Josh Collins Stars in New York Premiere of 9 CIRCLES, Beginning Tonight at The Sheen Center

The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture welcomes British actor Josh Collins, making his North American stage debut as Daniel Reeves in the New York Premiere of Bill Cain's compelling and visceral thriller 9 CIRCLES this month.

Collins - whose London credits include The Great Divide at Finborough Theatre and Richard III at The Almeida Theatre with Ralph Fiennes and Vanessa Redgrave - stars alongside Ryman Sneed (Skylight, The City of Conversation), David St. Louis (Side Show, Harlem Song) and Aaron Roman Weiner ("The Americans", Fool For Love) in the acclaimed play.

9 CIRCLES will be directed by Kent Nicholson (Long Story Short, Satellites). Previews begin tonight, February 21, 2017 with an Opening Night of Sunday, February 26, 2017. The strictly limited four-week engagement will play through Sunday, March 19.

Inspired by a true story and based on the nine circles of hell in Dante's Inferno, the play centers on Daniel Reeves, who is arrested and prosecuted for acts that he may have committed while serving in the U.S. Army during the Iraq War. Thrown into a labyrinth of military bureaucracy, the confused and troubled teenager tries to navigate through layers of commanding officers, public defenders, pastors, army psychiatrists and, essentially, his own personal hell. This is the New York premiere of the play following several critically-acclaimed regional productions.

Completing the creative team are Set & Costume Designer Lex Liang (The Mountaintop & The Crucible at Cleveland Playhouse; Blues for an Alabama Sky at ALLIANCE THEATRE), Lighting Designer Kirk Bookman (Bedbound for Irish Repertory Company, Recent Tragic Events for Playwrights Horizons), and Sound Designer Victoria Deiorio (A Christmas Carol at Theatre at St. Clements, Queens for a Year at Hartford Stage).

9 Circles is presented as part of a special Black Box theatre series at The Sheen Center this season, titled "War is Hell," focusing on plays that center around the theme of war. Other presentations in this series include Frog & Peach Theatre Company's version of Macbeth from Jan 19-Feb 12; A gripping WWII drama Luft Gangster directed by Austin Pendelton from Mar 31-Apr 23; a production of Hamlet set in WWI Iraq, starring Tony nominee Arian Moayed (Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo) from May 5- June 3; and Death Comes for the War Poets, a play by Joseph Pearce centered around the great WWI poets Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, presented by Blackfriars Repertory Theatre, from Jun 9-24.

Tickets for 9 Circles are now on sale via bit.ly/2ikq7Pq or by calling Ovation tix (866) 811-4111. The regular performance schedule is as follows: Wednesday - Friday at 8:00pm, Saturday 2:00pm & 8:00pm, and Sunday at 2:00pm. A Tuesday performance on February 21 has been added at 8:00pm. Visit www.sheencenter.org for more information.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

JOSH COLLINS (Private Edward Reeves), Off Broadway debut. U.K/West End stage credits: Richard III, The Great Divide, Bully Boy. Film: Our Shinning Sword, Loulou. BBC: "Against the Law," "Doctors." Graduate of RADA. Further training in NY includes, 'Upright Citizen Brigade', 'Actors Conservatory', 'William Esper Studios' and 'Michael Howard studios'. @Joshuawdcollins

Ryman Sneed (Various roles) Broadway: Skylight (Understudy Kyra Hollis). Off-Broadway: City of Conservation (Lincoln Center Theater) and None of the Above (Lion Theater). Regional: Othello (Shakespeare Theater Company), Death of a Salesman, The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Amadeus, Much Ado About Nothing, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, The Madness of George III, and The Winter's Tale (Old Globe). Training: MFA, University of San Diego/Old Globe.

