Vineyard Theatre announces 2012/2013 season

Vineyard Theatre's 30th anniversary season will present three works: the world premiere of Checkers by Douglas McGrath, the New York premiere of The North Pool by Rajiv Joseph and the world premiere of Somewhere Fun by Jenny Schwartz.

Casting announcements and full scheduling dates for each production will be forthcoming.

The plays will be presented in the following season order:

World Premiere
Checkers
by Douglas McGrath
Directed by Terry Kinney
Cast: tba
Venue: Vineyard Theatre
Dates: Expected Oct 2012

It's 1952. A young Richard Nixon is campaigning as his party's candidate for Vice-President, his wife Pat proudly at his side, when an accusation of financial impropriety almost ends his promising career. In a momentous speech, he takes charge of his fate, and changes the character of American politics forever.

Platwright Douglas McGrath is an Academy award nominee for his collaboration with Woody Allen on the screenplay for 'Bullets Over Broadway.',' soon to be a Broadway musical. His first film as writer and director was the Oscar winning 'Emma,' from Jane Austen's novel. His other films include Dickens's 'Nicholas Nickleby,' which won the Best Ensemble Cast from the National Board of Review, 'Infamous' and 'His Way.' He began his career as a writer for "Saturday Night Live" and has written numerous essays on the arts and politics for the New Republic, The New Yorker, The Nation, The New York Times and Vanity Fair.

Terry Kinney directed the Vineyard's productions of Gina Gionfriddo's 'After Ashley' and Nicky Silver's 'Beautiful Child' and 'The Agony and the Agony.' Elsewhere Off-Broadway he directed 'reasons to be pretty' (also on Broadway) and 'Eyes for Consuela' at Manhattan Theatre Club. Kinney is a co-founder of Steppenwolf Theatre where his many directing credits include 'Of Mice and Men,' 'Fool for Love,' 'Streamers,' 'Reckless,' 'A Clockwork Orange,' 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo'S Nest,' 'The Violet Hour' and 'A Streetcar Named Desire.'

New York Premiere
The North Pool
By Rajiv Joseph
Director: Giovanna Sardelli
Cast: tba Venue: Vineyard Theatre
Dates: Expected Feb 2013

A high school vice principal and a Middle Eastern-born transfer student engage in a politically and emotionally charged game of cat and mouse, with dangerous consequences.

Playwright Rajiv Joseph is a Pulitzer Prize finalist for his play 'Bengal Tiger at The Baghdad Zoo,' which played in Broadway in 2011 starring Robin Williams. 'The North Pool' received its world premiere at Palo Alto's Theatreworks and will also be seen this summer at Barrington Stage. His other plays include 'Gruesome Playgound Injuries,' 'Animals Out of Paper,' 'The Monster at the Door,' 'The Leopard and The Fox' (adaptation), 'All This Intimacy' and 'Huck & Holden.' Rajiv has been awarded a United States Artists Grant and the Whiting Award. He has written for the Showtime award-winning series, "Nurse Jackie".

Giovanna Sardelli has collaborated with Rajiv Joseph on his plays 'Animals Out of Paper' (Joe A.. Callaway Award, Outstanding Director) and 'All This Intimacy' (both at Second Stage); 'The Leopard and the Fox' (AlterEgo), 'Huck & Holden' (Cherry Lane), and 'The North Pool' (TheatreWorks). Other world-premieres include Theresa Rebeck's 'Dead Accounts' (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park), 'Somewhere' and the West Coast premiere of 'The Whipping Man' (NAACP nomination Best Director) - both by Matthew Lopez (both at Old Globe), Lynn Rosen's 'Apple Cove' (Women's Project), James McLindon's 'Salvation' (Hudson Stage), Christopher Wall's 'Dreams of the Washer King' (Playwrights Realm), Lila Rose Kaplan's 'Wildflower' (Second Stage), Zoe Kazan's 'Absalom' (Humana) and Adriana Sevan's 'Taking Flight' (Center Theatre Group and others). Sardelli spent two seasons as Director of the Shakespeare Sedona Institute and two seasons as the Artistic Director of Studio Tisch, and was recently named Resident Director at The Dorset Theatre Festival.

World Premiere
Somewhere Fun
By Jenny Schwartz
Director: Anne Kauffman
Cast: tba Venue: Vineyard Theatre
Dates: Expected May 2013

Rosemary and Evelyn met 'a hundred thousand years ago' in Central Park when their children were barely born. The two women reunite thirty-five years later on Madison Avenue, one windy fall day. With their children now grown and the world changing rapidly before their eyes, each finds herself face to face with the terrors, joys, and surprises of life and time.

Somewhere Fun marks a return to the Vineyard for Schwartz and Kauffman, who collaborated on 'God's Ear,' Schwartz's comic play that was produced at the Vineyard in 2008.

In addition to 'God's Ear' (Vineyard, New Georges), Jenny Schwartz is the author of 'Cause for Alarm,' directed by Ken Rus Schmoll at FringeNYC. With Todd Almond she is working on a musical entitled 'IOWA,' for which they received the 2012 Frederick Loewe Award for Musical Theatre. Schwartz has received a Kessellring honor, a Susan Smith Blackburn commendation, the Dorothy Strelsin Playwriting Fellowship and the American Academy of Arts and Letters' Benjamin H. Danks Award in Drama.

Anne Kauffman is an OBIE Award-winning director whose many credits include Greg Pierce's 'Slowgirl,' Jordan Harrison's 'Maple and Vine,' The Civilians' 'Tales from my Parents Divorce,' Chloe Moss' 'This Wide Night,' Gina Gionfriddo's 'Becky Shaw,' David Adjmi's 'Stunning,' Dan LeFranc's 'Sixty Miles to Silver Lake,' Adam Bock's 'The Thugs' and the musical 'We Have Always Lived in a Castle' at Yale Rep.