Patinkin Begins Previews in Public's COMPULSION, 2/1

The Public Theater (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis; Executive Director Andrew D. Hamingson) will begin previews Tuesday, February 1 for the world premiere production of Rinne Groff's COMPULSION, directed by Oskar Eustis. The cast features Hannah Cabell, Matte Osian, and Mandy Patinkin, with puppet design and puppetry supervision by Matt Acheson. COMPULSION runs through Sunday, March 13 at The Public Theater (425 Lafayette Street) with an official press opening on Thursday, February 17. Tickets are on sale now.

It is 1951, and Sid Silver is on a mission to be the guardian of one of the most moving and provocative accounts of the 20th century. Deeply moved by Anne Frank's diary, he is driven to bring her story to the American masses by promoting the book's publication and adapting the diary into a work of theater. Inspired by the story of Meyer Levin, COMPULSION brings playwright Rinne Groff and Artistic Director Oskar Eustis (The Ruby Sunrise) together again with a complex and inventive telling that is part historical fiction, part investigation into what makes a man obsess, and part exploration of an untold dimension of Anne Frank's powerful and enduring legacy. COMPULSION is world premiere co-production with Berkeley Repertory Theatre and Yale Repertory Theatre.

The cast features Hannah Cabell (Miss Mermin / Mrs. Silver), Matte Osian (Mr. Thomas / Mr. Harris / Mr. Ferris / Mr. Matzliach) and Mandy Patinkin (Sid Silver).

COMPULSION features scenic design by Eugene Lee; costume design by Susan Hilferty; lighting design by Michael Chybowski; sound design by Darron L West; and video and projection design by Jeff Sugg; as well as puppeteers Emily DeCola, Daniel Fay, and Eric Wright.

Rinne Groff (Playwright) is the author of several plays including The Ruby Sunrise, produced at The Public Theater. Her Off-Broadway credits include Saved, What Then, Inky, Jimmy Carter was a Democrat, The Five Hysterical Girls Theorem, and Orange Lemon Egg Canary. Regional credits include Compulsion, In the Bubble, Molière Impromptu. She was the staff writer on season two of the TV show "Weeds." Awards and fellowships include Whiting Writers Award, Guggenheim Fellowship, and an Obie Award grant. Her residencies include MacDowell, Sundance, Perry Mansfield, Chautauqua, and the Orchard Project. Groff is an Associate Teacher at NYU Tisch School of the Arts and a founding member of Elevator Repair Service Theater Company as well as a member of New Dramatists and the Dramatist Guild.

Oskar Eustis (Director) is the Artistic Director of The Public Theater. From 1981 through 1986 he was resident director and dramaturg at the Eureka Theatre Company in San Francisco, and Artistic Director until 1989, when he moved to the L.A.'s Mark Taper Forum as Associate Artistic Director until 1994. Eustis then served as Artistic Director at Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island for eleven years. In 2005 he took the helm at New York's Public Theater. Throughout his career, Eustis has been dedicated to the development of new plays as both a director and a producer. At The Public he directed the premiere of Rinne Groff's The Ruby Sunrise, Hamlet and The Human Scale. At Trinity Rep, he directed the world premiere of Paula Vogel's The Long Christmas Ride Home (Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Production); Homebody/Kabul (Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Production); the world premiere of Rinne Groff's The Ruby Sunrise; Angels in America, Part I: Millennium Approaches (Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Director); Angels in America, Part II: Perestroika. He has directed world premieres of plays by Philip Kan Gotanda, David Henry Hwang, Emily Mann, Suzan-Lori Parks, Ellen McLaughlin, and Eduardo Machado. He commissioned Tony Kushner's Angels in America at the Eureka Theatre Company in San Francisco and directed its world premiere at the Mark Taper Forum. He was a professor of Theatre, Speech and Dance at Brown University, where he founded and chaired the Trinity Rep/Brown University Consortium for professional theater training. He received an honorary doctorate from RIC in 1999 and Brown in 2001, an Eliot Norton Award for Sustained Achievement in 2005. Eustis currently serves as Professor of Dramatic Writing and Arts and Public Policy at New York University.

Hannah Cabell (Miss Mermin / Mrs. Silver) was last seen on Broadway in the revival of A Man for All Seasons at the Roundabout Theatre Company. Other New York credits include Gentleman Caller at Clubbed Thumb, Jane Eyre at The Acting Company, Mark Smith and The Zero Hour at 13P, Millicent Scowlworthy at the Summer Play Festival and Pumpgirl at Manhattan Theatre Club. Her regional credits include Compulsion at Yale Repertory Theatre, the world premiere of Sarah Ruhl's The Three Sisters at Cincinnati Playhouse and In the Next Room (or the vibrator play) (Bay Area Critics' Circle Award nomination) at Berkeley Rep, Mary's Wedding and Sedition at Westport County Playhouse. On TV she has been seen on "Law & Order: Criminal Intent."

