A DOLL'S HOUSE, PART 2 at Penguin Rep Theatre

Penguin Rep Theatre today announced that the Stony Point-based professional theatre will present a special online benefit reading of Lucas Hnaths A DOLLS HOUSE, PART 2 starring Ann Dowd, Emmy Award-winning actress, and directed by founding artistic director Joe Brancato.The recorded reading will premiere Saturday, December 26 at 8 p.m. and is available for viewing through Wednesday, December 30 at 8 p.m.Tickets are available by making a tax-deductible donation at www.penguinrep.org/dh2. Net proceeds will benefit Penguin Rep and People to People, Rockland Countys largest food pantry.A DOLLS HOUSE, PART 2 opened on Broadway in 2017 with a cast that included Laurie Metcalf, Chris Cooper, Jayne Houdyshell, and Condola Rashad, and marked Hnaths Broadway debut. The New York Times called it a smart, funny and utterly engrossing new play.Whos that knocking at the door at the start of A DOLLS HOUSE, PART 2? 15 years after walking out, Noras come home because she needs her not-quite-ex-husbands help. Not so fast, Nora, your family has a few things theyd like to get off their chest. A slamming door isnt just an end, says Brancato, but the chance for a new beginning in this entertaining work about marriage and the ways the roles of women have and havent changed.According to Brancato who co-founded Penguin Rep Theatre in 1977, his professional relationship with Dowd spans more than 25 years and that the reading is a family affair with the cast featuring, in addition to Dowd (as Nora), her real-life husband Lawrence Arancio as Torvald, Noras husband in the play, and her daughter Emily Arancio playing Noras daughter, Emmy. Completing the cast is Angelina Fiordellisi as Anne Marie.Penguin Rep Theatre executive director Andrew M. Horn is producer. Max Silverman composed original music for the reading and is technical director. Michael Herwitz is production manager. Tickets to stream the recorded readings are available without charge to those who make a donation at www.penguinrep.org/dh2. Donors will be provided with a link where the recorded reading can be viewed for a 24-hour-period and may select for the period to begin at 8 p.m. on Saturday, December 26, Sunday, December 27, Monday, December 28 or Tuesday, December 29.Please note that this event is NOT happening in the theatre, and tickets for this special event can only be secured in advance at www.penguinrep.org/dh2. Tickets are not available by phone or in person. Under the dynamic leadership of Brancato and Horn, Penguin Rep Theatre (www.penguinrep.org) has grown in just over four decades from a summer theatre in a converted 1880s hay barn to one of the Hudson Valley's most influential nonprofit cultural institutions. Since its founding, Penguin Rep has entertained more than 400,000 people with outstanding productions of more than 150 plays, specializing in new works by established and emerging writers. Many plays developed and staged byPenguin, dubbed the gutsiest little theatre by the NY Times, have moved on to successful runs Off-Broadway and to showplaces around the country and abroad. For decades, People to People (www.peopletopeopleinc.org) has been assisting the communitys most vulnerable families, seniors and veterans because of its belief that, by helping our neighbors meet their basic needs, we make the world a better place. People to People is Rocklands largest food pantry.The artists donating their talents to this benefit reading include:EMILY ARANCIO (Emmy) just graduated from College of the Holy Cross as a double major in Theatre and Classics and is currently in her first year of graduate school at USCs MFA Acting program. LAWRENCE ARANCIO (Torvald) is an actor, director, writer and teacher. He has appeared in over three dozen plays in New York, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Los Angeles, including The Drawer Boy, directed by Joe Brancato, at Penguin Rep. Next month, he will begin filming a new Hulu series, Dopesick and has recently guest-starred on Betty (HBO),The Deuce (HBO), Madame Secretary, and Bull. Directing credits include two new musicals, The Trouble with Doug and Pages, both with the CAP21 Theatre Company; A Different Moon and Yellowman at Penguin Rep; as well as many musicals with students at NYU/CAP21. He is currently the Head of Acting in the Molloy/CAP21 BFA program.ANN DOWD (Nora) is an Emmy-award winning and Golden Globe-nominated actress best known for her role as Aunt Lydia in The Handmaids Tale. A veteran of the stage and screen since the 1990's, additional notable film and TV credits include Rebecca, The Leftovers, Compliance, Hereditary, Philadelphia and the upcoming drama Mass which will premiere at Sundance in January 2021.ANGELINA FIORDELLISI (Anne Marie) is a Tony and Obie Award-winning Producing Artist. She recently starred in the Off Broadway production of The Sabbath Girl by Cary Gitter and the world premiere of With by Carter Lewis at Perseverance Theater in Juneau, Alaska. She has acted on Broadway, Off-Broadway, 3 National Tours and in regional theaters across the country, including Zorba with Anthony Quinn, Out of the Mouths of Babes with Estelle Parsons, and First Love with Michael O'Keefe. Film and TV credits include: When a Man Loves A Woman, Where the Heart Is, Walker Payne, Big Stone Gap, Straight Outta Tompkins, Out of Darkness, Delusion, Law & Order, LA Law, Star Trek: TNG, The Cosby Show, and Roseanne. Proprietor of Cherry Lane Theatre since 1996, she co-founded CLT Mentor Project with Edward Albee, Charles Fuller, A. R. Gurney, Tony Kushner, Wendy Wasserstein, and Michael Weller, launching 64 emerging playwrights to date including Katori Hall and Rajiv Joseph. She won the Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critic's Circle and Drama League Awards as co-producer of Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf ? and Drama Desk Award for co-producing Will Eno's The Realistic Joneses. JOE BRANCATO (Director/Founding Artistic Director, Penguin Rep). Off-Broadway: Michael McKeevers Daniels Husband (Penguin/Primary Stages/Westside Theater) and After (59E59 Theaters), Cary Gitters The Sabbath Girl (59E59 Theaters), Erasmus Fenns Drop Dead Perfect, Angelo Parras The Devils Music: The Life & Blues of Bessie Smith (Drama Desk, Lortel, Off Bway Alliance & Audelco nominee), Miracle on South Division Street, Fall to Earth, Freed (Audelco nominee), Tryst (Outer Critics nominee), Cobb (Drama Desk winner), From Door To Door, One Shot, One Kill, Two and a Half Jews, My Italy Story, and Hold the Wedding, produced by Joseph Papp. Regional: Royal Manitoba Theatre Center, George Street, Seattle Rep, Cleveland Playhouse, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Alley Theatre, Hartford Stage, Westport Country Playhouse, among others. As founding artistic director of Penguin Rep Theatre, he has directed 150 productions in Stony Point, New York, including the world premiere of The Man Who Was Peter Pan, which became the Broadway musical and film Finding Neverland. He is also the author of the books for the musicals Mae West at Club El Fey, Only the Sky Was Blue!, and Words Fail Me (a musical tribute to Michael Leonard).

Authors

• Lucas Hnath