Keen Co Continues 10th Anniversary Season with BENEFACTORS, 3/22-4/30

The Drama Desk and Obie Award-winning Keen Company (Carl Forsman, Artistic Director/Wayne Kelton, Executive Director) today announced the cast for the 25th Anniversary production of Benefactors. Carl Forsman will direct a cast that includes Vivienne Benesch (appeared opposite Maggie Smith in the London revival of Edward Albee's The Lady from Dubuque; OBIE winner for Lee Blessing's Going to St. Ives), Daniel Jenkins (Love Child, Mary Poppins, Tony nominee for Big River), Deanne Lorette (La Bete), and Stephen Barker Turner (Rinne Groff's Compulsion opposite Mandy Patinkin).

Performances for this limited Off-Broadway engagement of Benefactors at The Clurman Theatre at Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street), will begin March 22nd and continue through April 30th only, with opening night set for April 5th (7pm). Design team includes Josh Bradford (lighting), Dane Laffrey (set), Jennifer Paar (costume) and Will Pickens (sound).

Benefactors is a poignant look at marriage and friendship, about an architect charged with building a major development and the project's impact on his family and friends. Frank Rich in The New York Times called Benefactors "Dazzling!"

"I was thrilled that there was such a large audience for Alphabetical Order this spring - I never expected an unknown thirty-five year old play to be the biggest hit in Keen Company's history, but it was, and I believe it ran so strongly because it had such a big heart and enormous generosity about the struggling folks it depicted. Benefactors is an altogether more serious play; a deeper, more nuanced picture of humanity. But it shares with Alphabetical Order Frayn's benevolent view that people really do try, in their own, flawed ways, to do the best they can by their fellows. Mr. Frayn has commented to me that he believes it is his best work, and I look forward to tackling it with these wonderful actors," said Forsman.

Michael Frayn was born in 1933, in the suburbs of London. He began his career as a reporter on The Guardian, then became a columnist on that paper from 1959 to 1962, and for The Observer from 1962 to 1968. He has published ten novels - Spies, Headlong, Tin Men, The Russian Interpreter, Towards the End of Morning, A Very Private Life, Sweet Dreams, The Trick of It, A Landing on the Sun, and Now You Know, together with two philosophical works, Constructions and The Human Touch. He has written a number of plays for television and for the stage including The Two of Us, Alphabetical Order, Donkeys' Years, Clouds, Balmoral (Liberty Hall), Make and Break, Noises Off, Benefactors, Look Look and Here. Alphabetical Order, Make and Break and Noises Off all received Best Comedy of the Year Awards, while Benefactors was named Best Play of the Year. He has translated four of Chekhov's full-length plays - The Cherry Orchard, Three Sisters, The Seagull and Uncle Vanya and adapted Chekhov's first, untitled play as Wild Honey. He has also translated four of his one-act plays - The Evils Of Tobacco, Swan Song, The Bear and The Proposal and adapted five short stories Drama, The Alien Corn, The Sneeze, The Inspector General, Swan Song and Plots for the stage. These, with the exception of Plots, were staged collectively as The Sneeze.

Carl Forsman (Director) is the founder and Artistic Director of Keen Company. Recent work includes Love Child at New World Stages and Primary Stages, A Few Good Men at the Asolo, Tina Howe's new translations of Ionesco's The Bald Soprano & The Lesson for the Atlantic Theater Company, and Sin by Michael Murphy for The New Group. He was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Best Director for his work on Keen Company's revival of The Voice of the Turtle, which transferred to an extended run Off-Broadway. His direction of the American premiere of Conor McPherson's The Good Thief earned an OBIE Award for star Brian d'Arcy James and Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations for Best Solo Performance. Other directions for Keen Company include Gerald Sibleyras' Heroes, John Belluso's Pyretown, Thronton Wilder's The Happy Journey, David Hay's The Maddening Truth, Michael Murphy's The Conscientious Objector, Beasley's Christmas Party, David Auburn's adaptation of The Journals of Mihail Sebastian, P.G. Wodehouse's Good Morning, Bill, Keith Reddin's Can't Let Go, Tina Howe's Museum, Gertrude Tonkonogy's Three-Cornered Moon, and S.N. Behrman's The Second Man. Other work in New York includes Courtney Baron's In the Widows' Garden and Eric Winick's Rearviewmirror (Reverie Productions), Keith Reddin's David and Bathseba (Chekhov Now Festival) and Julia Jordan's Paul Westerberg (Soho Rep Summercamp). He has also taught at NYU/Atlantic, FSU/Asolo, and SMU. He is a graduate of Middlebury College.

Performances will be at The Clurman Theatre at Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street, between 9th and 10th Avenues) and will be Tuesday evenings at 7pm; Wednesday through Friday evenings at 8pm; Saturdays at 2pm & 8pm; and Sunday matinees at 3pm.

Tickets will be $59.75and may be purchased by visiting Telecharge.com or calling 212/239-6200. For more information, visit www.keencompany.org.

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