Theresa Rebeck's WHAT WE'RE UP AGAINST Opens Tonight at WP Theater

WP Theater, by special arrangement with Segal NYC Productions, presents the Off-Broadway premiere of What We're Up Against, written by Pulitzer Prize nominee Theresa Rebeck (Mauritius, Seminar, NBC's "Smash"), directed by Adrienne Campbell-Holt (Dry Land, Empathitrax).

Emmy Award winner and Golden Globe Nominee Marg Helgenberger ("CSI", Erin Brockovich, Arena Stages' The Little Foxes) and Damian Young ("House of Cards", All My Sons, "The Comeback") will join the previously announced stars: Teen Choice Award winner Skylar Astin (Pitch Perfect, Spring Awakening), Jim Parrack ("True Blood", Of Mice and Men), and Krysta Rodriguez (Spring Awakening, "Trial & Error", "Quantico").

The four-week limited engagement began previews on Saturday, October 28, with an opening night set for tonight, November 8, and will run through Sunday, November 26 at WP Theater (2162 Broadway).

"Why is it still like this?" Janice sighs to Eliza. It's 1992, and Eliza is the brainy new recruit at a small-shop architecture firm. But she's struggling to get a foothold on even the lowest rung of the company ladder, and starts making moves to blow the lid off their Pandora's box of office politics and social maneuvering, in this sharply hilarious black comedy. Rebeck brings her trademark blistering wit to the workplace in this darkly funny and all-too-relevant comedy of gender politics.

Written by Rebeck in 1992, What We're Up Against premiered nearly 20 years later at the Magic Theater in San Francisco, where it was hailed "A juicy black comedy" by Variety. Since then, the play has had acclaimed regional productions where it's been called "a salty office comedy [that gives a] swift and merrily vicious kick in the pants," by The Washington Post and The Houston Chronicle stated "Theresa Rebeck totally and completely nails it...a biting, brilliant comedy!" This production marks the play's Off-Broadway debut.

The design team features scenic design by Drama Desk Award nominee Narelle Sissons (All My Sons - Broadway; How I Learned to Drive - original production), costume design by Lortel Award nominee Tilly Grimes (Small Mouth Sounds), lighting design by Grant Yeager (Now. Here. This) and sound design by Lortel Award winner M.L. Dogg (Oh, Hello on Broadway; Here Lies Love). Casting is by Kelly Gillespie, C.S.A.

What Was She Up Against? - WP & Segal NYC Productions will proudly add an additional performance on November 10 at 8PM aimed at mothers and daughters, which will include a special post-show talkback for all audience members.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Marg Helgenberger Emmy Award-winner and Golden Globe nominee Marg Helgenberger was last seen guest starring on the CBS series, "Under The Dome". In Fall 2016 she starred in the Arena Stage production of The Little Foxes in Washington DC. In Spring 2014 she was starring in the Barrington Theatre Company's production of The Other Place. Prior to that she costarred in the CBS drama series "Intelligence", also starring Josh Holloway. In 2013 she ended her twelfth season of "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" for which she has earned two Emmy nominations. Marg was seen starring alongside Kevin Costner in MGM's psychological thriller Mr. Brooks and costarred with Julia Roberts in the Universal hit drama, Erin Brockovich. Marg also starred as Patsy Ramsey in the highly rated CBS miniseries, "Perfect Murder, Perfect Town" based on the best-selling book about the unsolved murder of Jon Benet Ramsey. Helgenberger appeared in two original telepictures for Showtime. In the controversial "Thanks of A Grateful Nation", she played the sister of a man (Steven Weber) who suffers a terminal brain tumor after returning from the Gulf War. She then co-starred with Ann-Margret in the "Happy Face Murders" as a detective investigating a very unsettling and confusing case of murder.

Her breakout role as K.C. on "China Beach", won her an Emmy Award in 1990. In 1997, she guest starred on a four-episode arc on "ER" playing George Clooney's love interest. Her other television credits include "Murder Live" with David Morse and Teri Garr, Stephen King's highly-rated miniseries "The Tommyknockers", a Tom Hanks directed episode of Showtime's "Fallen Angels", and the Oscar nominated short film, Partners, directed by Peter Weller as well as The Gold Coast, starring opposite David Caruso.

