THE HOUSEWIVES OF MANNHEIM To Premiere At 59E59 Theaters, Previews Begin 5/6

59E59 Theaters (Elysabeth Kleinhans, Artistic Director; Peter Tear, Executive Producer) welcomes the New Jersey Repertory Company, by special arrangement with Pat Addiss and Vasi Laurence, to AMERICAS OFF BROADWAY with the New York premiere of THE HOUSEWIVES OF MANNHEIM, written by Alan Brody and directed by Suzanne Barabas. THE HOUSEWIVES OF MANNHEIM begins previews on Thursday, May 6 for a limited engagement through Sunday, June 6.  Press Opening is Friday, May 14 at 8:15 PM.  The performance schedule is Tuesday - Wednesday at 7:15 PM; Thursday – Friday at 8:15 PM; Saturday at 2:15 PM & 8:15 PM; and Sunday at 3:15 PM. The ticket price is $35 ($24.50 for 59E59 Members).  Tickets are available by calling Ticket Central at 212-279-4200 or online at www.ticketcentral.com.  For more information visit www.59E59.org.

1944. While War is raging overseas, May, Alice, and Billie are home in Brooklyn marking the days until the men return. Every day has an unhurried rhythm with the women caring for their children, maintaining their households, visiting one another to catch up on gossip, borrowing coffee, trading ration cards and shopping at Loehman's. Into this carefully crafted world enters Sophie, a woman who has fled the Holocaust, and her appearance on the scene threatens the delicate equilibrium that the housewives have so skillfully created.

THE HOUSEWIVES OF MANNHEIM is “a keenly constructed and beautifully acted romantic drama” (Variety) that explores love, friendship and tolerance.

The design team includes Jessica Parks (scenic design and properties); Patricia E. Doherty (costume design); Jill Nagle (lighting design); and Merek Royce Press (sound design). The cast will be announced soon.

Alan Brody’s (playwright) plays have won numerous awards and had productions at such theaters as Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Aspen Playwrights Conference, Live Oak Theater in Austin, Texas, Berkshire Theater Festival and Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia. In 1989, his play, Invention for Fathers and Sons, was the first winner of the annuAl Rosenthal Award at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and was subsequently produced at the American Jewish Theater in New York City. The Company of Angels was the recipient of the 1990 Eisner Award from the Streisand Center for Jewish Culture in Los Angeles. It had its world premiere at the New Repertory Theater in Massachusetts in 1993, and has been produced at the T. Schreiber Studio in New York and Theater Emory in Atlanta. The Housewives of Mannheim had its world premiere at the New Jersey Repertory Company in 2009, after a number of developmental workshops in Boston and Indiana. Three of his plays, Five Scenes From Life, Greytop in Love and One-on-One were developed at the Missouri Repertory Theater. Greytop in Love was subsequently seen at the Walnut Street Theater, Philadelphia, in 1998, starring Kim Hunter. In 2010, the English speaking Bangalore Little Theater premiered Small Infinites, a play about Sir Isaac Newton, in Bangalore, India. The dramatic oratorio, Reckoning Time: A Song of Walt Whitman, which he wrote in collaboration with composer Peter Child, had its world premiere at Jordan Hall with the John Oliver Chorale in March of 1995. Mr. Brody is also the author of two novels, Coming To (1973) and Hey Lenny, Hey Jack (1975). He is currently Professor of Theater Arts at MIT where for ten years he was Associate Provost for the Arts.

Suzanne Barabas (Director) is the Artistic Director of the New Jersey Repertory Company in Long Branch, NJ. For NJ Rep, she directed Find Me a Voice, North Fork (world premiere), Immortal Interlude (world premiere), Octet (world premiere), Till Morning Comes (world premiere), Maggie Rose, Getting in Touch With My Inner B*tch (starring Christine Lavin), The Adjustment, Emil (world premiere), Ten Percent of Molly Snyder, Romulus Linney's Klonsky and Schwartz, Apostasy (world premiere), Women Who Steal, Apple, The Housewives of Mannheim (world premiere), Evie's Waltz and Dead Ringer (world premiere). In addition, Ms. Barabas has directed regional productions of Ibsen's A Doll's House, The Fantasticks, The Roar of the Greasepaint the Smell of the Crowd, Cabaret, Shaw's Heartbreak House, A.R. Gurney's The Perfect Party, Marsha Norman's 'Night Mother, Philip Barry's The Philadelphia Story, Christopher Durang's Beyond Therapy, Mark Dunn's Belles, Lee Blessing's Down the Road, Tennessee William's The Mutilated, Lanford Wilson's Home Free, among others. Ms. Barabas is a member of AEA, BMI, The Dramatists Guild, Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, and the League of Professional Theatre Women.

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