THE LAST SEDER Limited Engagement Opens Today; Extends Through 1/16

Rosalind Productions Inc.'s Off-Broadway premiere of Jennifer Maisel's The Last Seder is set to open tonight, Tuesday December 4th (7pm). This Off-Broadway limited engagement at Theater Three (311 West 43rd Street) began December 1st and has been extended to January 13th. The show runs 100 minutes without an intermission.

Jessica Bauman directs a cast that includes Ryan Barry (In the Summer Pavilion - 59E59), Kathryn Kates (Food and Fadwa - NYTW, “Seinfeld”), Natalie Kuhn (Poetic License - 59E59), Andy Lucien (Line), John Michalski (A Splintered Soul - Rosalind Productions), Eric T. Miller (Betrayed - The Culture Project), Greg Mullavey (Broadway: Rumors, Romantic Comedy; “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman”), Mélisa Breiner-Sanders (As Wide As I Can See - HERE Arts Center), Abigail Rose Solomon (“Days Of Our Lives,” Mr. & Mrs. Smith), Sarah Winkler (Einstein’s Gift - Epic Theatre), and Gaby Hoffmann (Sleepless in Seattle, Field of Dreams, Uncle Buck, Everyone Says I Love You, Now and Then, and You Can Count on Me).

Faced with their father Marvin’s worsening Alzheimer’s, the four grown Price daughters return for the final Passover celebration in their childhood home. Lily, their overwhelmed mother who's taken up cursing, is planning to put Marvin in a nursing home and sell the house. Each daughter arrives with her own baggage: Michelle picks up a total stranger to pose as her nice Jewish boyfriend; Angel seduces her ex on the roof; Claire fights with her fiancé about wedding plans; Julia, pregnant with her lesbian life partner, psychoanalyzes everyone except herself. Marvin does not recognize any of them. But when he takes the lead at their last Seder, a magical moment occurs which gives the women the strength and courage to finally move forward.

The Last Seder received a National Foundation for Jewish Culture New Plays for Production Grant, before receiving the Fund for New American Plays Award from the Kennedy Center, as well as the Charlotte Woolard Award for Promising New Voice in American Theatre. The play has been produced at The Organic Theatre, Chicago; Theatre J, DC; Ensemble Studio Theatre - LA Project; Teatro da Juventude, Brazil; Park Square Theatre, St Paul; and St. Louis Repertory. The screenplay adaptation of The Last Seder won Showtime's Tony Cox Award.
The Last Seder has scenic design by Gabriel Evansohn, lighting design by Graham Kindred, costume design by Sydney Gallas, and sound design by Sam Kusnetz.

Performances will be at Theater Three (311 West 43rd Street, between 8th & 9th Avenues, on the 3rd Floor) and will play Thursdays through Saturdays evenings at 8pm and Sunday matinees at 3pm with Special Added Performances on Wednesday, December 19th at 8pm and matinees Wednesday, December 12th & 19th at 3pm. Tickets are $18; to purchase tickets or for more information, visit www.RosalindProductions.com or call 212/868-4444.
Jennifer Maisel is an award winning playwright, television and film writer whose work has been produced nationally and internationally. The Last Seder received a National Foundation for Jewish Culture New Plays for Production grant, sponsored by the Winnick Family Foundation, and was workshopped at Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey before receiving the Fund for New American Plays Award and the Charlotte Woolard Award from the Kennedy Center. The play has been produced at The Organic Theatre, Chicago; Theatre J, DC; Ensemble Studio Theatre - LA Project; Teatro da Juventude, Brazil and Park Square Theatre, St. Paul; the screenplay adaptation won Showtime’s Tony Cox award.

