Platform Theatre Group to Present Revival of Lee Blessing's 'Two Rooms'

Platform Theatre Group (Greg Tully, Producer) will present the New York revival of Lee Blessing’s Two Rooms, directed by Peter Flynn, for a limited Off-Broadway engagement at the Lion Theatre at Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street), beginning October 2nd. Opening Night is set for Tuesday, October 7th (7 PM).

Two Rooms will star Adinah Alexander (Adding Machine, Parade), Patrick Boll (Coen Brothers’ Burn After Reading with George Clooney and Brad Pitt), Angela Christian (Woman in White, Thoroughly Modern Millie), and Michael Milligan (Thom Pain).

Two Rooms tells the tale of one man's captivity by kidnappers and the roller-coaster ride of hope and frustration his wife endures half a world away. Two Rooms will have scenic design by Kevin Judge, lighting design by Thom Weaver, costume design by Jennifer Caprio, and sound design by Scott Stauffer.

Lee Blessing’s play A Walk In The Woods was produced on Broadway and London's West End. His Off-Broadway productions include A Body Of Water, Primary Stages; Going to St. Ives, Primary Stages (Outer Critic’s Circle Award, Best Play, Obie for ensemble performance); Thief River, Signature Theatre (Drama Desk nomination, Best Play); Cobb, Lucille Lortel Theatre (Drama Desk award, best ensemble); Chesapeake, New York Stage and Film at Second Stage; Eleemosynary, Manhattan Theatre Company and Down The Road, the Weissberger Group at the Atlantic Theatre. The Signature Theatre dedicated its 1992-93 season to his work, consisting of Fortinbras, Lake Street Extension, Two Rooms and the world premiere of Patient A. Recent world and regional premieres of his work include an adaptation of Thornton Wilder’s Heaven’s My Destination scheduled for world premiere by the Cleveland Play House in Spring 2009, Great Falls in the 2008 Humana New Play Festival of The Actors Theatre of Louisville, A Body Of Water at the Guthrie Theater and the Old Globe Theatre, Lonesome Hollow, Flag Day and Whores at the Contemporary American Theatre Festival, The Scottish Play at La Jolla Playhouse, Black Sheep at Florida Stage and The Winning Streak at George Street Playhouse. Other plays include Independence, Riches, Oldtimers Game, Nice People Dancing To Good Country Music and Perilous Night. Productions of Blessing’s plays have earned awards such as The American Theater Critics Circle Award, the L.A. Drama Critics Award, The Great American Play Award, The Humanitas Award and the George and Elisabeth Marton Award, among others. He has received nominations for Tony and Olivier awards, as well as the Pulitzer Prize.

Peter Flynn was recently named the new Artistic Director of the Hangar Theatre in Ithaca, New York. Broadway: Actors’ Fund concerts of On the 20th Century, Chess, and Funny Girl. Off-Broadway: Henry & Mudge, & Junie B. Jones (nominated for two Lucille Lortel Awards including Best Musical), and Rhapsody in Seth starring Seth Rudetsky.  Other New York credits: Romulus, a new opera - Guggenheim Museum, The Broadway Musicals of 1953 - Town Hall, and Babes in Toyland - Avery Fisher Hall. Regional credits: Gypsy - St. Louis MUNY, Man of La Mancha - Maltz Jupiter Theater (Carbonell Awards for Best Director and Best Musical), How Can You Run with a Shell on Your Back? - Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Children of Eden - Arvada Center in Denver, The Piano Lesson and The Crucible - Tampa Performing Arts Center, The Santaland Diaries - Pittsburgh City Theatre, A Child’s Christmas in Wales - National Theatre of the Deaf.  His own musical, Lily, based on Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth, written with composer/lyricist Brooks Ashmanskas, received a workshop production at the Huntington Theater,

Adinah Alexandar’s recent credits include Adding Machine at The Minetta Lane; on Broadway: original casts of The Wedding Singer, Wicked, Urban Cowboy and Parade. National Tours: Parade and the World Premiere of Whistle Down the Wind both directed by Harold Prince. Off-Broadway: Janis Joplin in Love Janis, The No-Frills Revue by Martin Charmin and Ruthless.  Regional: Golde in Fiddler at the Fulton Opera House. Madame Thenardier in Les Miserables at the Pioneer Theatre, Emma Goldman in Ragtime directed by Stafford Arima, Mama Rose/Mazeppa in Gypsy at Sundance, Rosalie in Carnival, Hannigan in Annie. Plays include Dirty Blonde directed by Loretta Greco, The Search for Sings of Intelligent Life in the Universe by Lily Tomlin, Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, All in the Timing and Eleemosynary.

