Posey Stars, Plays by Norris, Gibson Among Playwrights Horizons 2009-2010 Season Highlights

Playwrights Horizons, under the leadership of Artistic Director Tim Sanford and Managing Director Leslie Marcus, is proud to announce four World Premieres for its 2009/2010 Season. Presented at the theater company's home at 416 West 42nd Street, the productions will be (in Season order):

THE RETRIBUTIONISTS - the World Premiere of a new play by Daniel Goldfarb (Modern Orthodox, Adam Baum and the Jew Movie), directed by Leigh Silverman (Well, From Up Here). THE RETRIBUTIONISTS will be the first production of the season.

CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION - the World Premiere of a new play by Annie Baker (Body Awareness at Atlantic Theater Company), directed by Sam Gold (Rag and Bone at Rattlestick, The Black Eyed at New York Theatre Workshop).

THIS - the World Premiere of a new play by Obie Award winner Melissa James Gibson ([sic]), directed by Obie Award winner Daniel Aukin ([sic], eight seasons as Artistic Director of Soho Rep) and featuring the stage return of film favorite Parker Posey (Lortel Award for Hurlyburly, Lortel nomination for Fifth of July, over 50 films including Superman Returns, Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, The House of Yes). THIS was commissioned by Playwrights Horizons with funds provided by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation/Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Leading National Theatres Program.

CLYBOURNE PARK - the World Premiere of a new play by Bruce Norris (The Pain and the Itch at Playwrights Horizons), directed by Pam MacKinnon (Peter and Jerry at Second Stage, The Four of Us at MTC, Occupant at Signature). Mr. Norris has a long history with Steppenwolf Theater, where his previous five plays have had their World Premieres. Playwrights Horizons presented Norris's first New York premiere with The Pain and the Itch in 2006. Clybourne Park will be his first play to have its World Premiere in New York.

The new musical and a sixth and final production, as well as all casting information and dates for all six shows, will be announced in the coming months.

Subscriptions to Playwrights Horizons' 2009/2010 season will be available shortly, in 6-show (four Mainstage productions and two productions in The Peter Jay Sharp Theater) or 4-show (four Mainstage productions) packages.

Packages include "Silver Pass" (6-show with additional benefits, $330-335), "Anytime" (6-show $260-265, 4-show $195-200), "Matinees" (6-show $240-245, 4-show $175-180), "Previews and Sunday Nights" (6-show $225-230, 4-show $160-165), "Patron" (two 6-show packages with exclusive benefits, $1250), "FlexPass" (6 tickets $270-275, 4 tickets $200-205), "30&Under FlexPass" (6 tickets $120, 4 tickets $80) and "Student FlexPass" (6 tickets, $60, 4 tickets $40).

In addition to discounts on all Mainstage season attractions, subscribers receive priority seating, ticket exchange privileges, parking and dining discounts, and exclusive mailings of Playwrights Horizons Bulletins.

Playwrights Horizons, under the leadership of Artistic Director Tim Sanford and Managing Director Leslie Marcus, is a writer's theater dedicated to the support and development of contemporary American Playwrights, composers and lyricists, and to the production of their new work. In its 38 years, Playwrights Horizons has presented the work of more than 375 writers and has received numerous awards and honors. Notable productions include four Pulitzer Prize winners: 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 Craig Lucas's PRAYER FOR MY Enemy and Small Tragedy (2004 Obie Award, Best American Play), Doug Wright, Scott Frankel and Michael Korie's Grey Gardens (3 2007 Tony Awards), Adam Rapp's Kindness, John Dempsey, Michael Friedman and Rinne Groff's Saved, Sarah Ruhl's Dead Man's Cell Phone, Bruce Norris's The Pain and the Itch, Lynn Nottage's Fabulation (2005 Obie Award for Playwriting), Kenneth Lonergan's Lobby Hero, Kirsten Childs's The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin, Richard Nelson and Shaun Davey's James Joyce's The Dead, 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 and Franny's Way, 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.