Matte Osian (Mr. Thomas / Mr. Harris / Mr. Ferris / Mr. Matzliach) has appeared on Broadway in Twelfth Night at Lincoln Center and Twelve Angry Men for the Roundabout Theatre Company. His Off-Broadway credits include Silence, Cunning, Exile for The Public Theater; Portraits at Union Square Theatre; The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui with Al Pacino, for the National Actors Theatre; and Souls of Naples (with John Turturro) for Theatre for a New Audience, which toured to Naples, Italy. Regional credits include Compulsion, the West Coast premiere of Mad Forest, Hedda Gabler at the Dallas Theater Center, and a Streetcar Named Desire at SDR. Osian's film credits include The Loop (upcoming), Enchanted, Conspiracy Theory, and Richard II. His TV appearances include "Hack," "Law & Order," "Third Watch," " Law & Order: Criminal Intent," and "Ugly Betty." He is a member of The Actors Studio.

Mandy Patinkin (Sid Silver). His career encompasses theater, film, television, recordings and the concert stage. Patinkin's Broadway credits include Trelawny of the ‘Wells,' Evita (Tony Award), The Secret Garden, Sunday in the Park with George, Falsettos, and The Wild Party. His solo concerts include Dress Casual, Celebrating Sondheim, and Mamaloshen. His Public Theater credits include Leave It To Beaver Is Dead, The Knife, The Winter's Tale, Rebel Women, and Hamlet. He has done over 20 feature films, multiple television series and solo recordings. Patinkin continues touring his solo concerts, a concert with Patti LuPone and a new concert with Nathan Gunn.
The Public Theater (Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director; Andrew D. Hamingson, Executive Director) was founded by Joseph Papp in 1954 and is now one of the nation's preeminent cultural institutions, producing new plays, musicals, and productions of classics at its downtown and at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. The Public's mandate to create a theater for all New Yorkers continues to this day onstage and through extensive outreach and education programs. Each year, over 250,000 people attend Public Theater-related productions and events at its downtown headquarters, Joe's Pub, and Shakespeare in the Park. The Public has won 42 Tony Awards, 151 Obies, 41 Drama Desk Awards and four Pulitzer Prizes. The Public has brought 54 shows to Broadway, including Sticks and Bones; That Championship Season; A Chorus Line; The Pirates of Penzance; The Tempest; Bring In ‘Da Noise, Bring In ‘Da Funk; On the Town; The Ride Down Mt. Morgan; Topdog/Underdog; Elaine Stritch at Liberty; Take Me Out; Caroline, or Change; Well; Passing Strange; the Tony Award-winning revival of Hair; and this fall, the rock musical Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and the 2010 Shakespeare in the Park production of The Merchant of Venice. 

Berkeley Repertory Theatre has grown from a storefront stage to a national leader in innovative theatre. Known for its core values of imagination and excellence, as well as its educated and adventurous audience, the nonprofit has provided a welcoming home for emerging and established artists since 1968. The Theatre welcomes an annual audience of 180,000, serves 20,000 students, and hosts dozens of community groups, thanks to 1,000 volunteers and more than 400 artists, artisans, and administrators. With two stages, a school, and a Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre, Berkeley Rep is proud to premiere exhilarating new plays. In the last five years alone, the company has helped send five shows to Broadway: American Idiot, Bridge & Tunnel, In the Next Room (or the vibrator play), Passing Strange, and Wishful Drinking. 

Yale Repertory Theatre is dedicated to the production of new plays and bold interpretations of classics and has produced well over 100 premieres-including two Pulitzer Prize winners and four other nominated finalists-by emerging and established playwrights. Eleven Yale Rep productions have advanced to Broadway, garnering more than 40 Tony Award nominations and eight Tony Awards. Yale Rep is also the recipient of the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. Established in 2008, the Yale Center for New Theatre is an integrated, artist-driven initiative that devotes major resources to the commissioning, development, and production of new plays and musicals at Yale Repertory Theatre and across the country. Professional assignments at Yale Repertory Theatre are integral components of the program at Yale School of Drama, the nation's leading graduate theatre training conservatory. www.yalerep.org.

Tickets for COMPULSION begin at $75 for all performances. Tickets, which are on sale now, can be purchased at (212) 967-7555, www.publictheater.org, or in person at The Public Theater box office.

The performance schedule for COMPULSION is Tuesdays through Fridays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.; and Sundays at 2 p.m. There will be additional performances on Sunday, February 6 at 8 p.m. and on Wednesday, March 2 at 2 p.m. (Please Note: the Wednesday performance on February 23 is at 7 p.m.)

There will no performances Saturday, February 5 at 2 p.m.; Saturday, February 12; Sunday, February 13; Friday, March 4, Saturday, March 5 and Sunday, March 6.

Photo Credit: Joan Marcus

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