Playwright Horizons: 2012 - 2013 season

Playwrights Horizons has announced the complete line-up for its 2012/2013 Season, which will present four world premiere: The Great God Plan by Amy Herzog, directed by Carolyn Cantor; The Flick by Annie Baker, directed by Sam Gold; The Call by Tanya Barfield, directed by Leigh Silverman; and the musical Far From Heaven, book by Richard Greenberg, music by Scott Frankel, lyrics by Michel Korie, directed by Michael Greif. Along with two New York Premieres: Detroit by Lisa D'Amour, directed by PAnne Kauffman; and The Whale by Samuel D. Hunter, directed by Davis McCallum.

The plays will be presented in the following season order:

New York Premiere
Detroit
by Lisa D'Amour
Directed by Anne Kauffman
Cast: tba
Venue: Playwrights Horizons' Mainstage
Date: Will begin previews in Aug 2012.

Synopsis: Somewhere in the suburbs of a mid-sized city, Ben and Mary welcome into their lives the rootless couple who move in next door. But as this foursome bonds over backyard barbecues, the neighborly connection they find threatens to unravel the lives they've built and change them forever.

Detroit had its World Premiere at Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Sep 2010.

Lisa D'Amour (Playwright) recently premiered 'Terrible Things,' a dance-theater piece created with Katie Pearl and choreographer Emily Johnson, at PS122. Other recent projects include 'Swimming Cities of Switchback Seas' (a performance for a fleet of seven handmade boats on the Hudson River designed by SWOON) and 'Bird Eye Blue Print' (created with Katie Pearl for a vacant office in the World Financial Center). She received an Obie Award along with Katie Pearl and Kathy Randels for 'Nita & Zita,' and received the Alpert Award in the Arts for theater in 2008. D'Amour's latest creation with Katie Pearl, 'How to Build a Forest,' premiered at The Kitchen in June 2011. She is a 2011 Pulitzer Finalist and Susan Smith Blackburn Prize finalist for Detroit.

Anne Kauffman (Director) most recently directed the New York premiere of 'Maple & Vine' by Jordan Harrison at Playwrights Horizons (also at Humana Festival), 'Belleville' by Amy Herzog for Yale Rep and 'Body Awareness' by Annie Baker for the Wilma Theatre. Other recent credits include 'You Better Sit Down: Tales from My Parents' Divorce' at Williamstown, Adam Bock and Todd Almond's new musical, 'We Have Always Lived in a Castle,' based on the novel by Shirley Jackson, at Yale Rep, 'Six Degrees of Separation' at Williamstown,'Becky Shaw' at The Wilma Theater in Philadelphia and 'This Wide Night' by Chloe Moss for Naked Angels (Lortel nomination for Best Direction of a Play).

New York Premiere
The Whale
by Samuel D. Hunterbr> Directed by Davis McCallum
Venue: Playwrights Horizons' Peter Jay Sharp Theater
Dates: tba

Synopsis: On the outskirts of Mormon Country, Idaho, a six-hundred pound recluse hides away in his apartment eating himself to death. Desperate to reconnect with his long-estranged daughter, he reaches out to her, only to find a viciously sharp-tongued and wildly unhappy teen..

Samuel D. Hunter's (Playwright) recent plays include 'A Bright New Boise' (2011 Obie Award for playwriting), The Whale (The Denver Center), 'A Permanent Image' (commissioned and produced by Boise Contemporary Theater), 'Jack's Precious Moment' (Page 73 Productions), 'Five Genocides' (Clubbed Thumb), 'Norway' (Phoenix Theatre of Indianapolis; Boise Contemporary Theater), 'I Am Montana' (Arcola Theatre, London; Mortar Theater, Chicago).

Davis McCallum (Director) recently directed the world premiere of Quiara Alegria Hudes's 'Water By the Spoonful' at Hartford Stage Company. New York: Samuel D. Hunter's 'A Bright New Boise' (Partial Comfort) and 'Five Genocides' (Clubbed Thumb); Michael Mitnick's 'Sex Lives of Our Parent's (Second Stage); Gregory S. Moss's 'punkplay' (Clubbed Thumb); Charles Mee's 'Queens Boulevard' (Signature Theater); Hudes's Elliot: 'A Soldier's Fugue' (P73); 'Henry V' (New Victory); 'Jane Eyre,' 'The Tempest' and 'The Turn Of The Screw' (The Acting Company).

