THE LATE CHRISTOPHER BEAN Takes Final Bow at The Beckett Theatre Tonight, 12/5

TACT/The Actors Company Theatre (Scott Alan Evans, Cynthia Harris and Simon Jones, Co-Artistic Directors), the critically-acclaimed company "dedicated to presenting neglected or rarely produced plays of literary merit," will open its 17th Anniversary season with The Late Christopher Bean, a sly 1930's comedy by Pulitzer Prize-winner Sidney Howard based upon "Prenez Garde a la Peinture," by Rene Fauchois. Directed by TACT Company Member Jenn Thompson, performances begin at Theatre Row's Beckett Theatre (410West 42nd Street - between 9th & 10th Avenues) on Sunday, November 1st, 2009 at 3pm. Opening night is Wednesday, November 11th at 7:30pm. Performances will continue through Saturday, December 5th.

The cast of The Late Christopher Bean includes TACT Company Members: Mary Bacon, Cynthia Darlow, Greg McFadden, James Murtaugh, James Prendergast and guest artists Bob Ari, Hunter Canning, Jessiee Datino, and Kate Middleton.

The creative team is comprised of Charlie Corcoran (sets), Martha Hally (costumes), Ben Stanton (lights), Stephen Kunken (sound), Mark Berman (original music) and Taline Alexander (properties). Meredith Dixon is Production Stage Manager and Jane Clausen is Assistant Stage Manager.

In The Late Christopher Bean, Yankee practicality collides with New York's sophisticated Art World as all hell breaks loose when a celebrated painter's early works are traced to the humble home of a country doctor. Both a biting satire on the destructive power of greed and a touching view of a family in turmoil, this feisty comedy will have you cheering for the most unlikely heroines.

First published in 1932 under the title "Muse of All Work," The Late Christopher Bean had its world premiere at the Ford's Opera House in Baltimore on October 24, 1932, and opened in New York a week later at the Henry Miller Theatre on Broadway with a cast that included Walter Connolly and Beulah Bondi. Playwright Sidney Howard won the 1925 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for They Knew What They Wanted, his play about a middle-aged Italian vineyard owner and his mail order bride (later adapted into the Broadway musical The Most Happy Fella). Having died at the age of 48 in a farming accident, Howard was awarded a posthumous Academy Award for his adapted screenplay of Gone with the Wind.

The Late Christopher Bean will have the following performance schedule: Monday, Wednesday - Friday at 7:30pm; Saturday at 2pm & 8pm; Sunday at 3pm. There will be an additional performance on Tuesday, November 24th at 7:30pm. There will be no performance on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 26th. Tickets are $27.50 - $55.00 and are available 24/7 through Ticket Central www.ticketcentral.com or from 12noon - 8pm daily at 212-279-4200. They may also be obtained at the Theatre Row box office (410 West 42nd Street (between 9th & 10th Avenues) between 12pm and 8pm daily.

TACT/THE ACTORS COMPANY THEATRE's celebrated company of actors was drawn together in 1992 by a love of the literature of the theatre. Since that time, they have grown to become a true ensemble: a group that has developed a common vocabulary and a technique based on their specific artistic vision and collective body of work. TACT company members, whose cumulative experience includes scores of significant roles on and off Broadway, in the country's finest regional theatres and in many films and television shows, have received Emmy, Obie, Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk Awards, in addition to several Tony nominations.

After presenting thirteen seasons of "in-concert" performances, the company took a leap with its 2006-07 season by presenting fully staged productions of David Storey's Home and The Sea by Edward Bond at The Beckett Theatre on Theatre Row. TACT became a resident company on Theatre Row with its 2007-08 season when they presented critically-acclaimed productions of The Runner Stumbles by Milan Stitt and The Eccentricities of a Nightingale, by Tennessee Williams, which The New York Times included in its "Top 10 Theatre Picks for 2008." The company's productions of Alan Ayckbourn's Bedroom Farce and last season's Incident at Vichy by Arthur Miller became instant hits and enjoyed extended runs.

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