Playwright Horizons announces 4 world premiere productions for its 2009/10 season

Playwrights Horizons has announced the sixth and final production of its upcoming 2009/2010 Season, as well as additional casting. The sixth production is A Cool Dip In The Barren Saharan Crick � the World Premiere of a new play by Playwrights Horizons alumna Kia Corthron, directed by Obie Award winner Chay Yew ('Durango 'at The Public). The play is a co-production with The Play Company and Culture Project.

In addition, Season casting has been announced for two productions:

• Eisa Davis, Glenn Fitzgerald and Louis Cancelmi join Parker Posey in This, the World Premiere of a new play by Melissa James Gibson, directed by Daniel Aukin.
• Reed Birney, Peter Friedman and Deirdre O�Connell join the cast of Circle Mirror Transformation, the World Premiere of a new play by Annie Baker, directed by Sam Gold.

Additional casting information will be announced in the coming months.

Playwrights Horizons 2009/2010 season:

The Retributionists by Daniel Goldfarb. (World premiere)
Director: Leigh Silverman
Cast: TBA
Synopsis: Spring 1946. The plan was simple � a German for every Jew. Its execution would be swift, clean, its impact undeniable. A band of Jewish freedom fighters attempts to avenge a society�s wrongs � if only they can keep from tearing each other apart along the way.
Dates: Previews from 21 Aug 2009


Daniel Goldfarb (Playwright). Along with Martin Short, Goldfarb wrote the book for the Broadway show 'Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me' (2006). Off-Broadway: 'Modern Orthodox' at New World Stages; 'Sarah, Sarah' at Manhattan Theater Club.

Leigh Silverman (Director) last worked at Playwrights Horizons directing Tanya Barfield�s 'Blue Door' (Audelco nomination for Best Director). Broadway: Lisa Kron�s 'Well.' Silverman is the director of Stephin Merritt & David Greenspan�s musical 'Coraline,' currently playing off-Broadway.

Circle Mirror Transformation by Annie Baker (World premiere)
Director: Sam Gold
Cast: Reed Birney (Schultz), Peter Friedman (James) and Deirdre O�Connell Marty.
Synopsis: When four lost New Englanders enrolled in Marty�s community center drama class experiment with harmless games, hearts are quietly torn apart and tiny wars of epic proportions are waged and won.
Dates: TBA


Annie Baker (Playwright) full-length plays include 'Body Awareness' (Atlantic Theater Company, Time Out New York�s Top Ten Plays of 2008, 2008 GLAAD Media Award Nomination), 'Nocturama,' 'The End of the Middle Ages' and 'The Aliens.'

Sam Gold (Director) most recently directed Nick Jones� 'Jollyship the Whizbang' which, after a successful run at Ars Nova, is receiving a commercial transfer that will open in Summer 2009.

Reed Birney (Schultz) won a 2006 Obie Award for Sustained Excellence in Performance. He made his New York debut at Playwrights Horizons in 1976 in a 'workshop prduction of 'Gemini' and starred as 'Randy Hastings' when the play arrived on Broadway in 1977. He played 'Fr Murphy' in Playwright Horizions' The Savannah Disputation (2009).

Peter Friedman (James) originated the role of 'Tateh' in the musical 'Ragtime' in Toronto, as well as on Broadway, receiving a Tony award nomination. His other Broadway credits include: 'Twelve Angry Men' (204), 'The Tenth Man' (1989), 'The Heidi Chronicles' (1989) and many more. He last appeared at Playwrights Horizons in the original 1988 production of Wendy Wasserstein�s 'The Heidi Chronicles,' creating the role of 'Scoop,' a role he also played when the production moved to Broadway.

Deirdre O�Connell (Marty) was the recipient of the 2005 Obie Award for Sustained Excellence in Performing. She has previously appeared at Playwrights Horizons in 'Manic Flight Reaction' 'Spatter Pattern (or, How I Got Away With It)' and 'Moe�s Lucky Seven.'

