FIST IN MOUTH to Begin 12/10 at the Studio at Cherry Lane Theatre

Cherry Lane Theatre, under the direction of Angelina Fiodellisi, presents the world premiere of Fist In Mouth, a new play written and directed by Dan Hasse.

Fist in Mouth is a farce set in a tiny, East Village apartment over the course of one night. After an all-night bender, Harry and Stanley go skinny dipping in the East River. When Stanley hits his head on a shoal, Harry has no choice but to seek medical help from his ex-girlfriend's roommate. What unfolds is an exploration of solipsism, chance encounters, and the choice between growing up and going down.

The cast of Fist in Mouth is Sarah Jes Austell (The Seagull, dir. Bob Moss), Jon Fusco (Sleep No More), Jess Jacobs* (Life Science, dir. Joe Cacaci), and Taylor Myers (Sleep No More). *Member of Actor's Equity Association

Dan Hasse is a senior at New York University's Tisch Film School, the co-founder of Shakespeare in the Square, and a recent recipient of the prestigious Alfred P. Sloan Screenwriting Award and Grant for his screenplay, Fritz Haber.

Cherry Lane Theatre The site of a silo on the Gomez farm in 1817, the building that now stands at 38 Commerce Street, was first erected as a brewery in 1836 and later served as a tobacco warehouse and box factory. In 1924, a group of theater artists, colleagues of Edna St. Vincent Millay, commissioned famed scenic designer Cleon Throckmorton to convert the box factory into Cherry Lane Playhouse. It fueled some of the most groundbreaking experiments in the chronicles of the American stage. The downtown theater movement, The Living Theatre, and Theatre of the Absurd all took root at the lively Playhouse, and it proved fertile ground for 20th century dramaturgy's seminal voices. From this village jewel streamed a large succession of plays by nascent writers whose names have lent distinction to the American and international literary and dramatic treasuries from F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dos Passos and Elmer Rice in the '20s to O'Neill, O'Casey, Odets, Auden, Gertrude Stein, T.S. Eliot and William Saroyan in the '40s and '50s to Beckett, Albee, Pinter, Ionesco and LeRoi Jones in the '60s to Sam Shepard, Lapnford Wilson, Joe Orton and David Mamet in the '70s and '80s. The Playhouse productions featured an equally illustrious group of actors and directors including Barbra Streisand, Gene Hackman, Beatrice Arthur, James Earl Jones, Colleen Dewhurst, Cicely Tyson, Alan Schneider, Harvey Keitel, Judd Hirsch, Tony Curtis, Gary Sinise, Jerry Stiller, Rue McClanahan, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Roy Scheider, Frances Sternhagen, F. Murray Abraham, Joan Micklin Silver, Peter Falk, Tom Bosley, Frank Langella, Kim Stanley, Tyne Daly, Estelle Parsons, Geraldine Page, Kevin Bacon, Lee Strasberg, Roscoe Lee Browne, Tony Musante, Adolph Green and Betty Comden, Alvin Epstein, Dennis Quaid and Joseph Chaikin. In 1996 Angelina Fiordellisi revived Cherry Lane, preserved the building and detailed history, and founded the Cherry Lane Alternative, our producing company, creating a number of programs to launch the next generation of American Playwrights, among them David Adjmi, Sheila Callaghan, Bathsheba Doran, Anton Dudley, Sam Forman, Katori Hall, Jakob Holder, Rajiv Joseph, Deborah Zoe Laufer, Rogelio Martinez, Winter Miller, Deirdre O'Connor, Christopher Shinn, Anne Washburn, Beau Willimon, and Bridgette Wimberly.

Scenic design for Fist in Mouth is by Ty Lazauskas; lighting design by Christopher Kappel; sound design by Jake Zerrer; costume design and casting by Elise Kibler; props and set dressing by Spencer Kennard. The production stage manager is Rose Bochner. Produced by Bochner and Chris Corbo, in association with Shakespeare in the Square.

Fist in Mouth is an Equity showcase, and runs from Tuesday, December 10 to Sunday, December 15 at the Studio at Cherry Lane Theatre. Cherry Lane Theatre is located at 38 Commerce Street, three blocks south of Christopher Street, west of Seventh Avenue South, close to the 1/2/3, A/C/E and F/M subway lines. Performances run on the following schedule: Tuesday-Saturday at 7:30pm; Saturday and Sunday at 1pm. Tickets can be purchased online at www.cherrylanetheatre.org or by calling Ovationtix at 866-811-4111. Tickets are $19, with $10 tickets available at the box office for students with valid ID.

For more information, visit www.cherrylanetheatre.org.