Playwrights Horizons announces cast of Aubergine
Playwrights Horizons has announced further details for its upcoming 2016-2017 season, including casting for Aubergine and the appointment of a director for The Profane.
The cast of Aubergine, written by Julia Cho and directed by Kate Whoriskey, includes Tim Kang (Ray), Sue Jean Kim (Cornelia), Jessica Love (Diane/Hospital Worker), Stephen Park (Ray's Father), Michael Potts (Lucien) and Joseph Steven Yang (Uncle).
The creative team has also been announced and features scenic design by Derek McLane, costume design by Jennifer Moeller and lighting design by Peter Kaczorowski.
It has also been announced that Kip Fagan will direct the world premiere of Zayd Dohrn's The Profane.
Here is the full schedule so far for Playwrights Horizon's 2016-2017 season:
AT THE MAINSTAGE THEATER:
The 2016-2017 season begins with the New York premiere of a new play Aubergine, which is written by Julia Cho and directed by Kate Whoriskey. Previews begin on on 19 August 2016, before an official opening on 12 September and a limited engagament through to 2 October.
Synopsis: "A man shares a bowl of berries, and a young woman falls in love. A world away, a mother prepares a bowl of soup to keep her son from leaving home. And a son cooks a meal for his dying father to say everything that words can't. The making of a perfect meal is an expression more precise than language, and the medium through which life gradually reveals itself."
Aubergine staged its world premiere at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in California.
This will be followed by the world premiere of Dan LeFranc's comedy Rancho Viejo, directed by three-time Obie Award winner Daniel Aukin, which is expected to begin performances in November 2016.
Synopsis: "We never meet young Richie and Lonna, whose marriage is on the rocks. But miles and miles away, in the affluent southwestern suburb where their parents live, this couple's separation is disturbing the tranquility of a community they've barely met. In Dan LeFranc's comedy of anxiety and awkward neighbors, the residents of Rancho Viejo drift from one gathering to the next, wrestling life's grandest themes while fending off existential despair - set against the lustful, yearning strains of a distant bolero."
Next up will be the world premiere of a production made by The Debate Society. The Light Years, written by and starring Drama Desk Award winner Hannah Bos and Obie Award winner Paul Thureen, is directed and developed by Obie Award winner Oliver Butler, and is expected to begin performances in February 2017.
Synopsis: "Behold The Spectatorium: an audacious, visionary 12,000-seat theater designed for the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 by Steele MacKaye, the now forgotten theatrical impresario around whom this haunted, 40-year love story spins. From the minds of The Debate Society, The Light Years is an epic, intimate tale of two families struggling to meet their future, and a spectacular tribute to man's indomitable spirit of invention."
Additional casting will be announced at a later date.
And finally at Playwrights Horizons' Mainstage Theater will be the New York premiere of Obie Award winner Kirsten Childs' new musical comedy Bella: An American Tall Tale, directed by two-time Obie Award winner Robert O'Hara, which is scheduled to begin performances in May 2017.
Synopsis: "All aboard for a Western musical adventure the likes of which you've never experienced. As a wanted woman of mythic proportions looks to begin life anew out west, Bella takes us on the trip of a lifetime to escape her scandalous past and bounce into the arms of her awaiting Buffalo Soldier. Rowdy, wild, and hilarious, Kirsten Childs infuses this tall tale with soulful tunes and madcap antics aplenty. Giddy-up to our get-down!"
The musical is a Playwrights Horizons commission, but will first stage its world premiere at Dallas Theatre Center this Fall.
AT THE PETER JAY SHARP THEATER:
The 2016-2017 season kicks off here with the world premiere of Obie Award winner Adam Bock's new play A Life, directed by two-time Obie Award winner Anne Kauffman, which will begin performances in September 2016.
Synopsis: "Nate Martin is hopelessly single. When his most recent breakup, another in a lifelong string of ill-fated matches, casts him into a funk, he turns to the only source of wisdom he trusts: the stars. Poring over astrological charts, he obsessively questions his past and his place in the cosmos. But the answer he receives, when it comes, is shockingly obvious - and totally unpredictable."
And finishing off the season at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater will be The Profane, a new play written by Zayd Dohrn and directed by Kip Fagan. Previews begin on 17 March 2017, before an official opening on 9 April and a limited engagement through to 30 April.
Synopsis: "Safe in the liberal fortress of Manhattan, Raif Almedin is a first-generation immigrant who prides himself on his modern, enlightened views. But when his daughter falls for the son of a conservative Muslim family in White Plains, he discovers the threshold of his tolerance. Two families are forced to confront each other's religious beliefs and cultural traditions, and to face their own deep-seated prejudice."
Exact dates, along with casting and creative team information for all six productions will be announced in the coming months.
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