World Premiere
The Great God Plan
by Amy Herzog
Directed by Carolyn Cantor
Venue: Playwrights Horizons' Main Stage
Dates: tba

Synopsis: Jamie's life in Brooklyn seems just fine: a beautiful girlfriend, a budding journalism career, and parents who live just far enough away. But when a possible childhood trauma comes to light, lives are thrown into a tailspin.

Amy Herzog's (Playwright) plays include 'After the Revolution' (Williamstown Theater Festival; Playwrights Horizons), '4000 Miles' (Lincoln Center), 'Belleville' (Yale Repertory Theater), and 'The Wendy Play' (ACT, San Francisco).

Carolyn Cantor (Director). New York: 'The Talls' (Second Stage), 'After the Revolution' (Playwrights Horizons) 'Pumpgirl' (Manhattan Theatre Club), 'In A Dark Dark House' (MCC Theater), 'Something You Did' (Primary Stages), 'Essential Self Defense' (Playwrights Horizons), 'Orange Flower Water,' 'Now That's What I Call A Storm,' 'Living Room in Africa,' 'Stone Cold Dead Serious' and 'Life is a Dream' (Edge Theater), 'EVE-olution' (Cherry Lane), and'Kitty Kitty Kitty' (SPF). She is the founding artistic director of the Obie Award-winning Edge Theater.

World Premiere
The Flick
by Annie Baker
Directed by Sam Gold
Venue: Playwrights Horizons' Main Stage
Dates: tba

Synopsis: In a run-down movie theater in central Massachusetts, three underpaid employees mop the floors and attend to one of the last 35 millimeter film projectors in New England. Their tiny battles, and not-so-tiny heartbreaks, play out in the empty aisles, becoming more gripping than the lackluster, second-run movies on screen.

Annie Baker's (Playwright) full-length plays include 'Circle Mirror Transformation' (Playwrights Horizons, Obie Award for Best New American Play), 'The Aliens' (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Obie Award for Best New American Play), and 'Body Awareness' (Atlantic Theater Company).

Sam Gold (Director) has collaborated with playwrights Annie Baker, Will Eno, Bathsheba Doran, Dan LeFranc, Stephen Belber, Nick Jones, Beau Willimon, Noah Haidle, Sam Marks, Betty Shamieh, Zoe Kazan, Theresa Rebeck and others. Recent credits: 'Seminar' (Broadway), 'Look Back in Anger' (Roundabout), 'We Live Here' (Manhattan Theater Club), 'A Doll's House' (Williamstown Theatre Festival), 'August: Osage County' (Old Globe), 'Kin' (Playwrights Horizons), 'The Coward' (Lincoln Center's LCT3), 'Tigers Be Still' (Roundabout), 'Dusk Rings a Bell' (Atlantic), 'The Aliens' (Rattlestick), 'Circle Mirror Transformation' (Playwrights Horizons, Obie Award in 2010 for Outstanding Direction of Circle Mirror Transformation and The Aliens), 'Jollyship the Whiz-Bang' (Ars Nova & Under the Radar Festival), 'Rag and Bone' (Rattlestick), 'The Joke' (Studio Dante) and 'The Black Eyed' (NYTW).

World Premiere
The Call
By Tanya Barfield
Directed by Leigh Silverman
Venue: Playwrights Horizons' Peter Jay Sharp Theater
Dates: tba

Synopsis: When Annie and Peter decide to adopt, they come to set their sights on a child from Africa. But when the reality of this choice sinks in, it opens a well of uncertainty that speaks to their very identity as White Americans.

Tanya Barfield's (Playwright) plays include 'Of Equal Measure' (Center Theatre Group), 'Blue Door' (Playwrights Horizons, South Coast Repertory, Seattle Repertory, Berkeley Repertory and additional theaters), 'Dent,' 'The Quick,' 'The Houdini Act' and '121º West.'