Playwrights Horizons' season productions are generously supported by The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust.

Playwrights Horizons is supported in part by public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York State Assembly and the New York State Senate. In addition, Playwrights Horizons receives major support from Carnegie Corporation of New York, Charina Endowment Fund, The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation, The Shubert Foundation and Time Warner Inc.

Playwrights Horizons' 2009/2010 SEASON

THE RETRIBUTIONISTS

World Premiere of a new play by Daniel Goldfarb

Directed by Leigh Silverman

Playwrights Horizons Mainstage Theater (416 West 42nd Street)

"My love, this is more than retribution. This is idealism."

Spring 1946. The plan was simple - a German for every Jew. Its execution would be swift, clean, its impact undeniable. In this daring, new romantic thriller inspired by actual events, a band of Jewish freedom fighters attempts to avenge a society's wrongs - if only they can keep from tearing each other apart along the way.

Daniel Goldfarb (Playwright). New York: Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me on Broadway; Modern Orthodox at New World Stages; Sarah, Sarah at Manhattan Theater Club; Adam Baum and the Jew Movie at Blue Light Theater Company (2000 NY Newsday Oppenheimer Award, 2003 Canadian Authors Association Award for Best Play, 2000 Dramatist's Guild Hull-Warriner Award Finalist). Regional: Party Come Here at Williamstown Theatre Festival; Jerry Christmas at New York Stage and Film; Long Wharf, CanStage, etc. He is writing the book for Radio Girl, the musical adaptation of the Shirley Temple film Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, with Henry Krieger and Susan Birkenhead. Commissions: Manhattan Theatre Club, Roundabout Theatre Company, South Coast Repertory Theatre. Grants: AT&T Onstage, Lincoln Center Lecomte du Nouy Foundation, The Jerome Foundation, NEA. Film/Television: pilots for Showtime and CBS; screenplays for HBO, Chicago Films, Bureau of Moving Pictures. Education: The Juilliard School, NYU (BFA, MFA - now teaches playwriting there). Member: The Dramatist's Guild, WGA, MCC's Playwrights Coalition.

Leigh Silverman (Director) last worked at Playwrights Horizons directing Tanya Barfield's Blue Door (Audelco nomination for Best Director). Broadway: Lisa Kron's Well. Off-Broadway credits include Stephin Merritt & David Greenspan's upcoming new musical Coraline (this May at MCC Theatre), Liz Flahive's From Up Here (Manhattan Theatre Club, Drama Desk nomination); David Henry Hwang's Yellow Face (co-production Center Theatre Group/The Public Theater); Beebo Brinker Chronicles (Hourglass Group/37 Arts); Brooke Berman's Hunting and Gathering (Primary Stages); Well (The Public Theater, The Huntington Theater and ACT, San Francisco); Danny and the Deep Blue Sea (Second Stage Theatre); The Five Lesbian Brothers' Oedipus At Palm Springs (New York Theatre Workshop); Eve Ensler's The Treatment (The Culture Project); Neena Beber's Jump/Cut (Woolly Mammoth Theatre/Theater J and Women's Project); and Big Times (W.E.T.). West End: Wit (Vaudeville Theatre). Other recent regional productions include The Road to Mecca (Seattle Repertory Theatre); Tanya Barfield's Of Equal Measure (Center Theatre Group) and Blue Door (Seattle Repertory Theater). Upcoming projects include Lisa Kron's 5 Questions and Heidi Schreck's Creature.

CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION

World Premiere of a new play by Annie Baker

Directed by Sam Gold

Playwrights Horizons Peter Jay Sharp Theater (416 West 42nd Street)

"If. I. Wanted. To. Become. An. Actress. I. Would. Just. Go. Home."
When four lost New Englanders enrolled in Marty's community center drama class experiment with harmless games, hearts are quietly torn apart and tiny wars of epic proportions are waged and won. Annie Baker's new comedy is a beautifully crafted diorama, a petri dish in which we see, with terrific detail and clarity, the hilarious sadness of a motley quintet.

