Keen Company (Artistic Director Carl Forsman, Producer Wayne Kelton) will kick off its 2008-2009 season with a revival of the 1952 Tony Award-winning comedy The Fourposter by Jan De Hartog, directed by Blake Lawrence. Starring Todd Weeks and Jessica Dickey, this production will begin performances on Tuesday, October 7 at The Clurman Theatre / Theatre Row, 410 West 42nd Street, between 9th and 10th Avenues. Opening night is scheduled for Sunday, October 19. The Fourposter will run through November 22.
The Fourposter follows thirty-five years of Michael and Agnes’s marriage, from their wedding night in 1890 through the universal highs and lows of adulation, consummation, infatuation, tribulation and reparation. Having presented three of the last 20 Drama Desk nominees for Best Revival of a Play, Keen Company is thrilled to launch into its 9th season with this Tony Award-winner.
Jan De Hartog grew up in a Dutch seaside village–a cabin boy at ten, then a sailor, war correspondent, and, during World War II, a secret courier for the British Royal Navy. In 1940, ten days before Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands, de Hartog published a novel, Holland’s Glorie, which became for the Dutch a symbol of their resistance to the occupation. Forced to flee Holland because he had rescued the babies of Jews deported to Auschwitz, de Hartog escaped to London and eventually came to live in the United States, where he wrote twenty-one more novels, including The Peaceable Kingdom, and the play, The Fourposter. De Hartog died in 2002 at the age of eighty-eight.
Blake Lawrence (Director) is the Associate Artistic Director at Keen Company and the program director of the Keen Teens education program. Previously at Keen she directed Children of a Lesser God and has commissioned 6 new plays for high school students and directed two world premieres by Naomi Iizuka and
Winter Miller. Prior to joining Keen Company she was the Founding Artistic Director of The Themantics Group where she directed Pirandello's Naked and the New York Premieres of Allison Moore's Hazard County and
Brad Fraser's Snake in Fridge. Blake's freelance directing credits include over two dozen new plays as well as published works including The Misanthrope and Angel Street. She is a member of the Lincoln Center Director's Lab and has been on the faculty at AMDA, NYU and One on One Studios. Blake is a graduate of
Northwestern University.
Jessica Dickey’s New York credits include productions with Manhattan Theatre Club, HERE, Origin Theatre Company and AndHow!, and TV’s “The Education of Max Bickford.” Jessica is a Founding Member of The Fire Dept.
Todd Weeks most recently appeared in Some Americans Abroad at Second Stage. Broadway credits include The Full Monty (original cast), The Last Night of Ballyhoo, Summer and Smoke and Our Town. As a member of the Atlantic Theater Company, he was seen in the New York premieres of Scarcity, The Voysey Inheritance, Sea of Tranquility, Romance, The Cider House Rules and Distant Fires, among many others. Film credits include The Deal (Sundance '08), The Lonely Maiden ('08 release), Love Thy Brother (Sundance, Aspen Comedy, HBO).
The scenic design for The Fourposter is by
Sandra Goldmark; costume design is by
Theresa Squire; lighting design is by
Josh Bradford; sound design is by
Jill BC DuBoff.
Keen Company produces sincere plays with the belief that theater is at its most powerful when texts and productions are generous in spirit and provoke identification. Inspired by the works of early 20th Century American playwrights, Keen Company demonstrates that an earnest intent can still be sophisticated and is unafraid of emotional candor, vulnerability, and optimism. Keen Company seeks to create a culture of artists, technicians, administrators and audiences who share a desire to invigorate the theater with productions that connect audiences through humor, heart and hope.
The Fourposter, presented by Keen Company, plays the following schedule at The Clurman Theatre / Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street, between 9th and 10th Avenues): Tuesday at 7pm, Wednesday through Friday at 8pm, Saturday at 8pm, and Sunday at 3pm. Please note: the performance on Sunday, October 19 will be at 7pm (not 3pm); there will be an additional performance on Saturday, November 22 @ 2pm; and there will be no performance on Sunday, November 23. The Fourposter runs through November 22. Tickets are $41.25 and can be purchased through TicketCentral.com or by phoning (212) 279-4200. For more information about please visit
www.KeenCompany.org.
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