'NO END OF BLAME' and GOOD Set for PTP/NYC's 30th Season

PTP/NYC (Potomac Theatre Project), in association with Middlebury College, presents its 30th repertory season, its 10th consecutive in New York City, running from July 5 - August 7, 2016 in a limited 5-week Off-Broadway engagement at The Atlantic Stage 2, located at 330 West 16th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues.

This season's line-up includes a revival of Howard Barker's NO END OF BLAME: Scenes of Overcoming, directed by PTP's Co-Artistic Director Richard Romagnoli (a NYIT Award nominee), and a revival of C.P. Taylor's GOOD, directed by PTP's Co-Artistic Director Jim Petosa. Previews begin on July 5 and openings begin on July 12.

Performances are Tuesdays - Sundays at 7pm, and Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays at 2pm. The schedule varies - for exact days and times visit PTPNYC.org. Tickets are $35, $20 for students and seniors, $17.50 for previews, and can be purchased online at PTPNYC.org or by calling 1-866-811-4111. For info visit PTPNYC.org, follow on Twitter at @ptpnyc, and Like them on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/pages/Potomac-Theatre-Project-PTP/32709392256.

Howard Barker's NO END OF BLAME: Scenes of Overcoming begins previews July 5 for a July 13 opening and runs through August 7.

In a harsh, relentless ride through history, Howard Barker's NO END OF BLAME: Scenes of Overcoming explores the role of the artist in society and the struggle for freedom of expression. Starting with a harrowing depiction of war with an attempted rape and a near execution in the Carpathian Mountains during WWI, the protagonist is the brilliant Hungarian political cartoonist Bela Veracek (loosely based on the celebrated German cartoonist Victor Weisz). Running from Hungary at the end of the First World War to the newly emergent Soviet Union and then to a pre-WWII Britain, Bela is constantly at odds with the governments he lampoons, and the newspapers that admire his talent, but expect conformity and absolute submission. No End of Blame is a provocative play of ideas and a scathing commentary about the censorship of art.

Audiences who were stunned by last season's Scenes From An Execution will immediately see Jan Maxwell's fierce and unsparing Galactia reflected in Alex Draper's uncompromising Bela Veracek. As always, Richard Romagnoli directs Howard Barker's work.

The cast for NO END OF BLAME: Scenes of Overcoming includes NYIT Award nominee Alex Draper (Scenes From An Execution, Gertrude - The Cry and Pentecost with PTP), David Barlow (Scenes From An Execution, Gertrude - The Cry and Serious Money with PTP), Stephanie Janssen (A Delicate Balance and Death of a Salesman on Broadway, Crave with PTP), NYIT Award winner Megan Byrne (Serious Money, Territories and The Europeans with PTP), Bill Army (Act One and Relatively Speaking on Broadway, Scenes From An Execution with PTP), Jonathan Tindle (Scenes From An Execution and Pentecost with PTP), Christo Grabowski (Pentecost and Monster with PTP), Nicholas Hemerling (Scenes From An Execution with PTP), Alexander Burnett, Shannon Gibbs, Steven Medina, Ashley Fink and Gabrielle Owens.

The production team includes Hallie Zieselman (Set Design), Mark Evancho (Lighting Design), Danielle Nieves (Costume Design), Gerald Scarfe (Cartoon Projections) and Eric Conner Marlin (Production Stage Manager).

C.P. Taylor's GOOD begins previews July 6 for a July 12 opening and runs through August 6.

How did it happen? How did a nation go mad? How were normal people transformed into brutes, devoid of ordinary humanity? How were the Nazis made? Hitler's own anti-Semitism is clinically explicable. But after he had ordered the mass extermination of Jews, how did he get apparently normal Germans to carry those orders out? Set partly inside the mind of a 'good' man, Professor John Halder, Good watches a normal German slowly succumb to the rising madness, slipping the bonds of family and friendship.

The cast for GOOD includes Michael Kaye, Tim Spears (A Question Of Mercy with PTP), Valerie Leonard (The Europeans, The American Dream and Pinter Shorts with PTP), Christo Grabowski, Judith Chafee, Adam Ludwig (Scenes From An Execution, Spatter Pattern and Somewhere in the Pacific with PTP), Noah Berman (The Castle and Monster with PTP), Caitlin Rose Duffy (Pentecost with PTP), Amanda Whiteley and Jesse Garlick.

The production team includes Hallie Zieselman (Set Design), Mark Evancho (Lighting Design), Jessica Lee Vankempen (Costume Design) and Evangeline Rose Whitlock (Production Stage Manager).

BLAME's Bela Veracek and GOOD's John Halder are the extreme ends of a continuum...the artist who continually positions himself in opposition to the status quo, and the benign scholar who compromises his way to the unthinkable.

PTP/NYC (Potomac Theatre Project) continues to redefine politically aware theatre for the 21st century by presenting theatrically complex and thought-provoking work of contemporary social and cultural relevance. Howard Barker is one of PTP/NYC's most produced writers, along with Caryl Churchill, Neal Bell, Sarah Kane and David Edgar. The company's writers are provocative, engaging and often confrontational.

PTP was founded in 1987 by the artistic team of Cheryl Faraone, Jim Petosa and Richard Romagnoli who continue to run the company. Alex Draper is Associate Artistic Director. Since moving to New York in 2007, PTP/NYC has produced 19 main stage productions and numerous late evening readings, workshops and experimental theatre pieces in their After Dark series. PTP/NYC's 2013 New York premiere of Howard Barker's The Castle and 2008 production of Barker's Scenes From An Execution each earned Jan Maxwell a Drama Desk Award nomination.

During its 20 seasons (1987-2006) in Washington DC and Maryland, the company forged its ongoing mandate - the presentation of highly theatrical, politically and socially engaged work in an austere production style, encouraging direct audience connection and highlighting the actor and the text. The company is also committed to the training of young actors and designers, enabling them to work with experienced and generous professionals as they serve an apprenticeship and begin their own work in the theatre. PTP/NYC is affiliated with the Theatre Program of Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont.

Richard Romagnoli is a co-founder and the co-Artistic Director of PTP/NYC. Since 2007, he has directed Howard Barker's Scenes from an Execution, Gertrude: The Cry, The Castle, Victory, Judith, The Europeans, Gary the Thief & Plevna in New York. During PTP's time in the DC area, he directed Barker's Scenes, A Hard Heart, The Possibilities, The Castle and No End of Blame, along with plays by Harold Pinter, Vaclav Havel, Samuel Beckett and Edward Albee.

Jim Petosa is Director of the Boston University (BU) School of Theatre and the Artistic Director of the New Repertory Theatre in Watertown, Ma. He serves as Artistic Director for the Boston Center for American Performance (BCAP), Boston University's professional extension. His PTP credits include Monster, Spatter Pattern, Therese Raquin, Somewhere in the Pacific (all by Neal Bell), A Question of Mercy, Marisol, Dog Plays, Statements after an Arrest and Good.

The Atlantic Stage 2 is accessible from the A, C, E, L trains to 14 St./8 Ave. or the 1, 2, 3 trains to 14 St.

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