Playwright Shirley Lauro Talks ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT's All-Female Team

Here is something that strikes as an anomaly: Shirley Lauro's ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT, which begins previews tonight off-Broadway at the Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater for a limited engagement run through October 25th, is comprised of an entirely female cast and crew. That's right...not a single male in sight.

Playwright Shirley Lauro shares exclusively with BroadwayWorld.com how the production evolved into this all-female experience and why she would not want it any other way.

SL: As for how this evolved into an all woman production? As a writer, I'm drawn to the little person thrown into overwhelming social and political circumstances and how he/she struggles to overcome them - from Open Admissions onwards. In this way, I became interested in true stories of the forgotten women in wartime and wrote A Piece of My Heart about women in Vietnam. This lead to the interview that inspired ALL THROUGH TE NIGHT - forgotten German women of The 3rd Reich. It has an all woman cast. Melanie Moyers, Artistic Director of Red Fern Theater, did a fine revival of A Piece of My Heart. Her "take" on my play was close to my intention, and I decided I'd like her company to present ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT. Melanie generally works with women set, light, and costume designers and with a woman stage manager. Asked why, she told me in interviewing many people for these positions, she found women were "the most creative and intelligent in ideas they put forth" for plays she wanted to produce.

Having received its world premiere production in Chicago where it received a Jefferson Award Nomination for "Best New Play in Chicago," ALL TROUGH THE NIGHT will open its limited New York engagement Monday, October 5th at 8:00pm at the Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater. Inspired by interviews with German Gentile women, and set during and after the Third Reich, ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT speaks directly with a warning for today. Both stylistic and surrealistic, the play sweeps through the lives of four women - their teen years, young adulthood during the Holocaust and then beyond. Making overwhelmingly hard choices, they survive or succumb to Hitler's Reign and are changed forever.

ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT features Theo Allyn, Hana Kalinski, Michelle Lookadoo, Lesley McBurney and Andrea Sooch in the five-member company. The production will also feature direction by Melanie Moyer Williams, scenery designed by Adrienne Kapalko, costumes designed by Emily DeAngelis and lighting designed by Jessica Greenberg.

ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT is produced by The Red Fern Theatre Company - a company that has made its mark not only producing socially conscious work, but through partnering with philanthropies whose mission seeks to assist those affected by the issues addressed in each new project. Red Fern recently announced that the Simon Wiesenthal Center, an international Jewish human rights organization dedicated to generating change through education, will be the philanthropy partner for ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT.

Award-winning playwright Shirley Lauro's most recent credits include her anthology, Front Lines: Political Plays by American Women, co-edited with Alexis Greene, (New Press, 2009) and being chosen a "2009 Honoree of The Coalition of Professional Women in Arts and Media." Her latest play, The Radiant, won a 2008 Sloan Science Commission and enjoyed its first staged reading, June 2009, at The Actors Studio. A Piece of My Heart premiered at Manhattan Theatre Club and was revived in New York by the Red Fern Theater Company in 2008 with Melanie Moyer Williams directing. With over 1000 other productions around the world, the play was recently designated by VW Veterans, Inc.: "The most enduring American play on Vietnam." Her play Clarence Darrow's Last Trial received a "2006 Carbonell Nominee as ‘Best New Florida Play,'" and an "NEA Access To Excellence Award." On Broadway, Ms. Lauro's Open Admissions received 1 Tony nomination, 2 Drama Desk nominations, and a Theatre World Award and she later adapted it for critically acclaimed CBS special starring Jane Alexander and Estelle Parsons. A Guggenheim Fellow, Ms.Lauro is a three-time NEA and a New York Foundation for the Arts winner.

So, will Ms. Lauro be replicating her "girls only" experience anytime soon?  Perhaps.  Says the playwright: "Georgia O'Keefe, the artist, said: 'Something always remains unexplained about women, and only a woman can explain it.' In ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT, I'm thrilled to have a team of women artists explaining my story of women caught in war."

ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT will play performances through October 25th as per the following schedule: Wednesday through Saturday evenings at 8PM with Sunday Matinees at 3PM. Tickets are $25. For tickets and more information call 212-352-3101 or visit The Red Fern Theatre Company at www.redferntheatre.org.

 

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