Brooks Ashmanskas, Vincent D'Onofrio and Zoe Kazan join Ethan Hawke in New Group's CLIVE

The New Group has announced that Brooks Ashmanskas, Vincent D'Onofrio and Zoe Kazan have joined the cast of Clive, up next in the company's 2012-2013 season. Written by Jonathan Marc Sherman and directed by and featuring Ethan Hawke in the title role, Clive begins a limited Off-Broadway engagement on January 17, 2013. Official Opening Night is set for Thursday, February 7 at 7:00pm. This production is slated through March 9 at The New Group at Theatre Row (The Acorn Theatre / 410 West 42nd Street).

Inspired by Bertolt Brecht's inflammatory play Baal, Clive tracks a dissipated songwriter in 1990s New York City from the hedonistic heights of seduction and consumption into an ecstasy of self-destruction. This production reunites playwright Jonathan Marc Sherman and director Ethan Hawke, who teamed previously at The New Group on Things We Want (written by Sherman, directed by Hawke, 2007 extended run). At once a celebration and a nightmare vision of life lived for pleasure, Clive boasts an eclectic selection of classic American songs performed live. Ethan Hawke appears as in the title role, joined by Brooks Ashmanskas, Vincent D'Onofrio and Zoe Kazan in this world premiere production. Additional casting TBA.

Jonathan Marc Sherman's plays include Things We Want (The New Group, 2007 extended run), Knickerbocker, Sophistry, Evolution, Sons & Fathers, Jesus on the Oil Tank, Serendipity & Serenity, Wonderful Time, Veins & Thumbtacks (the basis for the movie The Jimmy Show) and Women & Wallace (which he adapted for American Playhouse).

Ethan Hawke's credits at The New Group include Blood From A Stone (OBIE Award) and Hurlyburly (Drama League nomination) as an actor; and as a director, A Lie of the Mind (Drama Desk nomination) and Jonathan Marc Sherman's Things We Want. Broadway: The Coast of Utopia (Tony nom.), Henry IV, The Seagull. Off-B'way: Ivanov (Classic Stage Company), Sophistry, The Late Henry Moss, The Bridge Project (Drama Desk nom.). Films include: Training Day (Academy Award nom.) and Before Sunset (Academy Award nom. as a writer, Best Adapted Screenplay). Hawke directed the films Chelsea Walls, Straight to One (also wrote) and The Hottest State (also wrote & appeared). He has written two novels.

Brooks Ashmanskas' Broadway credits include Promises, Promises; Present Laughter, The Ritz, Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me (Tony nomination), The Producers, Gypsy, Little Me, Dream and How to Succeed…. His Off-Broadway credits include Wise Guys, Labor Day, Songs for a New World, London Suite, It Changes Every Year and The Holy Terror. He has appeared in the films Julie & Julia (Dir. Nora Ephron) and Little Children (Dir. Todd Field). His television credits include "The Good Wife" and "All My Children," among numerous others.

Vincent D'Onofrio became a full-fledged member of the American Stanislavsky Theatre in 1984, appearing in The Petrified Forest, Of Mice and Men, Sexual Perversity in Chicago and The Indian Wants the Bronx. Theater credits include Open Admissions on Broadway; and Off-Broadway: Tooth of Crime (Second Dance). Film credits include: Full Metal Jacket, Mystic Pizza, Adventures in Babysitting, Steal This Movie, The Cell, The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys, The Salton Sea, Imposter, Chelsea Walls, Happy Accidents, The Player, Dying Young, Ed Wood, Strange Days, Stuart Saves His Family, Men in Black, The Thirteenth Floor, The Whole Wide World, JFK, The Tomb, and recently finished Fire With Fire. Forthcoming: Chained and Pawn Shop Chronicles. Currently filming Broken Horses. Television credits include Detective Robert Goren on "Law & Order: Criminal Intent." Emmy award nomination in 1998 for "HOMICIDE: Life on the Street." D'Onofrio directed, produced and starred in the short film Five Minutes, Mr. Welles and recently appeared in the Academy Award-winning short, The New Tenants.

