'05-'06 Season Announced for Abingdon Theatre Company

By: Jun. 20, 2005
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The Abingdon Theatre Company (312 West 36th St.) has announced the production lineup for both their Mainstage and Stage II 2005-2006 season.

As Mainstage plays, the theatre will present three new pieces at the June Havoc Theatre, all of which are New York premieres.

From October 7th to November 6th, 2005, Barbara Dana's War in Paramus will run in a world premiere helmed by actor-playwright-director Austin Pendleton (Orson's Shadow). "Set in the New Jersey suburbs of 1970, the darkly funny play centers around a teenage girl's rebellion for her independence in the shadow of the Vietnam War."

The world premiere of Sherman Yellen's (Tony-nominated for The Rothschilds) play December Fools, directed by Donald Brenner, will be presented from January 27th to February 26th, 2006. "A legendary composer's daughter—upon a rare visit to New York to visit her mother—accidentally discovers long-held family secrets buried in a desk drawer."

The New York premiere of Mary Willard's Elvis and Juliet, directed by Yvonne Conybeare, will play from May to June; the specific dates are unannounced. The production will star Fred Willard (Best in Show, TV's "Everybody Loves Raymond"). "Two households, both alike in dignity… mostly. Meet Juliet Jones and Elvis Lesley, star-cross'd lovers whose upcoming marriage brings together their ne'er more opposite families: she's from conservative suburbanites, he from a flamboyant Vegas clan whose idol is none other than The King himself."

Abingdon Theatre Company's Stage II Productions center on brand-new works still in development and are presented in the smaller, intimate space of the Dorothy Strelsin Theatre.

Michèle Raper Rittenhouse's In the Arms of Baby Jesus, directed by Carole Mansley, will run from September 9th to 25th, 2005 in a production starring Patti Mariano (42nd Street, The Full Monty). "A new dramatic work by Abingdon's Witter Bynner Playwright-in-Residence, the play is set in 1988 during the Tompkins Square Park gentrification riots, three lives touched by tragedy during the Vietnam War intertwine in an East Village apartment."

Daniella Uses Dirty Words, by Matthew Moses, will be staged by Kim T. Sharp and will be presented from November 4th to 20th. The play is "a wildly funny and outrageous comedy. No subject is too taboo for Daniella, a Brooklyn teenager who just can't refrain from speaking her mind on sex, religion, race and more, much to the chagrin of her mother, boyfriend, school principal and classmates".

The final Stage II Production of the season, which will take place April 21–May 7, 2006 in the Dorothy Strelsin Theatre, is reserved for a new script-in-development from an up-and-coming American playwright.

Abingdon Theatre Company was founded in 1993 by five artists with one common goal—to develop and produce new plays exclusively by American playwrights. Under the artistic direction of Jan Buttram and Pamela Paul, and managing direction of Samuel J. Bellinger, Abingdon utilizes First Readings, Staged Readings, Workouts, Stage II Productions and Mainstage Productions to develop scripts, and provides a safe home in which playwrights collaborate with other theatre artists and receive audience feedback.

Tickets for the shows of the 2005-2006 season will be available via SmartTix at (212) 868-4444. For more information, call Abingdon Theatre Company at (212) 868-2055, or visit www.abingdon-nyc.org.


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