This by Melissa James Gibson (World Premiere)
Director: Daniel Aukin
Cast: Parker Posey (Jane), Louis Cancelmi (Jean-Pierre), Eisa Davis (Marell) and Glenn Fitzgerald (Alan).
Synopsis: Everyone�s worried about Jane. Her husband�s been dead a year. Her daughter is ten. Her poetry�s lost its muse. Her friends aren�t that happy either. Her married friends are struggling. Her gay friend is lonely. And Jane�s blind date with the French doctor (without borders) is complicated.
DatesTBA


Melissa James Gibson (Playwright) plays include '[sic]' (Obie Award for playwriting, Kesselring Prize, The Best Plays of 2001-02); 'Suitcase or, those that resemble flies from a distance' (NEA/TCG Theatre Residency Program for Playwrights, Rockefeller Foundation�s Multi-Arts Production Fund); 'All Is Not' (New York State Council on the Arts Theatre Artist Commission); and 'Current Nobody,' a loose adaptation of Homer�s Odyssey (2005 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize Finalist; 2006 Sundance Theatre Lab).

Daniel Aukin (Director) most recently directed the New York premiere of 'Back Back Back' by Itamar Moses at Manhattan Theatre Club. Other recent credits include 'A View from the Bridge' at Arena Stage, Melissa James Gibson�s 'Current Nobody' at Woolly Mammoth and Elmer Rice�s 'The Adding Machine' at La Jolla Playhouse, as well as a workshop of Rachel Axler�s new play 'Smudge' at the Eugene O�Neill Conference.

Parker Posey (Jane) last starred Off-Broadway in the acclaimed revival of 'Hurlyburly,' for which she received a Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Featured Actress and in Lanford Wilson�s 'Fifth of July' (a Lortel nomination for Lead Actress). She also starred in the Los Angeles premiere of John Patrick Shanley�s 'Four Dogs and a Bone,' directed by Lawrence Kasdan, and starred on Broadway opposite Matthew Broderick in Elaine May�s 'Taller Than A Dwarf.' (2000)

Louis Cancelmi (Jean-Pierre) appeared this past season in Craig Lucas�s 'The Singing Forest' at The Public. He understudied the role of 'Vincent Van Goth' in the both Broadway and West End productions of 'Vincent in Brixton.'

Eisa Davis' (Marell) made her Broadway as 'Mother' in 'Passing Strange,' a role she played in the show's earlier Off-Broadway production.

Glenn Fitzgerald (Alan) returns to Playwrights Horizons, where he starred in Kenneth Lonergan�s 'Lobby Hero' (2001), which had a successful commercial transfer to 'The Houseman Theatre,' and for which he was nominated for a Lortel Award. His other 0ff-Broadway credits include ' Mizlansky/Zilinsky" (MTC), 'Blue/Orange' (Atlantic) and 'Hedda Gabler' (NYTW).

Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris (World premiere)
Director: Pam MacKinnon
Cast: TBA
Synopsis: In 1958, a white family moves out. In 2008, a white family moves in. In the intervening years, Change overtakes a neighborhood, along with attitudes, inhabitants, and property values.
Dates: TBA


Bruce Norris (Playwright) is an actor and writer whose plays include 'The Infidel' (2000), 'Purple Heart' (2002), 'We All Went Down to Amsterdam' (2003), 'The Pain and the Itch '(2004) and 'The Unmentionables' (2006) all of which had their premiere at Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago. His newest play, titled 'A Parallelogram,' will premiere there in 2010. 'The Pain and the Itch 'had its New York premiere at Playwrights Horizons in 2007.

