Photo Flash: 'What To Do When You Hate All Your Friends'

Four Chairs Theatre Company presents the World Premiere of "What To Do When You Hate All Your Friends", an anti-social comedy written by award-winning playwright Larry Kunofsky and directed by Jacob Krueger (The Matthew Shepard Story). Performances
will run from July 19 to August 9, 2008 at The Lion Theatre on Theatre Row, located at 410 West 42 Street between 9 & 10 Avenues in NYC. Previews begin July 19 for an official July 24 opening.

Performances run Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays at 2pm with an additional performance on Tue 7/22 at 8pm. No performance on Mon 8/4. Tickets are $18 and can be purchased online at http://www.TicketCentral.com or by calling 212-279-4200. For more information on the play visit http://www.HateAllYourFriends.com.

The company's inaugural show, A Guy Adrift in the Universe, was a NY Magazine "Pick of the Week" and Martin Denton of NYTheatre.com applauded the company's work by saying "Kunofsky's writing is funny and sharp, and the structure of the piece—and I think director Jacob Krueger shares some of the credit here—is astonishingly seamless."

Matt is a guy who hates all his friends. Celia is a woman at the center of The Friends, a secret group that has perfected friendship through special rules and a rigid ranking system. Can a guy who hates all his friends and a woman who needs friendship to go by-the-book figure out a way to spend time together without going mental? Set in a world of secret hottub parties, craigslist hookups, and the myriad of ways people try to control intimacy by keeping it away, this edgy and witty new comedy looks at how romance and friendship works – or doesn't work - in the way we live now.

Director Jacob Krueger is the co-founder and co-Artistic Director of Four Chairs Theatre. His first movie, The Matthew Shepard Story (2002), won him the Writers Guild of America Paul Selvin Award and a Gemini Nomination for Best Screenplay. The NBC film, directed by Roger Spottiswoode (And the Band Played On), and produced by Goldie Hawn, was based on the life of gay hate-crime victim Matthew Shepard. Jacob is a member of Lincoln Center Directors Lab.

The cast includes Todd D'Amour (Obie Award-Winning Nita and Zita at HERE, Stanley at HERE, Red Tide Blooming at PS122), Carrie Keranen, Josh Lefkowitz (Help Wanted and Now What? at Ars Nova, Centerstage/Baltimore & Woolly Mammoth), Susan Louise O'Connor (2007 NYIT Best Actress Award for The Silent Concerto, Walk Two Moons at Lucille Lortel, Marion Bridge
at Urban Stages) and Amy Staats (Drama Desk nominated Hell House, EST member, Clubbed Thumb's One Thing I Like To Say Is).

Larry Kunofsky, co-founder and co-Artistic Director of Four Chairs Theatre, is a New York-based playwright whose play A Guy Adrift in the Universe marked the first ever production for the company. He has been a resident at the Edward Albee Foundation, and is a three-time winner of the John Golden Award for Drama and a member of The Dramatists Guild.

Founded by award-winning writers Larry Kunofsky and Jacob Krueger in 2006, Four Chairs is more than just a production company. They're an artistic home for an ensemble of theatre creatives that includes both permanent and rotating members. In 2008, Four Chairs embarked on an ambitious new season, including the "Just Chairs" reading series (designed to foster the development of new work by emerging playwrights) and the upcoming production of What To Do When You Hate All Your Friends.

The 2008-2009 season will also mark the first year of a unique project with Interborough Repertory Theatre (IRT). Beginning in October 2008 Four Chairs will host an ensemble of four writers, four designers, four directors and four actors in a yearlong collaboration. Working in a cross-disciplinary mode, the ensemble will spend a full year exploring a theme to develop four new plays, which will ultimately be produced in Repertory at IRT.

The design/production team consists of Producers Elizabeth Dembrowsky and Four Chairs Theatre, Ryan Maeker (Sound Design/NYIT Award Winner for Dancing Vs. The Rat Experiment), Niluka Hotaling (Set Design), Gina Scherr (Lighting Design), Melissa Trn (Costume Design) and Sally Jane Kerschen-Sheppard (Production Manager).

Carrie Keranen and Todd D'Amour

Susan Louise O'Connor, Carrie Keranen, Todd D'Amour and Josh Lefkowitz

Susan Louise O'Connor, Josh Lefkowitz, Amy Staats, Carrie Keranen and Todd D'Amour

Todd D'Amour and Josh Lefkowitz

Photo by Martin R. Miller.