Playwrights Horizons Opens 40th Anniversary Season with ME, MYSELF & I, 8/24-10/10

Rehearsals are now underway for the Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) New York premiere of Edward Albee's ME, MYSELF & I, a new play by the three-time Pulitzer Prize and three-time Tony Award winner (A Delicate Balance; Seascape; Three Tall Women; Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; The Goat or, Who Is Sylvia?). The production opens the theater company's 40th Anniversary Season, in which Mr. Albee will be making his Playwrights Horizons debut. The play is Mr. Albee's 30th.

Directed by Tony Award nominee, Obie Award winner and McCarter Theatre Center Artistic Director Emily Mann (Miss Witherspoon at Playwrights Horizons, Having Our Say on Broadway, Mr. Albee's All Over), the production will begin previews Tuesday, August 24 at 8PM. With an Opening Night set for Sunday, September 12 at 7PM, the limited engagement is now on sale through Sunday, October 10 at Playwrights Horizons' Mainstage Theater (416 West 42nd Street).

"We are proud to be celebrating our 40th Anniversary," said Artistic Director Tim Sanford. "As a writers' theater, it feels unspeakably lucky and fitting to launch this milestone season with this giddily entertaining and challenging play by arguably our pre-eminent living playwright."

The cast of the New York premiere will feature Tony Award winner Elizabeth Ashley (for Take Her, She's Mine; plus Barefoot in the Park, the recent Dividing the Estate), Zachary Booth (Prayer for My Enemy at PH, "Damages," Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist), three-time Tony Award nominee Brian Murray (for The Crucible, The Little Foxes and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead; Obie Award for Mr. Albee's The Play About the Baby), Natalia Payne (New Jerusalem at CSC, Jailbait at the Cherry Lane), Stephen Payne (Superior Donuts and August: Osage County on Broadway; Me, Myself & I at the McCarter) and Preston Sadleir (Off-Broadway debut). Mr. Murray will reprise his acclaimed performance from the McCarter production, as will Mr. Payne.

In Edward Albee's ME, MYSELF & I, Mother (Ms. Ashley) can't tell her identical twins apart. But when Otto (Mr. Booth) announces his brother (Mr. Sadleir) doesn't exist, the household descends into chaos.

The production will feature scenic design by Thomas Lynch, costume design by Jennifer Von Mayrhauser, lighting design by Kenneth Posner and sound design by Darron L West. Production Stage Manager is Alison Cote.

Mr. Albee makes his Playwrights Horizons debut with this production. Ms. Mann previously worked with Playwrights Horizons directing Miss Witherspoon (2005). Both Ms. Ashley and Mr. Murray are also returning to the theater company, where she appeared in When She Danced (1990) and he appeared in both The Butterfly Collection (2000) and Mud, River, Stone (1997). Mr. Booth previously appeared at Playwrights Horizons in Prayer for My Enemy (2009).

Edward Albee's ME, MYSELF & I was commissioned by and had its World Premiere at McCarter Theatre Center, opening on January 18, 2008 and playing a limited engagement through February 17, 2008. Ben Brantley in The New York Times hailed the play as, "A laugh-out-loud farce in which the meanings of everyday words split and multiply like amoebas on steroids. Directed by Emily Mann and engagingly acted by a cast that includes the invaluable Albee veteran Brian Murray, it's in the tradition of Mr. Albee's mid- and late- career works like The Marriage Play and The Play About the Baby: fragmented philosophical vaudevilles that turn the most fundamental questions of identity into verbal soft-shoes. It also harks back to his early exercises in absurdism (including the one-acters The Sandbox and The American Dream), coal-black comedies from a time when brash young writers reveled in toppling theatrical traditions."

The performance schedule for Edward Albee's ME, MYSELF & I will be Tuesdays through Fridays at 8PM, Saturdays at 2:30 PM & 8PM and Sundays at 2:30 PM & 7:30 PM. Single tickets, $75, may be purchased online via www.TicketCentral.com or www.PlaywrightsHorizons.org, by phone at (212) 279-4200 (Noon-8pm daily), or in person at the Ticket Central Box Office, 416 West 42nd Street (between Ninth & Tenth Avenues).

A ticketing initiative created as part of Playwrights Horizons' Arts Access program, LIVEforFIVE makes available $5 tickets for the first preview performance of each Playwrights Horizons production through a lottery via the company's website. The LIVEforFIVE lottery for Edward Albee's ME, MYSELF & I will be for tickets to the first preview on Tuesday, August 24 at 8 PM. Details for the lottery are as follows: beginning Wednesday, August 11 at 10 AM, theatergoers can enter the lottery by filling out an entry form at www.playwrightshorizons.org. Entries will be accepted until Monday, August 16 at 12 Noon. Winners of the lottery will be notified via email no later than 3:00 PM on Monday, August 16 with instructions on how to book their $5 tickets. Unclaimed tickets will be offered via email starting at 12 Noon on Tuesday, August 17 on a first-come, first-served basis. One or two tickets may be purchased for $5 each. At least 50 tickets will be available for Mainstage shows via the lottery.

Reflecting Playwrights Horizons' ongoing commitment to making its productions more affordable to younger audiences, the theater company will offer HOTtix, $20 rush tickets, subject to availability, day of performance only, starting one hour before showtime to patrons aged 30 and under. Proof of age required. One ticket per person, per purchase. STUDENT RUSH, $15 rush tickets, subject to availability, day of performance only, starting one hour before curtain to full-time graduate and undergraduate students. One ticket per person, per purchase. Valid student ID required.

LIVEforFIVE, HOTtix and STUDENT RUSH are some of Playwrights Horizons' popular Arts Access initiatives, which allow the institution to reach out to those who may not be able to afford the cost of a full-price theater ticket. This program is supported, in part, by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, The McGraw-Hill Companies and the Elroy and Terry Krumholz Foundation.

A special open captioned performance of Edward Albee's ME, MYSELF & I for theatergoers who are deaf and hard of hearing will be held on the Sunday, September 19 matinee at 2:30 PM. Funding for this program is provided, in part, by the Theodore H. Barth Foundation and the Theatre Development Fund's TAP Plus program in cooperation with the New York State Council on the Arts.

Tickets for the open captioned performance are available online at www.playwrightshorizons.org, or by phone/TTY at (212) 279-4200 (noon-8pm daily), or by fax at www.playwrightshorizons.org/tickets.html

In addition, special Post-Performance Discussions with members of the creative team will take place immediately after the following three performances: Friday evening, August 27 at 8PM, Wednesday evening, September 1 at 8PM and Tuesday evening, September 7 at 8PM.

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