Jennifer’s PEN West literary award finalist There or Here was workshopped at PlayPenn prior to its critically acclaimed premiere at The Hypothetical Theatre in New York; her Heideman Award finalist Goody f-ing Two Shoes was produced in the Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville. Jennifer’s work - which includes, birds, Mad Love, Mallbaby, Eden and …And the Two Romeos - has won South Coast Repertory’s California Playwrights Competition, the Center Theatre International Playwrights Competition and the Roger L. Stevens Award from the Fund for New American plays. In 2012 Jennifer wrote site-specific pieces for Playwrights Arena’s Flash Theatre (Comings and Goings) and Moving Art’s The Car Plays (Choke Chain). Her newest plays are Match - recently workshopped at the Great Plains Theatre Festival - and Out of Orbit - workshopped at the Sundance Theatre Lab @MassMoCA and recipient of an Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P. Sloan commission for plays about science and technology. She is a member of the playwriting collectives DogEar and Playwrights Ink, as well as the Dramatists Guild and the WGA. www.jennifermaisel.com

Jessica Bauman recently directed Taming of the Shrew at Juilliard. Making Up the Truth, the solo performance she developed and directed, by and with This American Life journalist Jack Hitt, premiered at the International Festival of Arts and Ideas in New Haven in June 2011. Making Up the Truth will be included in the 2012 Spoleto Festival. She is the founder and Artistic Director of New Feet Productions, for which she directed and produced Into the Hazard (Henry 5), her own six actor adaptation of Shakespeare’s Henry V, All Day Suckers by Susan Dworkin and Milk by Emily DeVoti (co-produced with New Georges) and, most recently, the world premiere of Leave the Balcony Open by Maya Macdonald. For the 24 Hour Plays on Broadway, she has directed the premieres of Terrence McNally’s Teachers Break with Cynthia Nixon and Maura Tierney, Harrison Rivers’ and it seems to me a very good sign… with Naomi Watts and John Krasinski, and David Lindsay-Abaire’s Dress the Orphans with Rachel Dratch and Rosie Perez. Her work has been seen at theatres such as New Georges, NY Theatre Workshop, Soho Rep, the Public, Juilliard (including the world premiere of Fuddy Meers by David Lindsay-Abaire), Rising Phoenix Rep and the 52nd Street Project. Regionally, she has worked at the Huntington Theater, Portland Stage Company, Shakespeare Theatre of NJ, Theatre Outlet (Allentown, PA), Vermont Stage Company and the O’Neill. She has collaborated with playwrights such as David Lindsay-Abaire, Kia Corthron, Tracey Scott Wilson, Emily DeVoti, Jenny Lyn Bader, Diana Son, Napoleon Ellsworth and Kirsten Greenidge. She has been an Artist-in- Residence at Tribeca Performing Arts Center, a Drama League Directors Project fellow, and is an alumna of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab, a NYTW Usual Suspect and New Georges Affiliated Artist. Jessica was a finalist for the 2007-2009 TCG/NEA Career Development program for Directors. www.jessicabauman.net

Rosalind Productions Inc. produces stories in which the female characters are as vital, complex and influential as the male characters. Last year, RP produced the sold-out Off-Broadway premiere of A Splintered Soul and the hit Off-Broadway revival of John Patrick Shanley’s Savage in Limbo. RP associate produced The Miracle Worker on Broadway. In Los Angeles, RP produced G.B. Shaw’s Misalliance and Proof at The Odyssey; the World Premiere of Stages by Abigail Rose Solomon, which ran at Hudson Mainstage Theatre, extended at The Matrix Theatre, and received a NAACP Theatre Award nomination. RP co-produced a sold-out run of As You Like It with Los Angeles Women’s Shakespeare Company at The Matrix. www.RosalindProductions.com

Ryan Barry’s Off-Broadway credits include In the Summer Pavilion (59E59 Theaters), Treasure Island (Irondale Center). New York: As Wide As I Can See (HERE Arts Center), In the Summer Pavilion (NY International Fringe, (NYCFringe Outstanding Excellence in Performance Award Winner), The Temp (SoHo Playhouse), Reading Under The Influence (Bank of America Festival), Romeo and Juliet (QAS). Regional: Travesties with Sam Waterston (Long Wharf Theatre), Picasso at the Lapin Agile (Shakespeare and Company), Grease (Barrington Stage Company), A Midsummer Nights Dream (Hubbard Hall) and the Upcoming Red at Merrimack Repertory Theater. Film: In the Summer Pavilion. Ryan's voiceover work can be heard on several national commercials.