Patrick Boll can currently be seen stealing (or scene stealing?!) George Clooney’s wife in the Coen Brothers’ Burn After Reading. Broadway: Faith Healer, Twentieth Century, Hedda Gabler, Death of a Salesman and Tom Sawyer. Off-Broadway: Henry & Mudge (dir. Peter Flynn), Drama Desk and Obie winners Dark At The Top Of The Stairs and All The Way Home (Transport Group), The Underpants (CSC) and Snakebit. Regional: Pittsburgh CLO, Goodspeed, Shakespeare Theater Of NJ, Yale, McCarter & Williamstown. TV /Film: “Law and Order,” “Spin City,” Love Walks In.  Upcoming: Disney’s Tarzan.

Angela Christian was most recently seen as Cherie in Bus Stop at the Rubicon Theatre in Ventura, CA. Prior to that she played the title role in the Off-Broadway premiere of Anais Nin: One of Her Lives. She made her West End debut creating the title role in The Woman In White, directed by Trevor Nunn, which she then reprised on Broadway. Also on Broadway she created the role of Miss Dorothy Brown in Thoroughly Modern Millie (Outer Critics Circle Nomination). Other Broadway: Lily in Richard Nelson's James Joyce's The Dead. Regional: James Joyce's The Dead (Kennedy Center, Ahmanson Theatre); Oleanna (Cleveland Play House); Twelfth Night, Our Town, Pack of Lies (Merrimack Rep.); A Christmas Carol (Syracuse Stage). TV: "Law & Order: Criminal Intent."

Michael Milligan has performed Shakespeare for the Royal Shakespeare Company, The Shakespeare Theater in D.C., New Jersey Shakes, the Utah, Alabama, Colorado, and Illinois Shakespeare festivals, Shakespeare Sedona, Shakespeare and Company, Milwaukee Shakespeare, Shakespeare St. Louis, St. Louis Rep. and the Cincinatti Playhouse as Hamlet, Romeo, several Mercutios, Angelo in Measure for Measure, Feste in 12th Night, Mark Antony, Benedik, Cassio in Othello, and various spear carriers and pieces of shrubbery. Other favorites include the Narrator in The Pavilion (Westport Country Playhouse), Sganarelle in Don Juan for the Shakespeare Theater (Stephen Wadsworth), Tom in The Glass Menagerie (with Penny Fuller dir. Joseph Harty), Murray in Thousand Clowns (Studio Arena), and the title role in Thom Pain (Off Broadway and the McCarter Theater.)

Platform Theatre Group was formed in 2008 by Greg Tully to create theatrical events to employ artists and engage audiences. Platform Theatre Group envisions the stage as a platform for connection that enlivens the senses, ignites the spirit, instigates discussion, celebrates diversity, and touches the heart. In the 1980’s and 1990’s, Greg Tully began producing both independently and with a producing team (TRAN Theatreworks) in a variety of venues: the Emelin Theater, national touring sites, summer theater companies, and NYC metropolitan area universities. A social work practitioner, administrator, and academic for the past twenty years, he now returns to producing theater with the vision of creating memorable productions that both entertain and encourage thought-provoking insight while also providing quality, paid opportunities for gifted theater performers, directors, writers, designers, and administrators. Visit www.platformtheatregroup.com <http://www.platformtheatregroup.com> for more information.

Performances, which begin Thursday, October 2nd, will be Monday and Tuesday evenings at 7 PM, Thursday and Friday at 8 PM, Saturday at 2 PM and 8 PM, and Sunday at 3 PM and 7 PM. 

Lion Theatre at Theatre Row is located at 410 West 42nd Street, between Ninth and Tenth Avenues.  For tickets, call Ticket Central at 212/279-4200 or visit ticketcentral.com.

Photo Credit Peter James Zielinski

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