Annie Baker (Playwright) full-length plays include Body Awareness (Atlantic Theater Company, Time Out New York's Top Ten Plays of 2008, 2008 GLAAD Media Award Nomination), Nocturama, The End of the Middle Ages and The Aliens. Her work has been developed and workshopped at Soho Rep, New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, MCC, the Atlantic Theater Company, Ensemble Studio Theatre, the Ontological-Hysteric, Ars Nova, the Wilma, the Lark, the Magic Theatre, the 2007 Bay Area Playwrights Festival, the 2008 Sundance Institute Theatre Lab and the 2008 Sundance Institute Playwrights Retreat in Ucross, Wyoming. Recent projects include a workshop of Nocturama at the Cape Cod Theatre Project and summer residencies for Circle Mirror Transformation at New York Theatre Workshop and the Sundance Theatre Lab. Annie is a member of MCC's Playwrights Coalition and Ars Nova's Play Group, a former member of EST's Youngblood and the 06/07 Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, and a 2008 Time Warner Storytelling Fellow. She has an MFA from Mac Wellman's playwriting program at Brooklyn College.

Sam Gold (Director) most recently directed Nick Jones' Jollyship the Whizbang which, after a successful run at Ars Nova, is receiving a commercial transfer that will open in Summer 2009. Other recent credits include Anne Carson's translation of Electra (Williams College), Noah Haidle's Rag and Bone (Rattlestick), Sam Marks' The Joke (Studio Dante), Betty Shamieh's The Black Eyed (New York Theatre Workshop), Colin McKenna's The Secret Agenda of Trees (Cherry Lane), Rogelio Martinez's Fizz (The Ohio Theatre), Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing (The Hangar Theatre), Joanna Laurens' The Three Birds (GAle GAtes), and Betty Shamieh's Chocolate in Heat (The Tank). Sam is the Resident Director at the Juilliard School, where his credits include Beau Willimon's War Story, Twelfth Night, Suddenly Last Summer, Willimon's Farragut North, Suzan-Lori Parks' In the Blood, and Marlowe's Edward II for the Juilliard Centennial Tour (REDCAT, LA/Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago). From 2003 to 2006, Sam served as Dramaturg at The Wooster Group. He is a NYTW Usual Suspect, a Drama League Directing Fellow, a former Playwrights Horizons Directing Resident, a recipient of the Princess Grace Award and a graduate of The Juilliard Directing Program.

THIS

World Premiere of a new play by Melissa James Gibson

Directed by Daniel Aukin

Featuring Parker Posey

Playwrights Horizons Mainstage Theater (416 West 42nd Street)

"You know when you're in the middle of telling someone a story and mid-way through, you realize that your story isn't as good as you thought it was but it's too late to go back? I'm afraid my life is like that."

Everyone's worried about Jane (Parker Posey). Her husband's been dead a year. Her daughter is ten. Her poetry's lost its muse. Her friends aren't that happy either. Her married friends are struggling. Her gay friend is lonely. And Jane's blind date with the French doctor (without borders) is complicated. An unromantic comedy about the joys - and disappointments - of entering your forties.