Gaby Hoffmann is a NYC native who began acting at 5 years old. She has appeared in over 20 films including Sleepless in Seattle, Field of Dreams, Uncle Buck, Everyone Says I Love You, Now and Then, and You Can Count on Me. Her stage credits include Third (Lincoln Center), The Sugar Syndrome (Williamstown Theater Festival) and Suburbia (Second Stage). She recently appeared on the season premiere of “Louie.”

Kathryn Kates has recently returned to New York after spending over 25 years in Los Angeles where, along with fellow actor John Larroquette, she was one of the Founding Members of The Colony Theatre. Kathryn is probably best known for her recurring role on “Seinfeld” as The Bakery Lady in the iconic “The Babka” and “The Marble Rye” episodes. She was recently cast in the pilot episode of the Netflix series “Orange is the New Black” as Jason Biggs’ mother. She also worked on Andrew Gurland’s “Gurland on Gurland,” a pilot sitcom for Showtime; and in Reggie Rock Bythewood’s “Gun Hill,” a pilot for BET. She has appeared in many films, most notably opposite Bette Midler in Jinxed and Carol Burnett in Beatrice, and on television in guest starring roles on “Judging Amy,” “Matlock,” “Caroline in the City” and a recurring role on “Lizzie McGuire” as the neighbor Mrs. Carrabino. Since relocating to New York, she has appeared in many Off-Broadway venues, including Cherry Lane, The Public, Soho Rep, Barrow Group, performing in over 30 plays and three musicals, including Waxing West at La Mama and European tours; Sa Ka La directed by Sarah Cameron Sunde and Ashlin Halfnight's Balaton directed by Kristjan Thor at Urban Stages; in Jacques LaMarre's Gray Matters (for which she received an MITF Best Actress Nomination). This year, Kathryn appeared Off-Broadway on Theatre Row in Herman Kline’s Midlife Crisis and then at New York Theatre Workshop in Food and Fadwa. She has just completed principal photography on Dovid Meyer, playing the Orthodox cook. She is a member of Rising Phoenix Rep. www.kathrynkates.com

Natalie Kuhn’s theater credits include Poetic License (Off B’way: 59E59), Stop the Virgens (St. Ann’s Warehouse, Sydney Opera House), Everything That Happens (David Byrne World Concert Tour), Specific Ocean (NYLA), Three Guys and a Brenda, Current Things, Sound in the Throat, Sitstandwalkliedown (Williamstown Theater Festival), The Underpants (Penobscot Theater), Somewhere I Read (Arto Lindsay), Man Is Man (HERE Arts), Sine Wave Goodbye (Ontological), Johnny Applef?%r (The Ohio), One Million Forgotten Moments (NTUSA). Film/TV: Ride Rise Roar, “Law & Order: CI,” Are We There Yet?, “The Colbert Report,” Going Local, Amateurs, Change of Plans, Bestsellers, PowerHouse, Freaky Darlings.

Andy Lucien's previous NYC credits have included Line (Dolan) and participating in the Young Playwrights readings at Playwrights Horizons. His regional and international credits include Smash/Hit (Atlanta/D.C) Radio Golf (Penn State Centre Stage), Bombitty of Errors (Second Stage) and Revenge of a King as a part of the Grahamstown Theater Festival (South Africa).

John Michalski. This is his second production, in two years, with Rosalind Productions having appeared with them last fall as Rabbi Simon Kroeller in the NY premiere of A Splintered Soul by Alan Lester Brooks. An associate artist of New York Classical Theatre, John spent this past summer playing Sir Toby Belch in their production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, both in Central Park and The Battery. John has appeared on and off Broadway and in theatres from coast to coast.

