MTC's BY THE WATER Opens Tonight Off-Broadway

By The Water, the new play by Sharyn Rothstein, directed by Hal Brooks, officially opens tonight, November 18 as part of The Studio at Stage II - Harold and Mimi Steinberg New Play Series at New York City Center - Stage II (131 West 55th Street). The limited engagement began performances on November 4.

By The Water is produced by Manhattan Theatre Club (Lynne Meadow, Artistic Director; Barry Grove, Executive Producer), in association with Ars Nova (Jason Eagan, Artistic Director; Renee Blinkwolt, Managing Director).

The cast features Cassie Beck (The Whale, The Drunken City) as Emily Mancini, Quincy Dunn-Baker (The Wayside Motor Inn, Trust) as Sal Murphy, Charlotte Maier (Act One, The Last Yankee at MTC) as Andrea Carter, Deirdre O'Connell (Circle Mirror Transformation, In The Wake) as Mary Murphy, Tom Pelphrey (End of the Rainbow, Cinemax's "Banshee") as Brian Murphy, Ethan Phillips (All The Way, Taking Care of Baby at MTC) as Philip Carter, and Vyto Ruginis (The Real Thing, One of the Guys) as Marty Murphy.

MTC's The Studio at Stage II, in association with Ars Nova, presents Sharyn Rothstein's By the Water, the first world premiere production to come out of their unique partnership.

Hurricane Sandy has just ravaged the lifelong home of Marty and Mary Murphy (Vyto Ruginis, Deirdre O'Connell). But the storm has ripped apart more than just the walls: with their neighbors too devastated to stay, the couple's beloved Staten Island community is in danger of disappearing forever. Determined to rebuild, Marty wages a campaign to save his neighborhood and his home, but when the Murphys' sons (Quincy Dunn-Baker, Tom Pelphrey) arrive to help their parents dig out, past betrayals come rushing to the surface.

With fierce compassion and poignant humor, By the Water reminds us that the very powers that tear us apart can also bring us together.

The creative team for By the Water includes Wilson Chin (scenic design), Jessica Pabst (costume design), Tyler Micoleau (lighting design), Ryan Rumery (original music & sound design), and Ben Furey (dialect coach).

By The Water was commissioned by The Writer's Room (Manhattan Theatre Club, Ars Nova). The Writer's Room is a partnership between Manhattan Theatre Club and Ars Nova, designed to commission, develop and support playwrights in the process of creating new work for the stage. Drawing on each organization's strengths and areas of expertise, the program is a unique, collaborative, developmental process for advancing new works from commission through production. MTC and Ars Nova jointly select playwrights or writing teams to receive Writer's Room commissions, with commissioned writers participating in a program designed to offer extensive developmental support. The Writer's Room encourages artistic risk taking in an environment that is both supportive and sustaining. Commissioned writers for The Writer's Room include Adam Bock and Justin Levine collaborating on the creation of a new musical; Rachel Bonds; Thomas Bradshaw; Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig; Jackie Sibblies Drury; Samuel D. Hunter; and the band of actors, musicians, and storytellers known as PigPen Theatre Co. The Studio at Stage II has been partially underwritten with a major grant from The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust.

Photo by Joan Marcus.