Primary Stages Announces Casting For FINAL FOLLIES And DOWNSTAIRS

Primary Stages (Andrew Leynse, Artistic Director; Shane D. Hudson, Executive Director; Casey Childs, Founder) is proud to announce complete casting today for the first two productions of their 2018/19 season: Final Follies, by A.R. Gurney (Love Letters, Sylvia, Black Tie at Primary Stages) and directed by David Saint (Clever Little Lies), and Downstairs by Theresa Rebeck ("Smash," Dead Accounts, Poor Behavior at Primary Stages), directed by Adrienne Campbell-Holt (What We're Up Against). All performances will take place at the Cherry Lane Theatre (38 Commerce St, New York, NY, 10014).

The cast of Final Follies, which begins performances on September 12, 2018, will feature Obie Award winner Betsy Aidem (All the Way), Colin Hanlon (In Transit), Mark Junek (The Hairy Ape), Piter Marek (Cyrano de Bergerac), Greg Mullavey (Clever Little Lies), Rachel Nicks (War), and Deborah Rush ("Orange is the New Black"). Opening night is set for Tuesday, October 2, for a limited run through October 21, 2018.

Join us as we bid farewell to a beloved member of the Primary Stages family and one of the most prolific playwrights of the 20th century with Final Follies, a uniquely curated selection of three one-act plays by master writer A.R. Gurney. The plays specifically chosen for this special engagement include: The Love Course, an observation of the culminating meeting of an undergraduate romantic literature course, co-taught by two of academia's most eccentric professors; The Rape of Bunny Stuntz, an enigmatic story of an overburdened woman anxiously trying to keep her personal life from the throes of chaos while leading a rowdy community meeting; and the titular Final Follies, the last chapter in Gurney's oeuvre of short plays examining WASP life in America, about a forlorn Manhattanite searching for the key to adulthood in the most truly, and literally, adult place imaginable.

Final Follies will feature scenic design by James Youmans, costume design by David Murin, lighting design by Cory Pattak, sound design by Scott Killian, and casting by Stephanie Klapper Casting.

The second show of the 2018/19 season, Downstairs, begins performances on November 7, 2018 with opening night set for Sunday, November 18, and runs through December 22, 2018. The cast includes Tony and Emmy Award winner Tyne Daly (Gypsy, "Cagney and Lacey") as "Irene," Emmy Award nominee Tim Daly ("Wings," "Madam Secretary") as "Teddy," and John Procaccino (Our Lady of 121st Street, Our Mother's Brief Affair) as "Gerry."

Theresa Rebeck, one of the country's most acclaimed and widely-produced playwrights, returns to Primary Stages with the gripping new family drama, Downstairs. This thrilling production will star real-life siblings Tyne and Tim Daly, who will be appearing together for the first time on the New York stage. In Downstairs, Teddy is a bit lost and has found himself staying in his older sister Irene's unfinished basement, which has infuriated her husband Gerry. As Irene and Teddy struggle with this less-than-ideal living arrangement, they quickly find themselves grappling with the burden of their family's troublesome history. While trying to mend the past, the pair unearths a foreboding danger threatening to break the perilously thin bonds holding them together.

Downstairs will feature scenic design by Narelle Sissons, costume design by Sarah Laux, lighting design by Michael Giannitti, and sound design by M.L. Dogg.

The performance schedule for Final Follies is as follows: Tuesday-Friday at 8pm; Saturday at 2pm & 8pm; Sunday at 3pm. Exceptions: there will be an additional performance on Wednesday, October 3 at 2pm. The performance on Wednesday, October 10 will be at 2pm instead of 8pm.

The performance schedule for Downstairs is as follows: Tuesday-Friday at 8pm; Saturday at 2pm & 8pm; Sunday at 3pm. Exceptions: there will be no performances on Friday, November 9; Friday, November 16; and Friday, November 30. There will be additional performances on Sunday, November 11 at 8pm; Wednesday, November 21 at 2pm; Friday, November 23 at 2pm; Sunday, December 2 at 8pm; Wednesday, December 5 at 2pm; and Wednesday, December 19 at 2pm.