Eric T. Miller’s theater credits include Ever So Humble (Hangar Theatre), Lieutenant of Inishmore (FST), Safe Home (Royal Family Productions), Sweet Storm (LAByrinth/Alchemy Theatre Co.) and Betrayed (The Culture Project) with countless workshops and readings at NYTW, New Georges, LARK, LAByrinth, the Public, EST/Youngbloods and Rattlestick. Television and Film include “The Unusuals” (ABC), “Kings” (NBC), “Law & Order” (NBC), Shame (Dir: Steve McQueen), Brewsie and Willy, Pieces, My Secret Friend and the upcoming Home (Dir: Jono Oliver).

Greg Mullavey has appeared on Broadway, starring in Romantic Comedy with Mia Farrow and Tony Perkins, as Lenny in Rumors, and in the National Tour of The Sisters Rosensweig as Merv the furrier. He has also appeared in numerous Off-Broadway productions, the latest for this year's National Jewish Theatre critically acclaimed production of The Roundabout Complex of the Soap Myth, playing an Auschwitz survivor railing about the discontinuance of the manufacturing of soap from Jewish flesh as a Nazi war crime in American Memorial Museums. Some of his regional credits include I Do, I Do, Alaska Light Opera Company; The Dinner Party, Coconut Grove Theatre (directed by Tony Award winner, John Rando); Breaking Legs, Old Globe Theatre (directed by Tony Award winner, Jack O’Brien); The Price, The Guthrie; Conversations With My Father, Cleveland Playhouse; Near The End Of The Century, George Street Playhouse; Lay of The Land, Pittsburgh’s Public; and Proof at GEVA.in Rochester, NY. In Los Angeles he has received six Drama-Logue Awards and a L.A. Weekly Award. His roles range from his portrayal of Lee Strasberg (one of Greg’s teachers) in Names, to Shylock in Merchant of Venice, Gayev in The Cherry Orchard opposite Alfred Molina, Leonato in Much Ado About Nothing, Serge in Art, Tiger Brown in Three Penny Opera, and as Victor Fleming in Moonlight and Magnolias, to name a few. He is a voting member of the TV Academy and his extensive television credits range from “Gunsmoke” to his role as Grandad on the current tweener hit “iCarly,” with 100s in between, including his role as gunslinger 'Mule' Canby in James Michener’s mini-series “Centennial.” He has been a regular on four TV series, but is best known for his role as Tom Hartman on “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.”

Mélisa Breiner-Sanders. Some favorite credits include — Film: Aphids, Women’s Studies, Underpaid Narrator. Stage: As Wide As I Can See (HERE Arts Center), As You Like It, and The Laramie Project. Online/New Media: CaucAsian, My Secret Friend (producer/actor) The Toy Collector and CollegeHumor.com. Mélisa is chair of the Georgetown Theatre Alumni and a Resident Artist with The CRY HAVOC Company. For more information visit www.MelisaBS.com

Abigail Rose Solomon has acted with Manhattan Theatre Club, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, California Shakespeare Festival, Dorset Theatre Festival, Ensemble Theatre Company of Santa Barbara, Abingdon Theatre Company, Women's Project, New Georges, Sacred Fools and several others. On camera, she has worked with Brad and Angie on Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Sarah Jessica Parker on “Sex & The City” and Jerry Orbach on “Law & Order.” She also had recurring roles on “NYPD Blue” and “Days of Our Lives,” playing a character named Nurse Solly written specifically for her. www.abigailrosesolomon.com

Sarah Winkler’s Off-Broadway credits include Dispatches from A(mended) America, A Hard Heart, Einstein’s Gift. Regional and Independent: The Last Seder (Organic Theatre), Inherit the Wind (Fulton Opera House), Radium Girls (Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey), House of Mirth (Charm School), The Tempest (Empty Space Theatre Company), Elmer Gantry (Peculiar Works Project). Film/TV: Trifling with Fate, Milk & Money, Je Suis Venu te Dire, Rencontre a New York, In the Weeds. Sarah is a proud Ensemble Artist with Epic Theatre Ensemble, where has performed in Beauty on the Vine, Einstein’s Gift, Mallbaby, Macbeth, Othello, Antigone-in-Progress, An Enemy of the People, and The Oresteia Project.