Playwrights Horizons Opens 'LIVE for FIVE' Lottery for First Preview of THE TREASURER

Playwrights Horizons begins accepting entries today, Friday, August 25, for the LIVE for FIVE online lottery for $5 tickets to the world premiere of The Treasurer, a new play by Max Posner (Judy) and directed by three-time Lortel Award winner David Cromer (The Band's Visit, Our Town, Adding Machine). Commissioned by Playwrights Horizons, the play will be the second production of the theater company's 2017/2018 Season.

The LIVE for FIVE lottery for The Treasurer will be for tickets to the first preview on Friday evening, September 6 at 8PM at Playwrights Horizons' Peter Jay Sharp Theater (416 West 42nd Street). The production has an Opening Night set for Tuesday, September 26 at 8PM and will play a limited engagement through Sunday, October 22.

Celebrating over a decade, LIVE for FIVE was created by Playwrights Horizons in 2007 as part of their Arts Access program to reach out to those who may not be able to afford the cost of a full-price theater ticket. The ticketing initiative makes a limited number of $5 tickets available for the first preview performance of each Playwrights Horizons production through a lottery via the company's website (www.phnyc.org). Since its inception, over 2,000 theatergoers have been able to attend the theater thanks to the LIVE for FIVE initiative.

Details for the LIVE for FIVE lottery are as follows: beginning today, Friday, August 25 at 12 Noon, theatergoers can enter the lottery by filling out an entry form at www.phnyc.org/L45. Entries will be accepted until Monday, August 28 at 12 Noon. Winners of the lottery will be notified via email no later than 3PM on Monday, August 28 with instructions on how to book their $5 tickets. Unclaimed tickets will be offered via email to a limited standby list starting at 12 Noon on Tuesday, August 29 on a first-come, first-served basis. One or two tickets may be purchased by winners for $5 each.

The cast of The Treasurer will feature Marinda Anderson (Bella: An American Tall Tale, A Life, Far From Heaven at Playwrights; Every Good Girl), Pun Bandhu (Wit on Broadway, Plenty, Informed Consent, True and Solid Ground, Faust), Tony Award winner and Olivier Award nominee Deanna Dunagan (August: Osage County, Man and Superman, regionally in Other Desert Cities, James Joyce's The Dead) and Tony Award nominee and Obie Award winner Peter Friedman (Fly By Night, The Great God Pan, The Shaggs, After the Revolution, Circle Mirror Transformation, The Heidi Chronicles at Playwrights; Ragtime; The Open House).

Ida Armstrong (Ms. Dunagan) is broke, lonely and fading fast. And she's spending all of her children's money, forcing her son (Mr. Friedman) to assume the unwanted role of The Treasurer: an arrangement that becomes untenable the more he questions his devotion to her. In this darkly funny, sharply intimate portrait, Max Posner chronicles the strained ties between a son and his aging mother, and the hell of a guilty conscience.

The production will feature scenic design by Lortel Award winner Laura Jellinek, costume design by David Hyman, lighting design by Tony Award winner Bradley King, sound design by two-time Lortel Award winner Mikhail Fiksel, projection design by Lucy Mackinnon and wig design by Leah J. Loukas. Production Stage Manager is Brett Anders.

THE TREASURER was commissioned by Playwrights Horizons with the support of Duke/Mellon Leading National Theaters.

Opening the Playwrights Horizons 2017/2018 Season, and currently in previews, is For Peter Pan on her 70th birthday, The New York premiere of a new play by two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and Tony Award nominee Sarah Ruhl, directed by Obie Award winner Les Waters, featuring three-time Obie Award winner and Tony Award nominee Kathleen Chalfant in the title role, David Chandler, Ron Crawford, two-time Obie Award winner Lisa Emery, Tony Award nominee Daniel Jenkins and Keith Reddin. Following FOR PETER PAN... and The Treasurer will be MANKIND, the world premiere of a Playwrights Horizons commissioned new play written and directed by two-time Obie Award winner Robert O'Hara (December 2017); THIS FLAT EARTH, the world premiere of a new play by Lindsey Ferrentino, directed by Tony Award winner Rebecca Taichman (March 2018); DANCE NATION, the world premiere of a new play by Obie Award winner Clare Barron, directed by Obie Award winner Lee Sunday Evans (April 2018); and LOG CABIN, the world premiere of a new play by Pulitzer Prize finalist JorDan Harrison, directed by Tony Award and Obie Award winner Pam MacKinnon (June 2018).