On the feature film side, Helgenberger starred in Species, opposite Ben Kingsley, Michael Madsen and Forest Whitaker and in SPECIES II. Other film credits include, In Good Company, starring alongside Dennis Quaid and Scarlett Johansson, Fire Down Below with Steven Seagal, The Last Time I Committed Suicide with Keanu Reeves, My Fellow Americans with Jack Lemmon and James Garner, Cowboy Way with Woody Harrelson, Bad Boys with Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, Always with Holly Hunter and Richard Dreyfuss and Crooked Hearts with Peter Berg and Noah Wyle.

Damian Young Broadway: All My Sons, with Dianne Wiest and John Lithgow at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, Sacrilege with Ellen Burstyn at Belasco Theatre. Off Broadway: The Night Heron (Atlantic Theatre Company), The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (National Actors Theatre), Psych (Playwrights Horizons), Baby Anger (Playwrights Horizons), The Waiting Room (Vineyard Theatre), Nothing Sacred (Atlantic Theatre Company) and ten years with Cucaracha Theatre. Recent and upcoming films: Wonderstruck, A+, Catfight, We Only Know So Much, Birdman, Delivery Man, Druid Peak, Hairbrained, Sex and the City, Reunion, RSO, Everybody's Fine, The Good Heart, Edge of Darkness. Television: "Gotham" (FOX), "Mohammad Ali's Greatest Fight" (HBO Films), "The Comeback", "Comeback" (HBO), "The War Next Door" (USA), "Californication" (Showtime); recurring roles on "House of Cards" (Netflix), "The Good Wife" (CBS), "Neon Joe", "Werewolf Hunter" (Adult Swim), "Damages" (F/X), "The Adventures of Pete and Pete" (Nickelodeon), "Cosby", "CSI Miami" (CBS) and "Law & Order" (NBC).

Theresa Rebeck (Playwright) is a prolific writer with success spanning theater, television, film, and literature. She has been named one of the 150 Fearless Women in the World by Newsweek and The New York Times has referred to her as "one of her generation's major talents."

She is best known for her plays Seminar and Mauritius, which both premiered on Broadway, and her earlier works Spike Heels, Bad Dates and Omnium Gatherum (Pulitzer Finalist, co-written with Alex Gersten) and her TV show "Smash."

Additional theater credits include: Downstairs (Dorset Theatre Festival); Dead Accounts (Music Box Theatre); The Scene, The Water's Edge, Loose Knit, and The Family O. Mann (Second Stage); Seared (San Francisco Playhouse); The Nest (Denver Center for the Performing Arts); The Way of the World (Dorset Theatre Festival); Poor Behavior (Mark Taper Forum, Primary Stages); The Butterfly Collection and Our House (Playwrights Horizons); The Understudy (Roundabout Theatre Company); and View of the Dome (New York Theatre Workshop). Upcoming projects: Way of the World at the Folger Theatre. Theresa and composer Josh Schmidt are adapting the RKO film Dance, Girl, Dance as a stage musical, and she has created a stage adaptation of the fable Stone Soup with John Weidman. She is currently under commission by Roundabout Theater Company, La Jolla Playhouse and South Coast Rep.

Theresa adapted and directed the film version of Poor Behavior and directed her original screenplay for Trouble, starring Anjelica Huston and Bill Pullman, which premiered at the 2017 Seattle Film Festival. Other films include Harriet the Spy, Gossip, and the independent features Sunday on the Rocks and Seducing Charlie Barker, an adaptation of her play, The Scene. In addition to "Smash", Ms. Rebeck has writing and producing credits for television projects including "Dream On", "Brooklyn Bridge", "L.A. Law", "American Dreamer", "Maximum Bob", "First Wave", "Third Watch", "Canterbury's Law", "Smith", "Law and Order: Criminal Intent" and "NYPD Blue".

All of Ms. Rebeck's past produced plays are published B. Smith and Kraus as Theresa Rebeck: Complete Plays, Volumes I, II III, and IV and are available from Samuel French or Playscripts. Ms. Rebeck's other publications are Free Fire Zone, a book of comedic essays about writing and show business. She has written for American Theatre Magazine and has had excerpts of her plays published in the Harvard Review. Ms. Rebeck's first two novels, Three Girls and Their Brother and Twelve Rooms With A View, are published by Random House/Shaye Areheart Books in April 2008. Her most recent book, I'm Glad About You, was released to rave reviews at the top of 2016 and is published by Putnam.

