Anna Kirkland, Morgan DeTogne and More Join Beautiful Soup's May 2015 Festival of McCasland Plays

Beautiful Soup's previously announced festival of plays by Steven Carl McCasland has announced the newest members of their repertory company.

Anna Kirkland (Rebecca Hershkowitz in Rags, Moose Murders, A Doll's Life), Philip Prebyl, Ellyn Stein (original cast of Neat & Tidy), Rory Allan Meditz (original cast of Neat & Tidy) and Morgan DeTogne (Julie in Liliom, original cast of Little Wars) will join the previously announced: Colin Fisher, Kristen Gehling, Kimberly Faye Greenberg, Renee Heitmann, Alana Inez, Orlando Iriarte, Somie Pak, Brian Piehl, Kim Rogers, Paul Thomas Ryan, Laurie Sammeth and Penny Lynn White. Functioning as a repertory company, many actors will appear in multiple productions.

Following critically acclaimed workshop presentations, the plays of Steven Carl McCasland will return to NYC in a month-long festival celebrating the young playwright. Together with The Clarion Theatre, Beautiful Soup will present five plays beginning on May 6th, 2015, with a company of actors performing in repertory. All of the plays focus on historical figures, including Laurette Taylor, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Tennessee Williams, Gertrude Stein, Lillian Hellman and more.

Hailli Riddle serves as Production Stage Manager with Lighting Design by Molly Tiede and Costume Design by Somie Pak.

Due to scheduling conflicts, the previously announced encore production of Shades of Blue: The Decline and Fall Of Day has been replaced with a premiere work, Der Kanarienvogel (The Canary).

In Der Kanarienvogel, Anna Kirkland stars as the legendary soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. Long believed to have been a Nazi sympathizer, the play explores her affair with Reich Minister Joseph Goebbels and her connections the inner sanctions of The Third Reich. McCasland directs this world premiere production.

In What Was Lost, beloved stage actress Laurette Taylor returns to the stage after a six-year hiatus. BroadwayWorld critic Kristen Morale called the play "one of the most riveting" she had ever seen. For the first time in over a decade, she takes to the stage sober. Chronicling her process from the first rehearsal of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie through her legendary first performance as Amanda Wingfield, What Was Lost is a piercing look at the lies we tell ourselves in order to survive. Pennylynn White returns as Laurette Taylor and is joined by the entire original copy. McCasland directs.

It's France, 1939 in Little Wars. Tensions are high. The booze is flowing. War is coming. The coolest women on earth are having the what-if dinner party you always imagined. Together they'll drink, scoff and face their demons. Someone has a secret. All of them have confessions. Inspired by one of the literary world's most famous scandals. McCasland's play has been called "fascinating", "outstanding", "heartbreaking" and "magical" by New York critics. All members of the original workshop production return, with new direction by Cara Picone.

Neat & Tidy returns to the stage after its critically acclaimed premiere in 2012. When a child is brutally murdered, the seismic aftershocks ripple throughout a small town. At its center, a marriage cripples. Inspired by the 1994 Susan Smith case, Neat & Tidy takes an original look at desperation. The play stars Kristen Gehling as Tracy and the entire repertory company, with direction by the playwright.

In the World Premiere of 28 Marchant Avenue, McCasland draws back the curtain on The Kennedy Family's Hyannisport compound. Examining five summers in the family's lives, the play focuses on the lobotomy of Rose Marie Kennedy. Dorothy Weems stars as Rose Kennedy, with direction by the playwright.

The Clarion Theatre is located at 309 East 26th Street in New York City. Tickets, priced $18 each, will be on sale beginning on January 1st. They can be purchased at http://beautifulsoup.showclix.com.

Additional casting and a full performance scheduled will be announced at a later date. More information will be available on www.beautifulsouptheatercollective.org.

A teaser trailer for the festival can be found at www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3nX0cWwNfo.

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