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Max Posner's (Playwright) play Judy premiered Off-Broadway in 2015 (Page 73, directed by Ken Rus Schmoll). ReceNT Productions include Snore (Juilliard, directed by Knud Adams), Sisters on the Ground (Playwrights Horizons Theater School at NYU, directed by Ken Rus Schmoll) and Gun Logistics (Drama League, directed by Knud Adams). He is the recipient of the Helen Merrill Emerging Playwright Award, the Heideman Award from Actors Theatre of Louisville, the P73 Fellowship and two Lecomte du Nouy awards from Lincoln Center. Max is a Sundance Institute Theatre Fellow, a two-time MacDowell Colony Fellow and was the Writer-In-Residence at Williamstown. He's an alumnus of the Soho Rep. Writer/Director Lab, Ars Nova's Playgroup, The Working Farm at SPACE on Ryder Farm and I-73. He contributed to John Early's episode of "The Characters" (Netflix) and is working on a libretto for the Brooklyn Youth Chorus with composer Ellis Ludwig Leone. Max's plays have been developed by Playwrights Horizons, Soho Rep., Page 73, Clubbed Thumb, Williamstown, Atlantic, Ars Nova, The Bushwick Starr, NYTW, American Theater Co., The Juilliard School and SPACE on Ryder Farm. He is a frequent volunteer at Manhattan's 52nd Street Project. He studied writing as an undergrad at Brown, and recently completed a two-year Lila Acheson Wallace Playwriting Fellowship at The Juilliard School. Max was born and raised in Denver and lives in Brooklyn.

David Cromer (Director). Recent credits include Man from Nebraska (Second Stage), The Band's Visit (Atlantic, opening on Broadway this fall); The Effect (Barrow Street Theatre), Come Back, Little Sheba (Huntington Theatre), Angels in America (Kansas City Rep) and Our Town at the Almeida Theatre in London. New York Credits include Women or Nothing at Atlantic, Really Really at MCC, The House of Blue Leaves and Brighton Beach Memoirs on Broadway, When the Rain Stops Falling and Nikolai and the Others at Lincoln Center Theater. Also at the Barrow Street Theatre, he has directed Tribes, Our Town and Orson's Shadow, as well as Adding Machine, which was a BST production at the Minetta Lane. Originally from Chicago, his credits there include Sweet Bird of Youth (The Goodman); A Streetcar Named Desire, Picnic and The Price (Writers Theatre); Cherrywood, Mojo and The Hot l Baltimore (Mary-Arrchie); The Cider House Rules (co-directed with Marc Grapey at Famous Door); and Angels in America (The Journeymen); among others. For Michael Ira Cromer (1966-2015).

Marinda Anderson (The Women). Playwrights: Bella: An American Tall Tale, A Life, Far From Heaven. Off-Broadway: Sex of the Baby (Access Theater), Macbeth (Lincoln Center Interactive Theatre), Obama-ology (The Juilliard School). Regional: Airness (Humana), A Doll's House (Huntington), Three Sisters (PlayMakers Repertory), Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill (Berkshire Theatre Award nominee, Outstanding Female Performance), Intimate Apparel (Dorset Theatre Festival), Fairfield (Cleveland Play House). TV: "Horace and Pete," "Gotham." BFA: Howard University. MFA: NYU Graduate Acting Program. marindaanderson.com

Pun Bandhu (The Men). Playwrights Horizons debut. Broadway: Wit. Off-Broadway: Plenty, Informed Consent, True and Solid Ground, Faust, The Master Builder, Last of the Sons, Vengeance Can Wait. Film: Money Monster, The Judge, Frozen River, Burn After Reading, Michael Clayton. TV: "Allegiance," "Elementary," "The Good Wife," "Nurse Jackie." Winner of the 2015 New Dramatist's Charles Bowden Actor Award.

Deanna Dunagan (Ida). Playwrights Horizons debut. Broadway: August: Osage County (also Chicago, London, Sydney; Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Theatre World, Drama League, Jefferson awards; Olivier nomination), Man and Superman. Regional: Other Desert Cities, A Little Night Music, I Never Sang for My Father (Jefferson Award), James Joyce's The Dead (Jefferson Award), Bounce, A Delicate Balance (After Dark Award), Was, The Glamour House (After Dark Award), Sunday in the Park with George. National tour: Children of a Lesser God. Film: The Visit, The Company, Losing Isaiah. TV: "House of Cards," "Private Practice," "Prison Break," "Mitch Albom's Have a Little Faith."

