Tony-Nominee Bill Russell Directs New Play At Queens Theatre

Just in time for the 2018 World Series (teams to be determined later), Queens Theatre is proud to present the New York premiere of Leaving Brooklyn, Jeff Mandels' new play about family, love and baseball.

A funny, gritty and poignant tale of complex lives, Leaving Brooklyn examines what it means to be a family, sharing each other's joys and sorrows.

Directed by Tony-nominee Bill Russell (Side Show), Leaving Brooklyn is set in 1955, and plays out against the backdrop of the Dodgers run-up to their first World Series Championship.

The Feldmans, are a typical blue-collar Brownsville family in Eisenhower's America. Lee, the dad, was a minor league ballplayer. Now, he cobbles together construction jobs to support his wife, Dot, and their two sons, Paul and Danny. Paul inherited his dad's athletic abilities, and has been invited to a Dodgers training camp. Danny, the younger son, will never be able to play ball. Into the mix comes doting Aunt Pearl, up from Florida to make amends with her amorous boyfriend.

The cast includes a mix of seasoned New York performers as well as one actor making his professional theater debut.

Jonathan Gregg (Lee) performed in Stranded on Motor Parkway (FringeNY), Blood Brothers (APAC), and Six Degrees of Separation (Gallery Players). On television, he has been seen on "Ray Donovan," "Jessica Jones" and "High Maintenance."

Barbra Wengerd (Dot) appeared in Separate & Equal (59E59), Taming of the Shrew: Extreme (The Duke), and Wilder Christmas (Peccadillo). Television appearances include "Law and Order: SVU," "The Family" and "I Shudder."

Lanie Zera (Aunt Pearl) started out with The Proposition Improvisational Theater in Cambridge, Mass. and went on to help create and worked for many years at The Next Move, a beloved theatrical institution in Boston.

Eric Phelps (Paul) recently finished school at NYU Tisch's New Studio on Broadway. Most of his stage credits come from performing in and around his hometown of Jeannette, Pennsylvania. Roles include Roger in Rent, the title role in Pippin and Warner in Legally Blonde.

John Garvey (Danny) is a recent graduate of Villanova University and is currently in graduate school. Leaving Brooklyn marks John's first professional acting credit, but he is no newcomer to the stage, having performed in productions at Villanova, and Princeton's McCarter Theatre.

The production team includes Taylor Alyssa Marun, Stage Manager; Evan T Cummings, Dramaturg; Cheyenne Sykes, Lighting Designer; Dustin Cross, Costume Designer; Dan Daly, Set Designer; Caroline Eng, Sound Designer; Katie White, Props Designer; and Stephen DeAngelis, Casting Director.

Leaving Brooklyn begins Oct. 5 and runs through Oct. 21 at the Queens Theatre in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. Tickets are $20, and available by calling the Box Office at 718-760-0064, or by visiting www.queenstheatre.org.

Queens Theatre is a unique performing arts venue in Queens. Its mission is to provide quality and diverse performing arts activities that are economically and geographically accessible to the 2.2 million residents of Queens, the most ethnically diverse county in the nation, and the surrounding metropolitan region. To foster greater cultural awareness and appreciation, the Theatre presents and produces programs that reflect this diversity and features international, national and local artists.

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