Stage, film and television actress Ginnifer Goodwin ("Big Love", He's Just Not That Into You) will play Carnelle Scott in an industry reading of Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Beth Henley's comedy THE MISS FIRECRACKER CONTEST this Thursday, April 28th. Tony Award winning actress Judith Ivey directs.
THE MISS FIRECRACKER CONTEST is the story of Carnelle Scott (Goodwin), a young, rebellious, and slightly unruly woman living in the small town of Brookhaven, Mississippi. Carnelle desperately wants to win the local Miss Firecracker Contest, convinced that it will restore her reputation and allow her to leave Brookhaven in "a crimson blaze of glory". As she works her way towards the coveted title of Miss Firecracker, she is joined by an eccentric but loyal group of supporters.
Along with Goodwin, the cast for the NYC reading will also include
Christopher Burns,
Louis Cancelmi,
Lauren Cohn,
Mary Catherine Garrison and
Ronica Reddick.
THE MISS FIRECRACKER CONTEST was first presented to New York audiences in 1984 at the
Manhattan Theater Club. Then New York Times critic
Frank Rich said of the play that
Beth Henley's "comic voice has the crazed yet liberating sound of a Rebel yell." It was later made in the 1989 feature film starring
Holly Hunter and
Tim Robbins.
The reading is produced by
HOP Theatricals, LLC. Industry professionals interested in attending the reading may contact Lauren Yates at General Manager
Martian Entertainment for more information at
LYates@MartianEntertainment.com.
Ginnifer Goodwin (Carnelle Scott).
Ginnifer Goodwin was first seen on the big screen in the feature film
Mona Lisa Smile with
Julia Roberts and then the Oscar-nominated biopic Walk the Line, as
Johnny Cash's first wife, opposite Joaquin Phoenix and
Reese Witherspoon. Goodwin was recently seen in the ensemble comedy He's Just Not That Into You based on the best-selling book by Greg Behrendt, with
Jennifer Aniston and
Drew Barrymore, as well as
Tom Ford's directorial debut A Single Man with
Julianne Moore and
Colin Firth. She was a series regular on the hit HBO series, "Big Love" and can be seen in the upcoming film, Something Borrowed. Goodwin is classically trained in English theatre. She studied at Straford-upon-Avon's Shakespeare institute, in conjunction with the
Royal Shakespeare Company and graduated from Boston University, where she performed with the
Huntington Theatre Company and at the
Williamstown Theatre Festival with director
Nicholas Martin.
Judith Ivey (Director). A Tony Award winning stage actress in her own right, Ms. Ivey has also directed at theaters throughout the country, including the
Alley Theatre,
ALLIANCE THEATRE and
Pasadena Playhouse, as well as at Roundabout Theatre and
Second Stage in New York.
Beth Henley (Playwright) is the Pulitzer Prize winning author of Crimes of the Heart, for which she also received a Tony nomination. In addition to The Miss Firecracker Contest and Crimes of the Heart, Ms. Henley has written numerous other plays and screen plays.