Peter Friedman (The Son). Playwrights: Fly By Night, The Shaggs, After the Revolution, The Great God Pan, Circle Mirror Transformation (Obie Award), The Heidi Chronicles (also Broadway). Broadway: Ragtime (Tony nom.), Twelve Angry Men. Off-Broadway: Hamlet, Her Requiem, The Jacuzzi Play, The Open House (Drama Desk Award), Uncle Vanya, End Days, Body Awareness, The Hatmaker's Wife, The Common Pursuit, A Soldier's Play, and a Nightingale Sang..., The Loman Family Picnic, The Slug Bearers of Kayrol Island. Film: The Savages; Single White Female; Side Effects; Safe; Synecdoche, New York; Keep In Touch. TV: "Succession," "The Muppet Show," "Brooklyn Bridge."

Playwrights Horizons is dedicated to cultivating the most important American Playwrights, composers and lyricists, as well as developing and producing their bold new plays and musicals. Under Artistic Director Tim Sanford and Managing Director Leslie Marcus, Playwrights builds upon its diverse and renowned body of work, counting 400 writers among its artistic roster. In addition to its onstage work each season, Playwrights' singular commitment to nurturing American theater artists guides all of the institution's multifaceted initiatives: our acclaimed New Works Lab, a robust commissioning program, an innovative curriculum at its Theater School and more. Playwrights has been recognized with numerous awards and honors, including six Pulitzer Prizes, 13 Tony Awards and 39 Obie Awards. Prior artistic directors include André Bishop and Don Scardino. Robert Moss founded Playwrights Horizons in 1971 and oversaw its first decade, cementing the mission that continues to guide the institution today.

Notable productions include six Pulitzer Prize winners - Annie Baker's The Flick (2013 Obie Award, 2013 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize), Bruce Norris's Clybourne Park (2012 Tony Award, Best Play), Doug Wright's I Am My Own Wife (2004 Tony Award, Best Play), Wendy Wasserstein's The Heidi Chronicles (1989 Tony Award, Best Play), Alfred Uhry's Driving Miss Daisy and Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Sunday in the Park with George - as well as Ms. Baker's Circle Mirror Transformation (three 2010 Obie Awards including Best New American Play); Lisa D'Amour's Detroit (2013 Obie Award, Best New American Play); Samuel D. Hunter's The Whale (2013 Lortel Award, Best Play); Kirsten Greenidge's Milk Like Sugar (2012 Obie Award); JorDan Harrison's Marjorie Prime (2015 Pulitzer finalist); Lucas Hnath's The Christians (2016 Obie Award, 2016 Outer Critics Circle Award, 2015 Kesselring Prize); Robert O'Hara's Bootycandy (two 2015 Obie Awards); Adam Bock's A Life and A Small Fire; Taylor Mac's Hir; Danai Gurira's Familiar; Anne Washburn's Mr. Burns, a post-electric play; Sarah Ruhl's Stage Kiss and Dead Man's Cell Phone; Gina Gionfriddo's Rapture, Blister, Burn; Dan LeFranc's The Big Meal; Amy Herzog's The Great God Pan and After the Revolution; Bathsheba Doran's Kin; Edward Albee's Me, Myself & I; Melissa James Gibson's This (2010 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize finalist); Doug Wright, Scott Frankel and Michael Korie's Grey Gardens (three 2007 Tony Awards); Craig Lucas's Prayer For My Enemy and Small Tragedy (2004 Obie Award, Best American Play); Adam Rapp's Kindness; Lynn Nottage's Fabulation (2005 Obie Award for Playwriting); Kenneth Lonergan's Lobby Hero; David Greenspan's She Stoops to Comedy (2003 Obie Award); Kirsten Childs's The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin (2000 Obie Award); Richard Nelson and Shaun Davey's James Joyce's The Dead (2000 Tony Award, Best Book); Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's Assassins; William Finn's March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland; Christopher Durang's Betty's Summer Vacation and Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You; Richard Nelson's Goodnight Children Everywhere; Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty's Once on This Island; Jon Robin Baitz's The Substance of Fire; Scott McPherson's Marvin's Room; A.R. Gurney's Later Life; Adam Guettel and Tina Landau's Floyd Collins; and Jeanine Tesori and Brian Crawley's Violet.