Pam MacKinnon (Director) recently directed 'A Delicate Balance' by Edward Albee at Arena Stage with Kathleen Chalfant and Ellen McLaughlin, and the World Premiere of Richard Greenberg�s new play, 'Our Mother�s Brief Affair' at South Coast Repertory. Other recent credits include 'All the King�s Men' by Robert Penn Warren (Intiman Theatre), 'The Four of Us' by Itamar Moses (Manhattan Theatre Club), Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa�s 'Good Boys and True' (Steppenwolf), the New York debut of Edward Albee�s 'Peter and Jerry' (Second Stage), Bruce Norris� 'The Unmentionables' (Woolly Mammoth), and the World Premieres of both John Fugelsang�s 'All The Wrong Reasons' (New York Theatre Workshop) and 'The Four of Us' by Itamar Moses (Old Globe).

A Cool Dip In The Barren Saharan Crick by Kia Corthron (World premiere)
Director: Chay Yew
Cast: TBA
Synopsis: When an African preacher-in-training is taken in by a family in the American South, he finds his calling in the broken lives around him. The town�s water supply is depleted by drought, a young orphan is starved for guidance, and a mother and daughter are haunted by tragedy, but the relentlessly upbeat preacher determines to battle � however he can � the personal and political forces that threaten the ecology of his new home.
Dates: TBA


Kia Corthron�s (Playwright) plays 'Breath, Boom,' and 'Life By Asphyxiation' were produced by Playwrights Horizons. Her plays, which also include 'Force Continuum,' 'The Venus de Milo Is Armed,' 'Slide Glide the Slippery Slope,' 'Digging Eleven,' 'Splash Hatch on the E Going Down,' 'Seeking the Genesis,' 'Light Raise the Roof,' 'Wake Up Lou Riser' and 'Come Down Burning,' have also been produced in New York by New York Theatre Workshop, Atlantic Theater Company, Manhattan Theatre Club, American Place Theatre. She�s a council member of the Dramatists Guild, member of the Writers Guild and New Dramatists alumnus.

Chay Yew (Director) won an Obie Award for his direction of Julia Cho�s 'Durango' at The Public. His other New York directing credits include 'Durango' and 'A Language of Their Own (Public) and 'Red' (MTC). His plays also include 'Porcelain,' 'A 'Wonderland' and 'A Beautiful Country.'

The Burnt Part Boys, music by Chris Miller, lyrics by Nathan Tysen and book by Mariana Elder (New York premiere). A co-production with Vineyard Theatre.
Director: Erica Schmidt
Cast: TBA
Synopsis: Rural West Virginia, 1962. Fourteen year-old Pete�s fighting to claim his past. His older brother Jake�s hoping to forge a future. With its soaring, elegiac score and eclectic band of youngsters teetering on the brink of adulthood, this inspirational new musical from an acclaimed new team finds both the streaks of light and the heart of darkness within us all.
Dates: TBA


Chris Miller (Music) & Nathan Tysen (Lyrics) were the 2008 winners of The Vineyard�s Kitty Carlisle Hart Musical Theatre Award, as well as the Jonathan Larson Award and the Richard Rodgers Award. They were also profiled in the Dramatists Guild Magazine�s �50 To Watch� in 2007. Their collaborations include 'Fugitive Songs,' presented Off-Broadway last season, and 'The Mysteries of Harris Burdick' (book by Joe Calarco), which received a workshop production at Barrington Stage in 2008.

Mariana Elder�s (Book) plays, sketch comedy and musicals have been performed across the country, including Barrington Stage Co., Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Director�s Lab, Theatre for a New City and Manhattan Theater Source.

Erica Schmidt's (Director) directed Manhattan Theatre Club's production of 'Humor Abuse' which won the 2009 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Solo Show. He ppreviously directed Playwright Horizon's 'People Be Heard.' His other Off-Broadway credits include 'As You Like It' (Public) and Debbie Does Dallas (Jane Street Theatre).

Playwright Horizons, under the leadership of Artistic Director Tim Sanford and Managing Director Leslie Marcus, is a writer�s theater dedicated to the support and development of contemporary American playwrights, composers and lyricists, and to the production of their new work.