David St. Louis (Various roles) Broadway: Side Show, Harlem Song, Rent, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Scarlet Pimpernel. Regional: Side Show (Kennedy Center/La Jolla Playhouse), The Royale (Kirk Douglas Theatre), Intimate Apparel (Pasadena Playhouse), Thunder Knocking at the Door (Cincinnati Playhouse), Ruined (Geffen Playhouse/Intiman Theatre), Parade (Mark Taper Forum), Ragtime (PCPA Theatre), Porgy and Bess (Zach Scott Theatre). Awards: Ovation Award, Helen Hayes Award, 2012 Lunt-Fontanne Fellow.

Aaron Roman Weiner (Various roles) Broadway: Fool For Love. Select theatre: The Insurgents, Radiance and Thinner Than Water (Labyrinth); Goodbye Cruel World (Roundtable Ensemble); Two Thirds Home (Broken Watch); Rounding Third (Hanger Theatre); A Steady Rain (TheaterWorks, Hartford). Select Chicago theatre: The Glass Menagerie (Steppenwolf Garage), Touch (Jeff Award nomination), Pyretown. Television: recurring roles on "The Americans," "Crisis" and "Made in Jersey." Other TV include "The Following" and "Person of Interest." Films include Side Effects, Public Enemies, The Express, and Osso Bucco. Member of LAByrinth Theater Company.

Bill Cain (Playwright) Bill Cain is the author of Equivocation (Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Seattle Rep, Arena Stage, Geffen Playhouse, Marin Theater, Manhattan Theater Club, Victory Gardens); 9 Circles (Marin Theatre, Bootleg, Publick Theatre, Renegade Theatre, Forum Theatre); How to Write a New Book for the Bible (Berkeley Rep, Seattle Rep, South Coast). Stand-Up Tragedy (Mark Taper Forum- six LA Critics Awards, Arena Stage- three Helen Hayes Awards, Hartford Stage and ultimately Broadway- Joe A. Calloway Award). He received the 2009 and 2010 Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award. He has spent five summers at the Ojai Playwrights Conference developing his plays. For television he was the creator/writer/producer of the ABC series "Nothing Sacred." The show received a WGA award for its first episode and the George Foster Peabody Award for Outstanding Achievement in Television. He is the writer of many films for television including Thicker Than Blood (an adaptation of Stand-Up Tragedy), Clover (Christopher Award for Artistic Excellence), Sounder (two NAACP nominations) and Nightjohn (citation for excellence from the National Society of Film Critics). He was the founder and Artistic Director of Boston Shakespeare which he ran for seven years, directing most of Shakespeare's canon.

Kent Nicholson (Director) New York credits include: Long Story Short at Prospect Theater, Five Flights (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater), Wet (Summer Play Festival), and Marry Harry (NYMF, American Theater Group). Regional: Amadeus (South Coast Repertory), Light in the Piazza (South Coast Repertory), How to Write a New Book for the Bible (South Coast Repertory, Berkeley Repertory, Seattle Repertory), Cubamor (Village Theatre), Lizzie (Theater Under the Stars, Village Theater), Grey Gardens, Vincent in Brixton, Ambition Facing West, and All My Sons (TheatreWorks), Saint Ex (Weston Playhouse), 9 Circles, The Good German, and Jacques Brel (Marin Theater Company), Small Tragedy and Satellites (Aurora Theater Company). He created the New Works Initiative at TheatreWorks in Palo Alto and The Uncharted Writers Group at Ars Nova. He currently serves as the Director of Musical Theater at Playwrights Horizons.

SHEEN CENTER Named after the late Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, best known for his popular radio and TV ministry in the 1950s and 60s, The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture is a project of the Archdiocese of New York with the mission of showcasing works in the performing and visual arts, lectures and symposia that highlight the true, the good, and the beautiful as they have been expressed throughout the ages. The state-of-the-art complex has a 270-seat proscenium theater equipped with five-camera high-definition livestream capability and a multi-track recording studio with thirty-two onstage inputs; an 80-seat black box theater; four rehearsal studios; and an art gallery. This facility is the newest arts center in Manhattan in 35 years and a great addition to the growing artistic community in the East Village/NoHo.

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