The New Group Sets New Opening Night For BLOOD FROM A STONE, 1/12

The New Group announces a new official opening night date for its world premiere production of the new play Blood From A Stone by Tommy Nohilly. Directed by Scott Elliott, Blood From A Stone features Gordon Clapp, Ann Dowd, Thomas Guiry, Ethan Hawke, Natasha Lyonne and Daphne Rubin-Vega.

Previews began Monday, December 13. Originally slated to open Thursday, January 6, the production will have its Official Opening Night on Wednesday, January 12 at 7:00 PM. A limited engagement runs through February 5 at The New Group @ Theatre Row.

An unflinching and darkly comic depiction of life in blue collar Connecticut, Blood From A Stone zeroes in on a working class family wrestling to keep it together as day-to-day struggles exert their squeeze. When Travis pays a visit to his parents' home, he finds an already volatile household imploding and his close-knit but deeply conflicted family teetering on the brink.

Director Scott Elliott remarks, "This is a great big play by an exciting new voice, Tommy Nohilly. As we've worked through the rehearsal process and had our first previews we've made a few significant changes and have delayed Opening Night to allow several additional preview performances for those changes to knit together.
It's been thrilling to see this new work come alive, especially with this company."

This production features Gordon Clapp and Ann Dowd as Bill and Margaret, Ethan Hawke and Thomas Guiry as their sons Travis and Matt, Natasha Lyonne as daughter Sarah, and Daphne Rubin-Vega as neighbor Yvette.

Tommy Nohilly, a former Marine, is making his debut as a writer with Blood From A Stone. As an actor, he has appeared on TV's Law & Order and Third Watch as well as in films such as Reign Over Me and the Sundance winner The Believer. He's also appeared as Carlson in Of Mice and Men at Westport Country Playhouse, directed by Mark Lamos.

Director Scott Elliott is the founding Artistic Director of The New Group, where last season he helmed the new musical The Kid, based on the book by Dan Savage The Kid: What Happened after My Boyfriend and I Decided to Go Get Pregnant. With The New Group, he has produced over
45 plays, 20 of which he directed, including Groundswell, Rafta, Rafta..., The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, the 2005 revival of Hurlyburly, Aunt Dan and Lemon, What the Butler Saw, and 5 plays by Mike Leigh: Two Thousand Years, Abigail's Party, Smelling a Rat, Goose-Pimples, and Ecstasy. Elliott's Broadway credits include Present Laughter, Barefoot in the Park, and 3 plays produced by The Roundabout: The Threepenny Opera, The Women, and Three Sisters. He is also a film director and screenwriter.

Set Design is by Derek McLane (B'way: 33 Variations, Miracle Worker, Ragtime, Grease, I Am My Own Wife; Off-B'way at The New Group: The Kid, A Lie of the Mind, The Starry Messenger, Groundswell, Rafta, Rafta..., many others), Costume Design is by Theresa Squire (B'way:
The Lieutenant of Inishmore, High Fidelity; Off-B'way: Rafta, Rafta..., Sin (A Cardinal Deposed) at The New Group), Lighting Design is by Jason Lyons (B'way: Rock of Ages, The Threepenny Opera, Nine; Off-B'way at The New Group: The Starry Messenger, Groundswell, Rafta, Rafta..., Two Thousand Years, others) and Sound Design is by Bart Fasbender (B'way: Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, Off-B'way at The New Group: Terrorism; and productions with Les Freres Corbusier, Second Stage, MTC, Playwrights Horizons, Lincoln Center, the Atlantic, Primary Stages, Naked Angels and more). The Dialect Coach is Doug Paulson and Special Effects are by Jeremy Chernick (recent Broadway: Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, The Scottsboro Boys, Pee
Wee's Playhouse, The Addams Family).

Last season, The New Group (Scott Elliott, Artistic Director; Geoff Rich, Executive Director) presented the critically acclaimed, extended run of Kenneth Lonergan's The Starry Messenger featuring Matthew Broderick, the sold-out revival of Sam Shepard's A Lie of the Mind
directed by Ethan Hawke, and the world premiere of the new musical The Kid, directed by Scott Elliott. Other recent productions include Ian Bruce's Groundswell, Eugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra, Ayub Khan-Din's Rafta, Rafta..., Jonathan Marc Sherman's Things We Want, Jay
Presson Allen's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and Bernard Weinraub's The Accomplices. Additional standouts include David Rabe's Hurlyburly, Mike Leigh's Two Thousand Years, Abigail's Party, Smelling a Rat, Goose-Pimples and Ecstasy, Wallace Shawn's The Fever and Aunt Dan and Lemon, Kenneth Lonergan's This is Our Youth and Kevin Elyot's Mouth to Mouth and My Night With Reg. The New Group is a recipient of the 2004 Tony® Award for Best Musical (Avenue Q).

Blood From A Stone plays at The New Group @ Theatre Row (The Acorn Theatre / 410 West 42 Street, between 9 & 10 Aves) as follows: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday at 7:00 PM and Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 8:00PM. Matinees Saturday at 2:00 PM. No performances December 24, 25,
31. No 2:00 PM matinee performance Saturday, January 1. Added performances Sunday, December 26 at 2:00 & 7:00 PM and Sunday, January 2 at 2:00 & 7:00 PM. Tickets may be arranged through www.telecharge.com or (212) 239-6200, or at the Theatre Row Box Office
(12-8 PM daily). Tickets are $60.00 plus $1.25 restoration fee.

Subscriptions to The New Group 2010-11 season available through Turnstyles Ticketing at http://www.myticketsny.com/newgroup.html. For more info, visit www.thenewgroup.org.

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