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. The Shoplifters runs through October 19, 2014 in the Kreeger Theater. BroadwayWorld has photos from the opening night festivities below!
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.
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.
Executive Producer Edgar Dobie (center) with the cast of THE SHOPLIFTERS
Cast members Jenna Sokolowski (Phyllis) and Jayne Houdyshell (Alma)
Set and costume designer Ken MacDonald and playwright Morris Panych
Cast members Jayne Houdyshell (Alma) and Delaney Williams (Otto)
Playwright Morris Panych addresses audience members
Playwright Morris Panych (center) with cast members Adi Stein (Dom) and Jenna Sokolowski (Phyllis)
Playwright Morris Panych
The company of The Shoplifters with Board Chair Beth Newburger Schwartz and husband Richard Schwartz
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