Leigh Silverman (Director). Broadway: David Henry Hwang's 'Chinglish' and Lisa Kron's 'Well.' West End: 'Wit.' Recent world premieres: 'Chinglish' (Goodman Theater, Jeff nomination); 'In the Wake' (Center Theatre Group/Berkeley Repertory Theatre and The Public Theater, Obie Award, Lortel nomination); 'Go Back to Where You Are' (Playwrights Horizons, Obie Award); 'Close Up Space' (MTC); 'From Up Here' (MTC); 'Yellow Face' (Center Theatre Group/The Public Theater); 'Coraline' (MCC/True Love); 'Beebo Brinker Chronicles' (Hourglass Group/37 Arts); 'Creature' (New Georges/P73); 'Hunting and Gathering' (Primary Stages); 'Well' (The Public Theater, Huntington Theatre and ACT); 'The Retributionists' (Playwrights Horizons); 'Blue Door' (Playwrights Horizons and Seattle Repertory Theatre); 'Oedipus at Palm Springs' (NYTW); 'Jump/Cut' (Woolly Mammoth Theatre/Theater J and Women's Project); also 'Danny and the Deep Blue Sea' (Second Stage Theatre). West End: 'Wit.'

World Premiere
Far from Heaven
Book by Richard Greenberg
Music by Scott Frankel
Lyrics by Michel Korie
Directed by Michael Greif
Venue: Playwrights Horizons' Main Stage
Dates: tba

Synopsis: Cathy Whitaker seems to be the picture-perfect wife and mother in 1957 suburban Connecticut. But roiling beneath the surface, secret longings and forbidden desires cause her world to unravel - with incendiary consequences.

Richard Greenberg (Book) is the author of 'Take Me Out' (Tony Award for Best Play; Lucille Lortel Award), which ran on Broadway after successful runs at The Donmar on London's West End and The Public Theater in New York City. Other works include 'The House in Town,' 'The Violet Hour,' 'The Dazzle' (Lucille Lortel nominations), 'Everett Beekin,' 'Three Days of Rain'(Pulitzer finalist; Olivier nomination; Broadway revival starring Julia Roberts), 'Hurrah At Last,' 'Night and Her Stars,' 'The American Plan,' 'Life Under Water' and 'The Author's Voice', among many other plays.

Scott Frankel (Music) was nominated for Tony award for his work on 'Grey Gardens.' He has written the music for 'Happiness' (Lincoln Center Theatre), 'Doll' (Richard Rodgers Award) and 'Meet Mister Future' (winner, Global Search for New Musicals), all with lyricist Michael Korie. His stage adaptation of 'Finding Neverland,' for the Weinstein Company, is slated to have its UK premiere in 2012. As a music director, conductor and pianist, his Broadway credits include 'Into the Woods,' 'Les Misérables,' 'Jerome Robbins' Broadway,' 'Rags' and 'Falsettos' as well as Off-Broadway's 'Putting It Together' starring Julie Andrews. Motion picture credits include Mike Nichols' "Postcards From the Edge," where he can be seen (and heard) playing for Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine.

Michael Korie (Lyrics) was nominated for a Tony award for his lyrics to 'Grey Gardens' (composer Scott Frankel, book by Doug Wright). The musical was produced at Playwrights Horizons, transferred to Broadway, recorded on PS Classics, subsequently produced throughout America and abroad and profiled in a new documentary film by Albert Maysles which was broadcast on PBS. Also with composer Frankel: 'Happiness' (book by John Weidman, Lincoln Center Theater) and the upcoming 'Finding Neverland' (book by Allan Knee, London, for The Weinstein Company).

Michael Greif (Director) most recently directed Michael John LaChiusa's and Sybille Pearson's 'Giant' (Dallas Theater Center/Public Theater Fall 2012), Tony Kushner's 'Angels in America Part I and II' (Signature Theater Company) and 'The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures' (Public Theater and Signature Theatre). Other recent work includes 'Winter's Tale' and 'Romeo & Juliet' for the Public's Delacorte Theater. On Broadway, he directed the musicals 'Next to Normal' (also at Second Stage Theatre and Arena Stage), 'Grey Gardens' (also at Playwrights Horizons) and 'Rent' (also at New York Theatre Workshop, 1996; New World Stages, 2011), receiving Tony nominations for each. Other Off-Broadway work includes premieres by John Guare, Neal Bell, Theresa Rebeck, Nilo Cruz, Susan Lori Parks, at The Public, Playwrights Horizons, Manhattan Theatre Club, Manhattan Classics Company, Roundabout Theatre.