar Pena (Flea Theater), and the New York premiere of Washer/Dryer by Nandita Shenoy (Ma-Yi Theatre Company). Kamine is an Associate Artist at The Flea Theater and the Resident Director at the Jewish Plays Project. He has developed work with Ars Nova, Berkeley Rep, Cape Cod Theatre Project, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Jewish Book Week, the Lark, New York Theatre Workshop, PlayPenn, Playwrights Realm, and Primary Stages among others. Academic directing includes Brooklyn College, University of the Arts, and NYU Tisch, where he is an adjunct professor. He has been a member of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, The Civilians R&D Group, the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, and the LABA Fellowship. Member: SDC.

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