Melissa James Gibson (Playwright) plays include [sic] (Obie Award for playwriting, Kesselring Prize, The Best Plays of 2001-02); Suitcase or, those that resemble flies from a distance (NEA/TCG Theatre Residency Program for Playwrights, Rockefeller Foundation's Multi-Arts Production Fund); Brooklyn Bridge, with a song by Barbara Brousal (AT&T Onstage award); All Is Not (New York State Council on the Arts Theatre Artist Commission); and Current Nobody, a loose adaptation of Homer's Odyssey (2005 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize Finalist; 2006 Sundance Theatre Lab). Gibson's work has been produced at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Soho Rep, La Jolla Playhouse, and The Children's Theatre Company, as well as many other theaters, regionally and internationally. Currently, Gibson is working on commissions for Center Theatre Group and the Atlantic Theater Company. A graduate of the Yale School of Drama, Gibson has been a Jerome and MacDowell Colony Fellow, a recipient of a Whiting Writers Award and commissions from Playwrights Horizons, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, La Jolla Playhouse and The Children's Theatre Company/New Dramatists Playground program. [sic] and Suitcase are available through Dramatists Play Service. The complete text of Brooklyn Bridge appeared in the July/August 2005 issue of American Theatre. Gibson is a graduate of New Dramatists and the recipient of a 2006 Lucille Lortel Foundation Playwrights' Fellowship and a 2007 Guggenheim Fellowship.

Daniel Aukin (Director) most recently directed the New York premiere of Back Back Back by Itamar Moses at Manhattan Theatre Club. Other recent credits include A View from the Bridge at Arena Stage, Melissa James Gibson's Current Nobody at Woolly Mammoth and Elmer Rice's The Adding Machine at La Jolla Playhouse, as well as a workshop of Rachel Axler's new play Smudge at the Eugene O'Neill Conference. As Artistic Director of Soho Rep, Daniel directed Mark Schultz's critically acclaimed Everything Will Be Done (World Premiere), Melissa James Gibson's [sic] (World Premiere, Obie Award for Direction), Quincy Long's The Year of the Baby (World Premiere), Mac Wellman's Cat's-Paw (World Premiere), Marie Irene Fornes' Molly's Dream (World Premiere), and Melissa James Gibson's Suitcase (also at La Jolla Playhouse). For other theaters: Alexandra Cunningham's No. 11 (Blue and White), Melissa James Gibson's Brooklyn Bridge at The Children's Theatre of Minneapolis and Mat Smart's The Hopper Collection at the Huntington Theatre. He is also developing a musical adaptation of the Jonathan Lethem novel The Fortress of Solitude with Michael Friedman (composer/lyricist) and Itamar Moses (book). During his tenure at Soho Rep., he strengthened the company's commitment to developing iconoclastic new plays. He commissioned over fifty new plays though the Writer/Director Lab and produced sixteen-full-length productions (including new plays by Adam Bock, The Flying Machine, Young Jean Lee, and Richard Maxwell). Accolades for this body of work include eight Obie awards, four Drama Desk Nominations, two Kesselring Prizes, and one Oppenheimer Award.

Parker Posey (Jane) last starred Off-Broadway in the acclaimed revival of Hurlyburly, for which she received a Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Featured Actress and in Lanford Wilson's Fifth of July (a Lortel nomination for Lead Actress). She also starred in the Los Angeles premiere of John Patrick Shanley's Four Dogs and a Bone, directed by Lawrence Kasdan, and starred on Broadway opposite Matthew Broderick in Elaine May's Taller Than A Dwarf. Parker will next been seen in two films: Happy Tears starring opposite Demi Moore and directed by Mitchell Lichtenstein and Warner Bros.' Spring Breakdown starring opposite Amy Poehler. She has appeared in over 50 films including the blockbuster Superman Returns, where she costarred as Kitty Kowalski, Lex Luthor's partner-in-crime. For her work, Parker has received numerous accolades, including Golden Globe and Independent Spirit Award nominations. Films from her vast repertoire include four films with Christopher Guest (Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind and For Your Consideration), Zoe Cassavetes' Broken English (Independent Spirit Award nomination), Rebecca Miller's Personal Velocity (Independent Spirit Award nomination), the CBS film Hell on Heels: The Battle of Mary Kay (Golden Globe nomination) opposite Shirley MacLaine, The Eye, The Sweetest Thing, The Anniversary Party, Scream 3,You've Got Mail, Suburbia, Dazed and Confused, Clockwatchers, The Daytrippers, The Event and four films with Hal Hartley (Amateur, Flirt, Henry Fool and Fay Grim). For her performance in The House of Yes, she received a Special Jury Prize at The Sundance Film Festival.

