Photo Flash: In Rehearsal with Jayne Houdyshell, Delaney Williams & More for Arena Stage's THE SHOPLIFTERS

Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater kicks off the 2014/15 season with the world premiere of Morris Panych's The Shoplifters, a biting comedy about society's haves and have-nots and how much they might actually have in common. Noted Canadian playwright and director Panych, a two-time recipient of the Governor General's Literary Award, makes his Arena Stage debut with an expertly drawn cast of oddball characters and a high-stakes battle of wills involving a career shoplifter whose life of petty crime is halted by an overzealous rookie security guard and his ambivalent mentor. The Shoplifters runs September 5-October 19, 2014 in the Kreeger Theater.

Stage and screen actor Delaney Williams (HBO's The Wire,Arena Stage's A View from the Bridge) portrays Otto and joins the previously announced Tony Award nominee Jayne Houdyshell (Broadway's Romeo and Juliet, Follies) in her D.C. theater debut as Alma. The production also features Helen Hayes Award winner Jenna Sokolowski (Center Stage's Clybourne Park) as Phyllis and Adi Stein (Theater J's Body Awareness) as Dom.

Photos Courtesy of Arena Stage

Molly Smith and cast member Jayne Houdyshell

Delaney Williams, Adi Stein, Jayne Houdyshell and Jenna Sokolowski

Designer Ken MacDonald and Playwright/Director Morris Panych

Delaney Williams, Jenna Sokolowski and Adi Stein

Robert Barry Fleming and Sound Designer David Van Tieghem

Cast & Creative Team

Jayne Houdyshell and Delaney Williams

Cast & Creative Team