Primary Stages Adds New Topher Payne Play to 2015-16 Season; Directors Confirmed

Primary Stages has announced the fourth production of their upcoming 31st Season to be performed at The Duke on 42nd Street, a New 42nd Street project:

PERFECT ARRANGEMENT
In association with MARS Theatricals
New York Premiere by TOPHER PAYNE
Directed by MICHAEL BARAKIVA
September - November, 2015

In Topher Payne's biting comedy, Perfect Arrangement, it's the 1950s and the age of the Red Scare. The Martindales and the Baxters have manufactured a life as peppy as a sitcom, right down to the corny jokes and occasional product placement... but when a co-worker at the US State Department discovers their deepest secret, the worlds of "I Love Lucy" and Edward R. Murrow clash in hilarious, ironic, and genuinely moving ways. Long before Stonewall, nothing is as it seems in this New York Premiere directed by Michael Barakiva (White People) which won the 2014 American Critics Association Osborn New Play Award.

Additionally, Primary Stages has announced the directors for the three productions previously announced for the 2015-2016 season:

INFORMED CONSENT
New York City Premiere by DEBORAH ZOE LAUFER
Directed by LIESL TOMMY
August - September, 2015

An electrifying new play by one of the most exciting voices in American theater, Informed Consent is an "urgent, challenging, and of-the-moment" (Cleveland Plain Dealer) drama about one woman's quest to answer the mysteries of science and her own life, inspired by a landmark court case between one of the country's largest universities and a Native American tribe based in the Grand Canyon. In the past year alone, Deborah Zoe Laufer has had over 20 productions of her plays performed throughout the country and we are thrilled to present Informed Consent in its Off-Broadway Premiere in a co-production with Ensemble Studio Theatre as a part of their Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Science & Technology Project, directed by Obie winner Liesl Tommy (Appropriate, The Good Negro).

THE BODY OF AN AMERICAN
New York premiere by DAN O'BRIEN
Directed by JO BONNEY
February - March, 2016

Winner of the 2014 Horton Foote Prize for Outstanding New American Play and the Inaugural Edward M. Kennedy Award (shared with All The Way). The Body of an American tells the true story of an extraordinary friendship as two men, a war photojournalist and playwright, journey from some of the most dangerous places on earth to the depths of the human soul. Winning rave reviews for its previous productions in London and elsewhere, The Body of an American by Dan O'Brien is "a play that tightens its grip as it probes where war lives, and discovers we each carry it inside ourselves." (The Guardian) The play will be directed by Obie winner Jo Bonney (Father Comes Home from the Wars..., Small Engine Repair) in association with Hartford Stage.

EXIT STRATEGY
New York premiere by IKE HOLTER
Directed by KIP FAGAN
March - May, 2016

Afiery, riveting work from the award-winning writer of Hit the Wall, about the chaotic final days of a Chicago public school, Exit Strategy is a taut, edge-of-your-seat drama about the future of public education from a vital new voice in American playwriting. Named "Chicagoan of the Year in Theater" by the Chicago Tribune, Ike Holter brings his "thrilling, beautiful" new play to Primary Stages for its New York Premiere after winning rave reviews for a thrice-extended sold-out run in Chicago. Produced in association with Philadelphia Theatre Company, Exit Strategy will be directed by Kip Fagan, whose recent credits include Grand Concourse and The Revisionist.

"After embarking upon a tremendous season of new work from playwrights Theresa Rebeck, Billy Porter and David Ives over the past year," says Primary Stages Founder & Executive Producer, Casey Childs, "we are eager to announce our 31st season of new and exciting American plays. These plays simply need to be produced in New York City right now and the team here at Primary Stages is thrilled to bring them to the foreground of the Off-Broadway scene, where they so rightfully deserve to be experienced."

Subscriptions for the Primary Stages 2015/16 season range from $140 to $180. Flex Pass subscriptions are also offered and begin at $45 per ticket (with a minimum purchase of 5 Flex Pass tickets for the season.) All subscription packages can be purchased by visiting PrimaryStages.org or by calling Ticket Central at 212.279.4200. Single tickets for all productions will go on sale at a later date with The Duke on 42nd Street box office.

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