Theresa has been honored to receive the National Theatre Conference Award, the William Inge New Voices Playwriting Award, PEN/Laura Pels Foundation Award, the Athena Film Festival Award, an Alex Award, a Lilly Award, an IRNE Award for Best New Play, an Eliot Norton Award, the Mystery Writer's of America's Edgar Award, the Writer's Guild of America award for Episodic Drama, the Hispanic Images Imagen Award, and the Peabody. Ms. Rebeck is originally from Cincinnati and holds an MFA in Playwriting and a PhD. in Victorian Melodrama, both from Brandeis University. She is a proud board member of PEN America and the Dramatists Guild, a Contributing Editor to the Harvard Review, an Associate Artist of the Roundabout Theatre Company, a Playwright Adviser and Board Member of the LARK, and has taught at Brandeis University and Columbia University. She is currently holds the Lyndall Finley Wortham Chair in the Performing Arts at University of Houston. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children.

Adrienne Campbell-Holt (Director) Adrienne is the Founding Artistic Director of Colt Coeur, a Brooklyn-based theatre company. Upcoming: The Big and the Small by Amelia Roper (Colt Coeur/NTYW) and Afterwords, a new musical by Zoe Sarnak and Emily Kaczmarek (Village Theater, Seattle). Adrienne has recently directed the world premieres of Downstairs by Theresa Rebeck starring Tyne Daly and Tim Daly (Dorset Theater Festival), Empathitrax by Ana Nogueria (Colt Coeur @ HERE, 2016), the world premiere of Cal in Camo by William Francis Hoffman (co-pro Rattlestick & Colt Coeur), a workshop production of Kings by Sarah Burgess starring Larry Pine and Quincy Tyler Bernstine (WP Theater, NYC), Dear Elizabeth by Sarah Ruhl (Dorset Theater Festival). Recent world premieres: Theresa Rebeck's The Nest (Denver Theatre Company), One Child Born (Oberon at American Repertory Theater), How to Live on Earth by MJ Kaufman (Colt Coeur @ HERE, September 2015), Chiara Atik's 52nd to Bowery (EST Marathon), Dry Land by Ruby Rae Spiegel (Colt Coeur @ HERE, NYC), Greg Moss' REUNION (South Coast Rep), Everything is Ours by Nikole Beckwith (Colt Coeur @ HERE), Recall by Eliza Clark (Colt Coeur @ Wild Project), Fish Eye (Colt Coeur @ HERE). Other productions: Red starring Tim Daly (Dorset Theater Festival), The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Yale), world premiere of Seven Minutes in Heaven by Steven Levenson (Emerging America Festival, Huntington Theatre Company and Colt Coeur @ HERE). Adrienne is a New Georges Affiliated Artist and an alum of the Time Warner/Women's Project Lab, Lincoln Center Directors Lab, and a Foeller Fellow (Williamstown). She has developed work with La Jolla Playhouse, Roundabout Theater Company, Playwrights Horizons, Clubbed Thumb, Playwrights' Center and EST. She is the Associate Director on the Broadway production of Dear Evan Hansen and the director of #makeitfair. Upcoming: Theresa Rebeck's The Basement at Dorset Theatre Festival and Jon Caren's A View of the Canyon at IAMA. BA Barnard College, Columbia University.

Skylar Astin originated the role of Georg in Tony and Grammy Award winning musical Spring Awakening. Astin was most recently onstage in Howard Ashman and Alan Menken's God Bless You Mr. Rosewater at Encores! Off-Center at New York City Center. Earlier last year he starred as Tony in Carnegie Hall's special production of West Side Story at the Knockdown Center. In film, Astin is best known for his break out role as Jesse in Universal's Pitch Perfect and sequel Pitch Perfect 2. Other film credits include: Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock, Sundance favorite Hamlet 2, Disney's award winning animated feature, Wreck-It Ralph, and starring opposite Miles Teller in 21 and Over. Astin will next appear in Eric Bress's Ghosts of War and the feature film Hot Air. He can currently be seen opposite Nick Nolte in the Epix TV series "Graves." Previous television credits include the lead in sitcom "Ground Floor", created by Bill Lawrence, and memorable roles on: HBO's "Girls", Fox's "House M.D", "Glee", and AMC's "Halt and Catch Fire."

