Jeff McCarthy Stars as Famed Civil Rights Pioneer in KUNSTLER, Starting Tonight at 59E59 Theaters

59E59 Theaters welcomes The Creative Place International in Association with AND Theatre Company with KUNSTLER by Jeffrey Sweet, directed by Meagen Fay. KUNSTLER begins performances tonight, February 17, for a limited engagement through Sunday, March 12. Press opening is Thursday, February 23 at 7:15 PM.

Tensions rise when famed attorney William Kunstler arrives on a college campus to give a seminar but the brilliant young law student assigned to introduce him objects to his appearance. Has Kunstler finally met his match?

An American Civil Rights pioneer and attorney so famous he played himself on "Law & Order," William Kunstler's career defending "social outcasts" was as colorful as The Man himself.

Director of the ACLU from 1964 - 1972, he gained prominence serving as defense attorney for the Freedom Riders and the Chicago Seven as well as members of the Black Panther Party, Attica Prison rioters, the American Indian Movement, and Weather Underground. As an attorney in private practice in NYC, he continued to court headlines with controversial clients, from defending Omar Abdel-Rahman for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing to notorious mafia figures like John Gotti.

Jeff McCarthy (Southern Comfort at The Public Theater) stars as the title character in this fictionalized account. Joining him onstage is Steppenwolf Theatre Company regular Nambi E. Kelley as the whip-smart student who opposes him.

The performance schedule is Tuesday - Thursday at 7:15 PM; Friday at 8:15 PM; Saturday at 2:15 PM & 8:15 PM; and Sunday at 3:15 and 7:15 PM. Please note: there are no Sunday evening performances on February 26 or March 12. Performances are at 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street, between Park and Madison Avenues). Tickets are $35 ($24.50 for 59E59 Members). To purchase tickets, call Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200 or go to www.59e59.org.

Jeffrey Sweet's (playwright) plays - including The Value of Names, The Action Against Sol Schumann, Bluff, Flyovers, American Enterprise, and Court-Martial at Fort Devens -- have been presented in Chicago, New York and around the country. Awards include prizes from the American Theatre Critics Association, the Jeff Award, the Audelco Award, and an Outer Critics Circle Award. Books include Something Wonderful Right Away (about Second City), The O'Neill (about the O'Neill Center), The Dramatist's Toolkit and What Playwrights Talk About When They Talk About Writing. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild and EST and is an alum of New Dramatists

Meagen Fay (director) is a multiple Jeff Award-winning Best Actress (Chicago's The Second City), as well as A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (Court Theater), who has appeared on and off Broadway, and been a regular on countless TV series, and films. Meagen can currently be seen as regular, and recurring regular on "Transparent" (Amazon), "Good Girls Revolt" (Amazon), and "Shrink" (Seeso). Meagen is an LA Critics Award winning director of Private Stories Public Schools, and Future Boyfriend (Los Angeles SCi-Fest.) Meagen first directed KUNSTLER for the New York Fringe Festival in 2014.

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