TBTB Stages Bruce Graham's ACCORDING TO GOLDMAN at Theatre Row, Beg. Today

Off-Broadway's Theater Breaking Through Barriers (TBTB) continues its 33rd Season with the Off-Broadway premiere of ACCORDING TO GOLDMAN by Bruce Graham (THE OUTGOING TIDE, ANY GIVEN MONDAY), with previews set to begin tonight, April 6, prior to its official press opening April 14, at Theatre Row's Clurman Theatre (410 West 42nd Street). TBTB artistic director and founder Ike Schambelan directs.

ACCORDING TO GOLDMAN is a fresh, funny and eventually fierce look at screenwriting for Hollywood. By studying a mentoring relationship between an old Hollywood hand and an eager young student, it shows the move of major movies from the elegance and grace of Fred Astaire to the massacres and fireballs of modern flicks.

The cast includes Stephen Drabicki, Pamela Sabaugh, and Nicholas Viselli. In keeping with TBTB's mission to produce works that integrate able-bodied actors with artists with disabilities, ACCORDING TO GOLDMAN co-stars one hard-of-hearing, one visually-impaired, and one able-bodied actor.

Seen recently in TBTB'S MORE OF OUR PARTS and THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, Stephen Drabicki's credits include appearances with the Lincoln Center Songbook Series, New York Deaf Theatre, Signstage on Tour and the 2011 ABC/Disney Television Diversity Casting Showcase. In addition to TBTB's THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, Pamela Sabaugh starred in her solo show IMMACULATE DEGENERATION, about living with progressive vision loss, at last year's New York International Fringe Festival. Nicholas Viselli has been a TBTB core company member since 1997 and most recently portrayed Shylock its production of THE MERCHANT OF VENICE.

ACCORDING TO GOLDMAN features set and lighting design by Bert Scott, costume design by Kristine Koury, sound design by Sam Crawford, prop design by Segoline Lazzaro. Choreography is by John Sheridan. Brooke Elsinghorst is Production Stage Manager.

Philadelphia-based playwright Bruce Graham is the author of THE OUTGOING TIDE, which premiered Off-Broadway in 2012, co-starring Michael Learned and Peter Strauss, and ANY GIVEN MONDAY, presented Off-Broadway in 2011. His other plays include MINOR DEMONS and EARLY ONE EVENING AT THE RAINBOW BAR AND GRILL. THE AHHHH FACTOR, his one-act play about a producer and writer who argue over whether they should shoot a sex scene for a beautiful, deaf movie star, had its world premiere as part of TBTB's 2012 series of short plays MORE OF OUR PARTS.

ACCORDING TO GOLDMAN was first presented by Philadelphia Theatre Company. In his review of the play for TalkinBroadway.com, Warren Hoffman described it as "highly entertaining and fascinating. A work that should appeal to movie and theatre fans alike. Constantly surprising and often hilarious." CurtainUp.com critic Kathryn Osenlund called the play "a film buff's delight!"

Ike Schambelan has been a theatrical director, teacher and critic for over 45 years. He has a bachelor's degree from Swarthmore College and a Doctor of Fine Arts from Yale Drama School. He has directed at the Long Wharf Theatre, the Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons, The New Dramatists, Equity Library Theatre, the Pittsburgh Public Theater, and the George Street Playhouse; and has directed many productions for TBTB. As founder and Artistic Director of TBTB, he has built it for 33 years into an Off-Broadway company recognized for doing first-class work. Previous productions include works by Shakespeare, Shaw, and Gurney, as well as new plays, including NY premieres of THE RULES OF CHARITY and A NERVOUS SMILE by disabled playwright John Belluso, and Kate Moira Ryan's BASS FOR PICASSO. For TBTB, he most recently directed THE MERCHANT OF VENICE.

Theater Breaking Through Barriers, formerly Theater by the Blind, is a critically acclaimed company integrating able-bodied actors with artists with disabilities. Founded in 1979, by Artistic Director Ike Schambelan, the company's mission is to change the image of people with disabilities from one of dependence to independence, to fight stereotypes and misperceptions associated with disability, and to show how vibrant, fluid and exuberant the work of artists with disabilities can be. Christina Roussos and Nicholas Viselli are Associate Directors.

Bruce Graham's ACCORDING TO GOLDMAN runs tonight, April 6-May 5 at Theatre Row's Clurman Theatre (410 West 42nd Street): Wednesday and Thursday at 7:00pm; Friday at 8pm; Saturday at 3pm and 8pm; and Sunday at 3pm. Tickets are $51.25. For reservations, call 212-239-6200 or visit www.telecharge.com. For additional information, visit www.tbtb.org.

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