LONESOME TRAVELER to Close First 5A Season at 59E59 Theaters

59E59 Theaters will welcome the final production of the inaugural 5A Season, the NYC premiere of LONESOME TRAVELER, written and directed by James O'Neil. Produced by Off-Broadway Across America in association with the Rubicon Theatre Company (Ventura, California), LONESOME TRAVELER begins performances on Saturday, March 7 for a limited engagement through Sunday, April 19. Opening Night is Tuesday, March 17 at 7 PM. The performance schedule is Tuesday - Thursday at 7 PM; Friday at 8 PM; Saturday at 2 PM & 8 PM; Sunday at 3 PM & 7 PM. Please note there are no matinee performances on Saturday, March 7 & Sunday, March 8; there is no evening performance on Sunday, April 19. Single tickets are $70 ($49 for 59E59 Members). To purchase tickets, call Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200 or visit www.59e59.org.

LONESOME TRAVELER celebrates the enduring popularity of folk music, presenting a revealing perspective on the roots forever embedded in our culture. This thrilling musical journey traces the music from the backwoods of Appalachia to the nightclubs of New York and San Francisco.

Employing nine singer/musicians dramatizing some of the key moments in the history of the American folk revival, LONESOME TRAVELER features classic songs such as "Goodnight, Irene," "This Land Is Your Land," "Puff the Magic Dragon," "Baby Blue," and "We Shall Overcome." Weaving together a tapestry of the venues and historic circumstances that put folk at the core of the great changes that swept American society from the 1920s through to the 1960s, LONESOME TRAVELER celebrates the legacy of folk as the soundtrack of social change and revolution.

LONESOME TRAVELER features musical direction and arrangements by Tony Award-nominee Dan Wheetman and orchestrations by George Grove of The New Kingston Trio.

The cast features talented actor/multi-instrumentalists Justine Bennet, Sylvie Davidson, Justin Flagg, Brendan Willing James, Anthony Manough, Nicholas Mongiardo-Cooper, Jennifer Leigh Warren, Trevor Wheetman, and James Webb.

The design team includes Thomas S. Giamario (scenic and lighting design), Jonathan Burke (sound design), Pamela Shaw (costume design), Dave Micket (multimedia design), Marty Kopulsky (hair and wig design), and T. Theresa Scarano (prop design). The Production Stage Manager is Linda M. Tross.

James O'Neil (writer/director) is co-founder and Artistic Director of Off-Broadway Across America, President and CEO of Rubicon Theatre Corporation and Co-Founder and Artistic Director Emeritus of the nationally acclaimed Rubicon Theatre Company in Ventura, California. Rubicon recently received a Drama Desk Award for the 59E59 Theater run of The Best is Yet to Come: The Music of Cy Coleman, directed by David Zippel and starring David Burnham, Howard McGillin, Sally Mayes, Billy Stritch, Lillias White and Rachel York. In 2011, Jim accepted a special award from the L.A. Drama Critics Circle on behalf of Rubicon for "Sustained Excellence." Under his leadership, Rubicon has won more than 20 L.A. Ovation Awards (including two for Best Production of a Play and one for Best World Premiere Musical); as well as multiple Garland and Indy Awards, and an NAACP Award for Jim's direction of Driving Miss Daisy starring Michael Learned. Jim has received critical acclaim for many Rubicon productions, including A Streetcar Named Desire starring Linda Purl, The Glass Menagerie starring Susan Clark and The Night of the Iguana starring Stephanie Zimbalist and Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. (which he also directed for the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre in Canada). He has helmed environmental productions of Man of La Mancha starring George Ball, Jamie Torcellini, Jennifer Shelton and Randall Keith; and Fiddler on the Roof starring Jay Brazeau and Eileen Barnett and featuring violin virtuoso Nuvi Mehta as The Fiddler (Indy Award). Rubicon was the youngest company ever to win the Ovation Award for Best Production of a Play for Jim's revival of Arthur Miller's All My Sons starring George Ball and Robin Pearson Rose. Other credits include Gem of the Ocean starring Lillias White; the world premiere of The Spin Cycle by David Rambo; A Delicate Balance starring Granville Van Dusen, Robin Gammell, Bonnie Franklin and Amanda McBroom; The Diary of Anne Frank starring Lauren Patten, Bruce Weitz and Alison Brie (Indy Award); Jesus Christ Superstar starring Ted Neeley and Carl Anderson; Sylvia starring Kristie Lynes and Joe Spano; Love Letters starring Steve Allen and Jayne Meadows; Romeo and Juliet, The Lion in Winter, The Petrified Forest, Inherit the Wind; and regional premieres of A Coupla White Chicks Sitting Around Talking and The Mystery of Edwin Drood starring Barry Dennen. A graduate of California Institute of the Arts, Jim is the recipient of citations from the Ventura Education Partnership and the State of California on behalf of Rubicon's Education Outreach Programs.

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