Gregory Simmons To Direct JITNEY At Gallery Players 3/19-4/3/2011

The Gallery Players (Heather Curran, Artistic Director; NeAl Freeman, Executive Director) announced today that Broadway veteran Gregory Simmons will direct August Wilson's Jitney, running March 19 - April 3, 2011 at the organization's Brooklyn home (199 14th Street, Park Slope).

On Broadway, Gregory Simmons played the lead role of Paul in John Guare's Six Degrees of Separation at Lincoln Center Theater, opposite Tony® Award-winner Stockard Channing; Roger in Howard Korder's Search and Destroy with Griffin Dunne; and Ollie in the New York premiere of Tennessee Williams's Not About Nightingales (director Trevor Nunn), starring Corin Redgrave and co-produced by The Royal National Theatre, London.

For Diverse City Theater, Simmons directed excerpts from Cassandra Medley's award-winning play Noon Day Sun, starring Melanie Nicholls-King (HBO's The Wire), Ron Cephas Jones (Gem of the Ocean, A Raisin in the Sun), and Michael McGlone (The Kill Point, Brothers McMullen). His other directing work has been seen at Playwrights Horizons, Ensemble Studio Theatre, The New York Musical Theatre Festival, The Studio Theatre, The Westbeth (Amnesty Int'l, co-producer), The Neighborhood Playhouse (14 Atrainplays, 3 Atrainmusicals), The Present Company, The Drilling Company, The Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre Company and MultiStages, among others.

Simmons previously worked as an actor on Wilson's Fences, starring as Corey at Syracuse Stage. He is thrilled to direct the first play written in Wilson's Century Cycle.

"August Wilson's Jitney is a powerful play," said Simmons. "Struggling to remain whole in the face of things that threaten to pull them asunder and fueled by stalled dreams and dilapidated time, Wilson's resolutely poetic characters remind us of ourselves in their dignity and charismatic quest to make the most of their lives."

Set in 1977 in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, August Wilson's Jitney is a beautiful addition to the author's decade-by-decade cycle of plays about the black American experience in the twentieth century. The men who drive gypsy cabs, or "jitneys," strive to find honor and accomplishment in a harsh world. When the station owner's estranged son returns from prison, their reunion unleashes two decades of brutal, raw emotion. Originally produced at Allegheny Repertory Theatre (Pittsburgh) in 1982, the play opened Off-Broadway at Second Stage Theatre in spring 2000 and won the 2001 Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Off-Broadway Play.

Jitney is produced by Lanie Zipoy (Caroline, or Change, Gallery Players) for the Gallery Players. Destiny Lilly is the casting director. Casting will be announced in coming weeks.

Performances of Jitney run March 19 through April 3, 2011, Thursdays and Fridays at 8 pm, Saturdays at 2:00 pm and 8:00 pm and Sundays at 3:00 pm. Tickets are $18 general admission, $14 for Seniors &
Children 12 and under, and are available at www.galleryplayers.com.

Currently running at The Gallery Players is Brian Friel's Dancing at Lughnasa. Hailed as 'something to dance about,' by The Brooklyn Paper and with 'outstanding performances," by Blogcritics.com, Dancing at Lughnasa runs through December 19.

A New York institution since 1967, The Gallery Players has served actors and audiences alike for more than 4 decades by showcasing burgeoning new talent and offering a home base for theater professionals. Its eclectic programming of intimate revivals and ambitious new work in inventive productions has earned it the reputation of "New York's Best Kept Secret." The Gallery Players is the recipient of the Off-Off Broadway Review's 2000 Award for Lifetime Achievement and was the recipient of New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Production of a Musical in 2007, 2008 & 2009 for their productions of Urinetown! the musical, Yank! A New Musical, and Like You Like It. Among its famous alumni are founding member Harvey Fierstein; Broadway regulars Nancy Anderson, Jeffry Denman and Diedre Goodwin; New York theater personality Seth Rudetsky and many others.

The Gallery Players' 44th main stage season includes The Drowsy Chaperone, January 29- February 20, 2011, then August Wilson's Jitney, March 19 - April 3, 2011, and Oliver!, April 30 - May 22, 2011 closes out the main stage season. The Gallery Players' summer celebration of new works continues with The 14th Annual Black Box New Play Festival, June 2 - 26th, 2011.

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