Single tickets for Final Follies and Downstairs start at $80, with additional premium seating options offered. All tickets are available at PrimaryStages.org or by calling OvationTix at 212-352-3101. Group tickets are available by contacting 212-840-9705. Subscriptions for the Primary Stages 2018/19 Season are on sale now for $200 and include tickets to all four mainstage productions. All subscription packages can also be purchased by visiting PrimaryStages.org or by calling OvationTix at 212-352-3101.

Primary Stages 2018/19 season will continue with God Said This, written by Leah Nanako Winkler (Two Mile Hollow). Directed by Morgan Gould (Kentucky), God Said This is set to run January-February 2019. The season will conclude with Little Women, written by Kate Hamill (Pride and Prejudice), based on the novel by Louisa May Alcott and directed by Sarna Lapine (Sunday in the Park with George). Little Women will run May-June 2019.

Primary Stages is an Off-Broadway not-for-profit theater company dedicated to inspiring, supporting, and sharing the art of playwriting. We operate on the strongly held belief that the future of American theater relies on nurturing playwrights and giving them the artistic support needed to create new work. Since our founding in 1984, we have produced more than 130 new plays, including A.R. Gurney's Black Tie, Indian Blood, The Fourth Wall, and Buffalo Gal; Theresa Rebeck's Poor Behavior; Kate Hamill's Pride and Prejudice; Sharon Washington's Feeding the Dragon; Tanya Saracho's Fade; Michael McKeever's Daniel's Husband; Horton Foote's The Roads to Home, The Day Emily Married, Harrison, TX, and Dividing the Estate (two 2009 Tony Award nominations); David Ives' All in the Timing (original 1993 production and 2013 revival) and Lives of the Saints; Donald Margulies' The Model Apartment (1995 premiere and 2013 revival); Billy Porter's While I Yet Live; Deborah Zoe Laufer's Informed Consent; Charles Busch's The Tribute Artist and Olive and the Bitter Herbs; In Transit by James Allen-Ford, Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Russ Kaplan, and Sara Wordsworth (which transferred to Broadway in 2016); Daisy Foote's When They Speak of Rita and Him; Terrence McNally's Dedication or the Stuff of Dreams and The Stendhal Syndrome; Danai Gurira and Nikkole Salter's In the Continuum (which went on to tour the U.S., Africa, and Scotland); and Conor McPherson's St. Nicholas (which marked the playwright's U.S. debut). Our productions and artists have received critical acclaim, including numerous Tony, Obie, Lortel, Off-Broadway Alliance, AUDELCO, Outer Critics' Circle, Drama League, and Drama Desk awards and nominations. Primary Stages supports playwrights and develops new works through commissions, workshops, readings, and our education, access, and training programs: The Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group, the Marvin and Anne Einhorn School of Performing Arts (ESPA), the Fordham/Primary Stages MFA in Playwriting, Teenwrights, the Free Student Matinee Program, the Internship Program, TixTeen, PS35, and the newly launched Primary Stages Off-Broadway Oral History Project. Through these programs, Primary Stages advocates for our artists, helping them make important-and often transformative-connections within the theater community.

In 1924 colleagues of Edna St. Vincent Millay opened the Cherry Lane Playhouse, establishing a future home for the seminal voices of the American stage, among them F. Scott Fitzgerald, Elmer Rice, O'Neill, O'Casey, Odets, Auden, Gertrude Stein, T.S. Eliot, William Saroyan, Beckett, Albee, Pinter, Ionesco, LeRoi Jones, Sam Shepard, Lanford Wilson, Joe Orton and David Mamet. Established in 1997, the current resident, award-winning company, Cherry Lane Alternative, is a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to building a community to support the playwriting process and nurture emerging playwrights, in order to secure the future of American drama. For a detailed history visit cherrylanetheatre.org

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