Jim Parrack co-starred opposite Jared Leto in the hit Warner Bros feature Suicide Squad, reuniting him with director David Ayer for whom he co-starred in Columbia's award-winning feature Fury alongside Brad Pitt and Shia LeBeouf. Jim will next be seen in the independent feature films Tatterdemalion and Priceless. On stage, Jim received rave reviews as "Slim" alongside James Franco and Chris O'Dowd in the multi-award-nominated 2014 Broadway revival Of Mice and Men for director Anna D. Shapiro. Jim co-starred in the independent feature Wild Horses opposite Josh Hartnett and Robert Duvall (who also directed) and earlier co-starred opposite Duvall in the dramatic feature A Night in Old Mexico. Jim starred opposite James Franco (who also adapted and directed), Logan Marshall-Green and Tim Blake Nelson as "Cash" in As I Lay Dying, based on the novel by William Faulkner (2013 Cannes Film Festival). He was featured in the cult feature Child of God, also directed by James Franco, and costarred opposite Franco in Disney's Annapolis, directed by Justin Lin. Previously, Jim co-starred opposite Aaron Eckhart and Michael Pena in Sony Pictures' Battle of Los Angeles, directed by Jonathan Liebesman. Jim is probably best known for his award-winning turn as fan favorite "Hoyt Fortenberry" in HBO's hit series "True Blood." He also played the title character "Guy Hastings" in a memorable episode of the Fox series "Alcatraz" for J.J. Abrams/Bad Robot, starred in a season-long arc on ABC's "Resurrection" and was seen guest starring on the NBC series "Blacklist: Redemption."

Krysta Rodriguez was most recently seen on the small screen co-starring with John Lithgow on the NBC series "Trial & Error". On television, Rodriguez is best known from her scene-stealing turn on the second season of NBC's "Smash" as fan-favorite 'Ana Vargas'. Other television credits include recurring roles on "Quantico, "Chasing Life" and guest starring roles on "Younger," "The Mysteries of Laura," "Married," and "Gossip Girl". On Broadway Rodriguez played Ilse in the critically acclaimed revival of Spring Awakening and headlined the original Broadway cast of First Date opposite Zachary Levi. Her extensive Broadway credits include original companies of The Addams Family, In the Heights, Spring Awakening, A Chorus Line (Revival) and Good Vibrations

Segal NYC Productions Jenna Segal heads SegalNYC, which develops and produces theater, film and digital projects (Gatherer Entertainment) with a focus on the 35+ female audience. Ms. Segal was lead producer of the award winning musical GIGI (Kennedy Center, Broadway, Tony Awards). Other credits include: Les Liasons Dangereuses (Broadway); Small Mouth Sounds, What We're Up Against (Off Broadway); and Black Dynamite (Film). Jenna is the Executive Producer of the short "Out on a Limb," and the web series "Smart Cookin'," "Morning Meds," and "Hot Flash;" and Associate Producer on the web series "Lady Parts." Jenna has been featured in Variety, The Star Ledger, The Bergen Record, and The Wall Street Journal as a new producer to watch. Jenna has three children and lives with her husband in New York City.

WP THEATER (Formerly known as Women's Project Theater) is the nation's oldest and largest theater company dedicated to developing, producing and promoting the work of female-identified and trans theater artists at every stage in their careers. For nearly four decades we have served as leaders at the forefront of a global movement towards gender parity, and the example we set and the artists we have fostered have grown into to a robust and thriving community of female writers and directors in theater and beyond. WP empowers female-identified artists to reach their full potential and, in doing so, challenges preconceptions about the kinds of plays women write and the stories they tell. As the premier launching pad for the most influential women working in theater today

WP has had a significant impact on the field at large. Nearly every prolific female theater artist has been through our doors, including Eve Ensler, María Irene Fornés, Katori Hall, Pam MacKinnon, Lynn Nottage, Leigh Silverman, and Anna Deveare Smith. WP artists work regularly on and off Broadway, and collectively, have won all of the awards currently given for achievement in the field, including multiple Tony, Lortel, OBIE, Drama Desk, Drama League, Lilly, and Whiting Awards; an Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama; and multiple Pulitzer Prizes. These powerful female artists found an early artistic home at WP, and are a testament to our role as a driving cultural force.

WP was founded in 1978 by visionary producer, Julia Miles, to address the significant under-representation of women in theater. today, WP accomplishes its mission through several fundamental programs, including: the WP Lab, a two-year mentorship and new play development program for female-identified and trans playwrights, directors, and producers; the Playwright In Residence commissioning program; the Developmental series; and the Main Stage series, which features a full season of Off-Broadway productions written and directed by extraordinary theater artists.

Photo Credit: Joan Marcus