Jake Robards to Lead NYC Premiere of PROMISING at Beckett Theatre

InProximity Theatre Company will present the NYC premiere of PROMISING, written by Michelle Elliott and directed by Terry Berliner. PROMISING begins performances on Saturday, November 14 for a limited engagement through Saturday, December 5. Opening Night is Wednesday, November 18 at 8 PM. The performance schedule is Tuesday at 7 PM; Wednesday - Friday at 8 PM; Saturday at 2 PM & 8 PM; Sunday at 3 PM. Please note, there are added Wednesday matinee performances on November 25 and December 2 at 2 PM; there is no performance on Thanksgiving (Thursday, November 26). Performances are at the Beckett Theatre on Theatre Row (410 W 42nd Street, between 9th and Dyer). Tickets are $25 and are available by calling Telecharge at 212-239-6200 or online via telecharge.com.

Local politician David Carver's meteoric rise has caught the eye of the heavy political hitters in NYC and beyond. But the burgeoning career of the charismatic campaigner is threatened by a startling accusation. With a media circus in full swing just outside his apartment, David and his inner circle of supporters hunker down to strategize damage control for his campaign and to salvage any chance for a long-term future in politics. What no one completely understands, until this day, is how the maelstrom on the outside affects even his most loyal allies within.

Timely and provocative, PROMISING is at once a scathingly funny and shocking indictment of our current political climate.

The cast features Zachary Clark (Macbeth at Classic Stage Company), Jolie Curtsinger (The Fall to Earth at 59E59 Theaters), Jake Robards (Our Town on Broadway & Westport Playhouse), and Kim Wong (Much Ado About Nothing at Barrington Stage Company).

The design team includes James Fenton (set design), Paul Miller and Kirk Fitzgerald (lighting design), Teresa Snider-Stein (costume design), and Scott Stauffer (sound design). The casting director is Cindi Rush. Lisa Dozier King is general manager. The production stage manager is Jaime McWilliams.

PROMISING is the first full-length play from book writer/lyricist Michelle Elliott (playwright). She met her long-time collaborator, Danny Larsen, while at New York University's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program. Together, Elliott and Larsen have written six original musicals, including The Yellow Wood (which received a Richard Rodgers Award and the Daryl Roth Award), CLOAKED (which received the Jonathan Larson Award and for which Michelle was awarded the prestigious Kleban Prize for Most Promising Librettist) and their newest work, Maiden Voyage (working title), a passionate exploration of the lives of women aboard a notorious pirate ship. With her collaborator, she wrote and produced an online musical for teens in response to the spate of suicides by gay youth called The Hinterlands. The show can be viewed at HinterlandsTheMusical.com and via You Tube. She is currently working on two new plays, Micro Life and The Cradle of Humanity, as well Hart Island, a new musical with her collaborator about New York City's paupers' field. In addition to an M.F.A. from NYU, she has an M.A. in Directing from University of Wisconsin - Superior and a B.A. in Performance from University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire. Prior to moving to New York City, Michelle co-founded an independent theater company in Minneapolis, Minnesota called Frontier Theatre, where she wrote, directed and produced original musicals. Michelle is a proud member of ASCAP.

Terry Berliner (director) recently completed the inaugural season of the North Shore Summer Theater Workshop as artistic director, where she directed The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and Live Out Loud (an evening of songs from new musical writers). For 6 years she served as associate artistic director, then artistic director, for LeAp Onstage (a playwriting program for middle and high school students in NYC). As director/choreographer her critically acclaimed, production of Kirsten Guenther and Tony Asaro's new musical, The Cable Car Nymphomaniac, recently completed it's run at the Eureka Theatre in San Francisco, California. Her Broadway credits include The Lion King, The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, The Sound of Music, and The Red Shoes. Ms. Berliner has directed Off Broadway and at regional theatres across the country. She has also directed or lectured at Marymount Manhattan College, NYU Tisch, CAP21, Pace University, the University of Colorado, Boulder, the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, North Carolina School of the Arts, and Stephens College. Ms. Berliner has written for American Theatre magazine, Theatre Bay Area, and Theatre History Studies. And, she has participated in the CAP21 2013 Writers Residency and the 2014 Rhinebeck Writer's Retreat. For 6 years, under American Theatre magazine's long-time Editor-In-Chief Jim O'Quinn, she worked as associate editor on The Journal for Stage Directors and Choreographers. Her new musical Alone in the U.S., which she wrote with Bobby Cronin, won the 2014 Outstanding Program of the Year Award at Marymount Manhattan College, and made its U.K. debut in March of 2015. Ms. Berliner is a member of the CAP21 Resource Board of Directors, and, for 5 years, served as a member of Off Broadway's Lucille Lortel nominating committee. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America and the Stage Director's Choreographers Society.

A New York City-based theater production company, InProximity Theatre Company was founded in 2008 to develop and produce new works, New York City premieres and contemporary classics. InProximity is dedicated to honest, intimate story-telling and empowering female artists, and the development of provocative, modern plays that explore the pinnacles and darkest depths of the human experience. The company is committed to bringing together teams of distinctly talented actors, writers, directors, and designers to create a home for compelling and unique contemporary theater in New York City.

To post a comment, you must register and login.