Keen Company Announces Thursday Talks for Paddy Chayefsky's Middle Of The Night

The Drama Desk and Obie Award-winning Keen Company's revival of Middle Of The Night by Academy Award winner Paddy Chayefsky, starring Tony and Drama Desk Nominee Jonathan Hadary (Gypsy, Awake & Sing, Gemini, As Is) along with Todd Bartels (Bingo With the Indians, Church), Amelia Campbell (Our Country's Good [Tony nomination], A Streetcar Named Desire, Waiting in the Wings, The Herbal Bed), Alyssa May Gold (Arcadia, Keen's Lemon Sky), Nicole Lowrance (Peter and the Starcatchers, Dividing the Estate), Denise Lute (Harry Outside, Bug), and Melissa Miller (Merchant Of Venice with F. Murray Abraham, Keen's I Never Sang for My Father), directed by Keen Artistic Director Jonathan Silverstein, will have Talkbacks following performances on Thursday evenings. Scheduled are:

Thursday, March 6 - New York Times Culture Reporter Dave Itzkoff discusses Paddy Chayefsky and his new book Mad as Hell: the Making of Network and the Angriest Man in Movies.

Thursday, March 13 - Meet the Cast, moderated by Artistic Director Jonathan Silverstein.

Thursday, March 20 - Ron Simon, curator at The Paley Center and scholar on Chayefsky and the "Golden age" of TV Ron Simon, curator at The Paley Center for Media and an adjunct associate professor at Columbia University, New York University, and Hunter College, where he teaches courses on the history of media, discussed Chayefsky and the Golden Age of TV Drama

.

Thursday, March 27 - guest TBA.

From three-time Academy Award-winning screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky (Network, Marty and The Hospital) comes Middle Of The Night, a comedy about a May-December romance in 1950's New York City. When an older Jewish widower and a young gentile bride of another man meet and fall in love, their relationship throws their disapproving families into a tizzy. This long lost gem from "the poet laureate of the romantically underprivileged" (Theatre Arts) explores "average people...fumbling for the comfort of sheer companionship." (The New York Times).

"Mr. Chayefsky's breadth and depth of work has always intrigued me and I am honored to reintroduce his work to New York audiences. Middle Of The Night is a forgotten gem that Keen Company specializes in and centers on a subject I am deeply passionate about, namely outsiders who struggle against the status quo. I am thrilled to present this large cast play in a pared down fashion, utilizing a versatile ensemble of seven, many of whom will be playing multiple roles," said Silverstein.

Sidney "Paddy" Chayefsky, born January 29, 1923, in Bronx, New York, was one of the most renowned dramatists to emerge from the "golden age" of American television. His most famous play was Marty, the story of a fat, unhappy butcher. First done on television, it became a movie and won Chayefsky an Academy Award in 1955. His second Academy Award came in 1971 for The Hospital and his last in 1976 for the screenplay of Network, a grim satire on the high-pressure world of New York City television. Chayefsky began his television career writing episodes for "Danger" and "Manhunt" in the early 1950s and subsequently went on to write episodes for "Goodyear Playhouse" and "Philco Television Playhouse." His television plays include Holiday Song (1952), The Reluctant Citizen (1952), Printer's Measure (1953), Marty (1953), The Big Deal (1953), The Bachelor Party (1953), The Sixth Year (1953), Catch My Boy On Sunday (1953), The Mother (1954), Middle of the Night (1954), The Catered Affair (1955), and The Great American Hoax (1956). His films include The True Glory (1945, uncredited, with Garson Kanin); As Young As You Feel (1951); Marty (1955, adapted from his teleplay; Oscar for Best Screenplay and Best Picture); "The Catered Affair" (1956); "The Bachelor Party" (1957); "The Goddess" (1958); "Middle of the Night" (1959); "Paint Your Wagon" (1969); "The Hospital" (1971); "Network" (1976), and "Altered States" (1980). For the stage he wrote No T.O. For Love (1944); Fifth From Garibaldi (1944); Middle Of The Night (1956); The Tenth Man (Tony Nomination - Best Play, 1959); Gideon (Tony Nomination - Best Play, 1961); The Passion Of Josef D. (1964, Also Director); And The Latent Heterosexual (1967). He passed away August 1, 1981.

All performances will be at The Clurman Theatre at Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street, between 9th and 10th Avenues) and will be Tuesday through Thursday evenings at 7pm; Fridays at 8pm; Saturdays at 2pm & 8pm; and Sunday matinees at 3pm.Tickets are $61.25 (plus a $1.25 Restoration Fee). To purchase tickets visit Telecharge.com or call 212/239-6200.

For more information, visit www.keencompany.org

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