Second Stage Theatre's Uptown Series WILDFLOWER Opens 7/27

Second Stage Theatre (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director, Ellen Richard, Executive Director) continues this summer's Second Stage Theatre Uptown Series with the world premiere of Lila Rose Kaplan's Wildflower. Directed by Giovanna Sardelli, Wildflower features Nadia Bowers, Ron Cephas Jones, Quincy Dunn-Baker, Jake O'Connor and Renée Felice Smith. Previews began Monday, July 13 and opening night is this evening, Monday, July 27 at 7:00pm.

Wildflower is presented at Second Stage Theatre's uptown home, the McGinn/Cazale Theatre on Broadway at 76th Street. Tickets are $50 and can be purchased by calling the Second Stage Theatre Box Office at 212-246-4422 or online at www.2ST.com.

In Wildflower, a woman and her troubled son look to escape their past in Crested Butte, a small town with its own share of secrets. They encounter a curious girl, a forest ranger, and an ex-drag queen. The five collide in a summer of botany and sexual awakening. Wildflower explores the discovery of desire and its unexpected consequences.

Created as a program to help develop and provide exposure for the voices of a new generation of theatre artists, Second Stage Theatre Uptown seeks to develop the skills of emerging playwrights, to provide early-career artists with the support of a major artistic institution, and to create new plays for the American Theatre. Each show has a limited rehearsal period, as well as a streamlined budget. The series has helped launch and advance the careers of several up-and-coming playwrights, including Rajiv Joseph (Animals Out of Paper, nominated for a Lortel Award for Outstanding Play), Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (Good Boys and True), Adam Bock (The Receptionist, The Drunken City), and Brooke Berman (Hunting and Gathering).

Second Stage Theatre Uptown Series 2009 kicked off earlier this summer with the world premiere of Zakiyyah Alexander's 10 Things to do Before I Die directed by Jackson Gay.

Lila Rose Kaplan's plays include Aquarium, Catching Flight, Chicken with Stars, and Wildflower. Her works have been seen and developed at Arena Stage, The Kennedy Center, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Mixed Blood, Manhattan Rep, La Jolla Playhouse and The Culture Project among others. Having recently received her MFA in Playwriting from University of California, San Diego, she is currently the Shank Playwriting Fellow at Cornerstone Theatre Company in Los Angeles.

Giovanna Sardelli recently won the 2008 Joseph A. Callaway Award for excellence in stage direction for Second Stage Theatre Uptown's production of Rajiv Joseph's Animals Out of Paper. Other credits include: Taking Flight (Goodman Theatre & Stages Repertory Co., CTG, San Diego Rep., and Sundance), All This Intimacy (Second Stage Uptown), Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo (The Lark), Huck & Holden (Cherry Lane), Lynn Rosen's Apple Cove (The Lark/TMTP), Education: NYU MFA Graduate Acting, graduate of their Director's Lab.

Wildflower has scenic design by Steven Kemp, costume design by Paloma Young, lighting design by Lap Chi Chu, and sound design by Jill DuBoff.

Nadia Bowers: Broadway: Doubt, Metamorphoses. NYC: Julius Caesar (NYSF); Romania, Kiss Me!; Not Waving; Eyes of the Heart and others. Numerous regional theatres: Guthrie; La Jolla Playhouse, Tartuffe, with Des McAnuff. Various film and TV. Webseries: www.yearofsublets.com. BA: Dartmouth College. MFA: NYU's Graduate Acting Program.

Ron Cephas Jones: NY credits include: Richard III (Public Theatre), LAByrinth's Our Lady of 121st St. and Jesus Hopped the A-Train (Donmar, the ArtsTheatre; Lucille Lortel nominee). Additional credits: Othello (Royal Theatre), The Exonerated, Holiday Heart (MTC), Everybody's Ruby (Public Theatre), Thunder Knocking on the Door (Yale Rep; Conn. OCC Award), House Arrest: First Edition and Don't Explain (AUDELCO Best Actor Award). Film: He Got Game and Sweet and Lowdown. TV: "Law & Order," "NYPD Blue," "NY Undercover" and "Word of Honor."

Quincy Dunn-Baker: Off-Broadway: The Good Negro (Public Theatre, dir. Leisl Tommy), Romeo and Juliet (Public Theatre, dir. Michael Grief), Mr. Marmalade (Roundabout, dir. Michael Greif). Regional: Magnetic North (World Premiere, Portland Stage, dir. Richard Hamburger), Stanley in A Streetcar Named Desire (Triad Stage, dir. Preston Lane), Brick in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (The English Theater of Frankfurt, Germany), The Faithful (World Premiere, dir. Ian Morgan). Television: Guest Stars on "Law and Order: SVU," "CSI: NY," and Showtime's "Nurse Jackie," recurring roles on "Guiding Light," "One Life to Live," and "As the World Turns." Education: The North Carolina School of the Arts, BFA Acting.

Jake O'Connor recently appeared on the television programs "Fringe" and "Gossip Girl," as well as in the film Return To Sleepaway Camp.

Renée Felice Smith is making her off-Broadway debut in Wildflower. She recently appeared on the television program "Gossip Girl."

The series premiered in 2002 with three new American plays: ...in the absence of spring..., written and directed by Joe Calarco; The Notebook, written by Wendy Kesselman and directed by Evan Yionoulis; and Hunt Holman's Spanish Girl, directed by Erica Schmidt. Second Stage Theatre Uptown was on hiatus in 2003 due to theatre repairs. The 2004 season saw the New York premiere of Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa's The Mystery Plays, as well as Brooke Berman's The Triple Happiness, starring Ally Sheedy. In 2005, the series presented the New York premiere of the critically acclaimed comedy Swimming in the Shallows, written by Adam Bock and starring Logan Marshall-Green, as well as the world premiere of Dan O'Brien's The Dear Boy. The 2006 series featured two world premiere comedies: Getting Home, written by Anton Dudley and directed by David Schweizer, and Rajiv Joseph's All This Intimacy, directed by Giovanna Sardelli. The 2007 series featured Marisa Wegrzyn's The Butcher of Baraboo, directed by Judith Ivey, and Joshua Tobiessen's Election Day, directed by Jeremy Dobrish.

Last season's Uptown Series featured two world premiere plays: Carly Mensch's Len, Asleep in Vinyl, directed by Jackson Gay, and Rajiv Joseph's Animals Out of Paper, which was recently nominated for a Lortel Award for Outstanding Play, directed by Callaway Award-winner Giovanna Sardelli.

Wildflower will be performed at the McGinn/Cazale Theatre (Broadway & 76th Street) from Monday, through Saturday, August 8 on the following schedule: Monday-Saturday at 7:30pm, Wednesday and Saturday at 2:00pm. There will be no matinee performance on July 15.

Tickets can be purchased at the Second Stage Theatre Box Office (307 West 43rd Street) or by calling (212) 246-4422. Advance tickets are not available at the McGinn/Cazale Theater. Single tickets are $50; advance youth tickets (age 30 and under) are $20; and student RUSH tickets are $10 (available 30 minutes prior to curtain).

For more information, please visit www.2ST.com.

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