Full Cast Announced for EST and Page 73's KENTUCKY World Premiere

Ensemble Studio Theatre (EST) and Page Seventy-Three Productions (Page 73) have announced complete casting for KENTUCKY, written by Leah Nanako Winkler, and directed by Morgan Gould.

KENTUCKY begins performances at EST's Curt Dempster Theatre (549 W. 52nd Street, New York, NY 10019) on Wednesday, April 20 and officially opens on Sunday, May 1 for a strictly limited run though Sunday, May 22. EST is proud to be working in association with The Radio Drama Network (Melina Brown, President) on KENTUCKY.

KENTUCKY will feature Ako (Twelve) as Masako, Satomi Blair ("Rescue Me") as Hiro, Mikumari Caiyhe (The Mayhem Poets) as Ernest, Curran Connor (A Picture of Autumn, "House of Cards") as Larry, Merissa Czyz (Hair National Tour) as a bridesmaid, Lucy DeVito (Hulu's "Deadbeat") as Nicole, Sasha Diamond (The Wong Kids in the Secret of the Space Chupacabra Go!) as Sophie, Lynnette R. Freeman (A Raisin in the Sun at Trinity Rep) as Amy, Alex Grubbs (These Seven Sicknesses) as Adam, Marcia Haufrecht (All is Bright) as Grandma, Emily Kunkel ("Nurse Jackie") as Laura, Jay Patterson (Broadway's August: Osage County) as James, Ronald Alexander Peet (The Golum of Havana) as Da'Ran, Samantha Sembler (Shooting Blanks into the Afterlife) as a bridesmaid, Shannon Tyo ("30 Rock"), as a bridesmaid, and Amir Wachterman (Losing Tom Pecinka) as Sylvie.

KENTUCKY follows Hiro, who has to stop her baby sister from marrying a man she hardly knows, but that means returning to Kentucky and the home she's put behind her. Hiro's quest will confront forgotten friends, former flames, and the family she fled. Will she save her sister and escape back to Manhattan, or will years of therapy be undone by a single wedding weekend back in her old Kentucky home?

KENTUCKY will feature scenic design by Nick Francone (Six Rounds of Vengeance), costume design by Suzanne Chesney (Fast Company), lighting design by Ryan Seelig (The Room), sound design by Shane Rettig (When January Feels Like Summer), choreography by Katie Spelman (Adding Machine), and musical direction by Sariva Goetz (The Jerusalem Syndrome). Joe Lankheet will serve as production manager, and production stage manager will be Eileen Lalley.

Tickets are on sale now, and can be purchased online at www.estnyc.org or www.page73.org, or by phone at (866) 811-4111. General admission tickets are $20 when purchased by April 19, and $30 when purchased on or after April 20. Reserved seats for all performances can be purchased for $40. The performance schedule for KENTUCKY is as follows: Monday at 7pm, Wednesday through Saturday at 7pm, Saturday at 2pm, and Sunday at 5pm. Exception: There will be no 2:00pm performance on Saturday, April 23.

PAGE 73's most recent New York premiere productions include Max Posner's Judy, directed by two-time Obie Award winner Ken Rus Schmoll; Obie Award-winner Clare Barron's critically acclaimed YOU GOT OLDER, a finalist for the 2015 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, nominated for a 2015 Drama Desk Award, directed by Obie Award-winner Anne Kauffman, starring Obie Award-winner and Drama Desk nominee Brooke Bloom; George Brant's critically acclaimed GROUNDED, directed by Ken Rus Schmoll and starring Drama Desk nominee Hannah Cabell; and Cori Thomas' WHEN JANUARY FEELS LIKE SUMMER, directed by Daniella Topol, co-produced with Ensemble Studio Theatre. Founded in 1997, PAGE 73 is the premiere home for the development and production of new work by early-career playwrights who have yet to receive a professional New York production, offering a crucial steppingstone at a critical, early point in their careers. Each year, PAGE 73 produces New York City or world premieres by early-career playwrights and offers a slate of new play development programs: the P73 Playwriting Fellowship, Interstate 73 writers group, and a week-long Summer Residency.

Today, Page 73 annually serves twelve to fifteen early career playwrights through the P73 Playwriting Fellowship, the Interstate 73 writers' group, the Summer Residency, and two annual world or New York premiere productions. Close to two-thirds of the nearly 100 playwrights they've supported have enjoyed New York or regional theatre productions after receiving a Page 73 premiere or development support. These include, among others, writers whose professional debuts in New York City were produced by Page 73, such as Sam Hunter (2015 MacArthur "Genius" Grant), Quiara Alegría Hudes (2012 Pulitzer Prize), Dan LeFranc (2010 New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award), Heidi Schreck (2014 Tow Playwright in Residence at Playwrights Horizons), and Clare Barron (2015 Obie Award).

Ensemble Studio Theatre -- commonly known as EST -- was founded in 1968 by Curt Dempster on the belief that extraordinary support yields extraordinary work. They are a dynamic and expanding family of member artists committed to the discovery and nurturing of new voices and the continued support and growth of artists throughout their creative lives. Through their unique collaborative process they develop and produce original, provocative, and authentic new plays that engage and challenge their audience and audiences across the country.

Now with nearly 600 ensemble artists, EST has been under the artistic direction of William Carden since 2007. The company received two 2013 Drama Desk Award nominations for Finks by Joe Gilford and one 2014 Drama Desk nomination for Bobby Moreno in Year of the Rooster by Eric Dufault, who won the 2014 NY Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Award for a new playwright debut. Hand To God, which originated at EST, was nominated for five Tony Awards for its Broadway run. EST received a special Drama Desk Award for its "unwavering commitment to producing new works" in May of 2015.

Leah Nanako Winkler is a member of EST/Youngblood (Graeme Gillis and R.J. Tolan, Co-Artistic Directors), where Kentucky received an Unfiltered developmental production in 2015. Youngblood is EST's vibrant collective of playwrights in their 20s, whose alumni include Annie Baker, Amy Herzog, John Belluso, Clare Barron, Robert Askins and Michael Lew. EST/Youngblood was recognized with a 2012 Ross Wetzteon Village Voice Obie Award for its outstanding contribution to theatre. For more information, visit www.ensemblestudiotheatre.org.

The Radio Drama Network (Melina Brown, President) was founded by legendary audio drama director and producer, Himan Brown, to support art forms that use the spoken word to enrich our culture. Himan was a champion of all storytellers, from the tradition of the earliest stranger who wandered from town to town with tales of the latest news, to Academy Award winning writers that contributed for his thousands of radio dramas, to the writers silenced by the Red Scare who were just trying to feed their families; Himan strove to keep them working, telling tales that spun out in the grandest oral traditions of history. Himan was the son of immigrants and became an actor, a director/producer and a gifted orator early in his life. His medium was a new discovery called radio. He began his career reading Yiddish stories over the airwaves from hotel bathrooms, and quickly moved to packaging and creating his own shows. During the height of radio he created hundreds of radio series such as Inner Sanctum, Little Italy, Grand Central Station, Dick Tracy, Bulldog Drummond, and The Thin Man. Following television's rise, he resurrected audio drama on the airwaves with CBS Radio Mystery Theater and Adventure Theater. Himan Brown lamented the dearth of dramatic and interesting programming on today's airwaves, and he continued to create shows and series well into his 90s. Himan created the Radio Drama Network as a family foundation to continue his philanthropic work. He was a husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather who doted on his great-grandchildren. Himan Brown died three weeks' shy of 100 years old in 2010.

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