CLYBOURNE PARK

World Premiere of a new play by Bruce Norris

Directed by Pam MacKinnon

Playwrights Horizons Mainstage Theater (416 West 42nd Street)

"You can't live in principle, can you? Gotta live in a house."

In 1958, a white family moves out. In 2008, a white family moves in. In the intervening years, Change overtakes a neighborhood, along with attitudes, inhabitants, and property values. Bruce Norris's pitch-black comedy takes on the issue of gentrification in our communities, leaving no stone unturned - and taking no prisoners - in the process.

Bruce Norris (Playwright) is an actor and writer whose plays include The Infidel (2000), Purple Heart (2002), We All Went Down to Amsterdam (2003), The Pain and the Itch (2004) and The Unmentionables (2006) all of which had their premiere at Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago. His newest play, titled A Parallelogram, will premiere there in 2010. The Pain and the Itch had its New York premiere at Playwrights Horizons in 2007. His work has also been produced at Lookingglass Theatre, Chicago (an adaptation of Joe Orton's Up Against It, 1994 and The Vanishing Twin, 1996), Philadelphia Theatre Company, Woolly Mammoth Theatre (DC), The Royal Court Theatre (London) and The Galway Festival (Galway, Ireland). He is the recipient of the Whiting Foundation Prize for Drama (2006) as well as two Joseph Jefferson Awards (Chicago) for Best New Work, and the Kesselring Prize, Honorable Mention, for 2006. As an actor he can be seen in the films A Civil Action and The Sixth Sense, among others. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Pam MacKinnon (Director) recently directed A Delicate Balance by Edward Albee at Arena Stage with Kathleen Chalfant and Ellen McLaughlin, and the World Premiere of Richard Greenberg's new play, Our Mother's Brief Affair at South Coast Repertory. Other recent credits include All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren (Intiman Theatre), The Four of Us by Itamar Moses (Manhattan Theatre Club), Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa's Good Boys and True (Steppenwolf), the New York debut of Edward Albee's Peter and Jerry (Second Stage), Bruce Norris' The Unmentionables (Woolly Mammoth), and the World Premieres of both John Fugelsang's All The Wrong Reasons (New York Theatre Workshop) and The Four of Us by Itamar Moses (Old Globe). Pam also directed the reading of Richard Greenberg's Our Mother's Brief Affair at the 2007 Pacific Playwrights Festival (South Coast Repertory). Recent credits include David Mamet's Romance (Goodman Theatre), Gina Gionfriddo's After Ashley (Philadelphia Theatre Company) and Bach at Leipzig by Itamar Moses (NYTW); World Premiere productions of Alice the Magnet by Erin Courtney (Clubbed Thumb), Sheri Wilner's Father Joy (CATF and SPF) and Victor Lodato's 3F, 4F (Magic). Other recent productions include: the world premiere of Edward Albee's Peter and Jerry (Hartford Stage); Ann Marie Healy's Dearest Eugenia Haggis (CCTP); Yazmina Reza's LIFEx3 (Alley); Victor Lodato's Slay the Dragon (A.C.T.); Edward Albee's The Play About the Baby (Goodman); Tina Howe's Water Music (EST); and the U.S. regional (Alley) and European (Vienna) premieres of Edward Albee's The Goat or, Who Is Sylvia?. She works frequently with Clubbed Thumb, Inc., where she is an Affiliated Artist, and at New York Stage and Film on new play development. Pam is an alumna of the Lincoln Center Director's Lab, the Women's Project Directors' Forum, the Drama League Fall Production Fellowship and is a member of SSD&C.

For subscription and ticket information to all Playwrights Horizons productions, call TICKET CENTRAL at (212) 279-4200, Noon to 8 pm daily, or purchase online at the Playwrights Horizons website at www.playwrightshorizons.org

 

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