Zoe Kazan is an award-winning actress, who recently wrote her first screenplay, Ruby Sparks. She starred in the film opposite Paul Dano, Chris Messina, Annette Bening and Antonia Banederas and served as executive producer. A 2005 graduate of Yale University, she made her New York stage debut in 2006 The New Group's revival of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie opposite Cynthia Nixon. In 2008, Zoe received the Clarence Derwent Award, honoring "the most promising female and male performers on the New York metropolitan scene." She is the only actor to be awarded the Derwent Award for three roles in one year: Come Back, Little Sheba, 100 Saints You Should Know, and Things We Want. Her writing for theater includes the family drama Absalom, produced at the Humana Festival at the Actor's Theater of Louisville in 2009. Her second play, We Live Here, was produced by Manhattan Theatre Club (Off-B'way Fall 2011). While continuing to work in theater, she has appeared in several films including Sam Mendes' Revolutionary Road and Nancy Meyers' It's Complicated. She also had starring roles in the independent films In Your Eyes, written and produced by Joss Whedon, and The Pretty One, written and directed by Jenee Lamarque. She recently completed filming The F Word, starring opposite Daniel Radcliffe.

This production includes Set Design by Derek McLane, (upcoming: 2013 Academy Awards; past credits: B'way: Nice Work If You Can Get It, Gore Vidal's The Best Man, How to Succeed…, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Anything Goes, 33 Variations – Tony Award; at The New Group: The Good Mother, Burning, Marie and Bruce, Blood From A Stone, A Lie of the Mind), Costume Design by Catherine Zuber (upcoming: Golden Boy, Dead Accounts; other B'way: An Enemy of the People, How to Succeed…, Born Yesterday, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, The Royal Family – Tony Award, South Pacific – Tony Award, The Coast of Utopia – Tony Award, The Light in the Piazza – Tony Award), Lighting Design by Jeff Croiter (upcoming: The Anarchist, other B'way: The Performers, Peter and the Starcatcher – Tony Award, Newsies The Musical, The Pee-Wee Herman Show, Next Fall, Kiki and Herb: Alive on Broadway; at The New Group: A Lie of the Mind) and Sound Design by Shane Rettig (at The New Group: Marie and Bruce, A Lie of the Mind, The Starry Messenger, Groundswell, Rafta, Rafta…, The Music Teacher; other New York: She Kills Monsters – Drama Desk nomination, Outstanding Sound Design in a Play). Original Music and Instruments by GAINES (A Lie of the Mind – Drama Desk nomination, Outstanding Music in a Play).

The New Group is currently represented Off-Broadway by Francine Volpe's The Good Mother (opens November 15), directed by Scott Elliott, featuring Mark Blum, Darren Goldstein, Gretchen Mol, Alfredo Narciso and Eric Nelsen. Clive marks the second production in the company's season. In Spring 2013, The New Group presents the new musical Bunty Berman Presents… by Ayub Khan Din (Book, Lyrics, Co-Composer) and Paul Bogaev (Co-Composer), directed by Scott Elliott.

Last season, The New Group (Scott Elliott, Artistic Director; Geoff Rich, Executive Director) presentEd Thomas Bradshaw's Burning, the extended run of Erika Sheffer's Russian Transport (both directed by Scott Elliott), and David Rabe's An Early History of Fire directed by Jo Bonney. In 2010-2011, the company presented Tommy Nohilly's Blood From A Stone featuring Ethan Hawke (Obie winner), the revival of Wallace Shawn's Marie and Bruce starring Marisa Tomei and Frank Whaley, and One Arm by Tennessee Williams, adapted and directed by Moisés Kaufman. Other productions include A Lie of the Mind, The Kid, Groundswell, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Hurlyburly, Mike Leigh's Two Thousand Years, Abigail's Party, Smelling a Rat, Goose-Pimples and Ecstasy, Wallace Shawn's The Fever and Aunt Dan and Lemon, Kenneth Lonergan's The Starry Messenger featuring Matthew Broderick and This is Our Youth, and Kevin Elyot's Mouth to Mouth and My Night With Reg. The New Group is a recipient of the 2004 Tony Award for Best Musical (Avenue Q). The New Group and Artistic Director Scott Elliott were honored with a Special 2010-11 Drama Desk Award "for presenting contemporary new voices, and for uncompromisingly raw and powerful productions."

Clive begins January 17 at The New Group @ Theatre Row (The Acorn Theatre, 410 West 42nd Street). Official Opening Night will take place Thursday, February 7 at 7:00pm. Performance schedule: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday at 7:00 PM and Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 8:00 PM, with matinees Saturday at 2:00 PM. Tickets, on sale late November, may be arranged through www.telecharge.com or (212) 239-6200, or at the Theatre Row Box Office (12–8 PM daily). Tickets are $60.00 plus $1.25 restoration fee.

For more info, visit www.thenewgroup.org.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / Retna Ltd.