Gleason, Fontana, et al. Set for SONS OF THE PROPHET

Huntington Theatre Company announces casting for its world premiere production of Sons of the Prophet by Stephen Karam (columbinus, Speech & Debate), directed by Huntington Artistic Director Peter DuBois (Becky Shaw at The Almeida Theatre - London, Off Broadway, and the Huntington; Vengeance is the Lord's; Trust). Drama Desk Award winner Santino Fontana (The Importance of Being Earnest, Billy Elliot, Brighton Beach Memoirs) plays Joseph, a former runner now dealing with health issues and the recent death of his father. Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards winner Joanna Gleason (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Joe Egg, Into the Woods) plays Gloria, a formerly successful New York editor who is now Joseph's employer in Nazareth, PA.
 
In Sons of the Prophet, brothers Joseph and Charles Douaihy are having one hell of a year. When a prank-gone-wrong in the small town of Nazareth, PA leads to the death of their father, they struggle with their health, their livelihoods, and their sanity as a series of unfortunate events spiral into operatic miseries. In an age when many look to faith, finances, or modern medicine to solve their personal crises, Sons of the Prophet takes a brutally funny look at the many ways we cope with life's sometimes-overwhelming challenges.
 
"Stephen's play is fresh, bracing, and alive as he takes the mess of our lives and turns it into phenomenal comedy," says DuBois, "and the depth of feeling in his writing is ravishing."
 
Sons of the Prophet will play at the Huntington's Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts April 1 through May 1, 2011. It was commissioned by and is produced in special arrangement with Roundabout Theatre Company.
 
Santino Fontana (Joseph) is currently playing Algernon Moncrieff in the Roundabout Theatre Company's Broadway production of The Importance of Being Earnest directed by and starring Brian Bedford. He previously appeared on Broadway as Stanley Jerome in Brighton Beach Memoirs for which he received a 2010 Drama Desk Award. He originated the role of Tony in Billy Elliot: The Musical and made his Broadway debut in the 2007 revival of Sunday in the Park with George. Off Broadway credits include Matt in the 2006 Off Broadway revival of The Fantasticks and Perfect Harmony. Regional credits include the title role in Hamlet, As You Like It, Death of a Salesman, Six Degrees of Separation, A Christmas Carol, and The Boys (Guthrie Theatre); Hay Fever (Old Globe Theatre); and Love's Labour's Lost, On the Verge, 9/11 Project, and Once in a Lifetime (Chautauqua Theater Company). International credits include Death of a Salesman (Gaiety Theatre, Dublin). Film and television credits include Newsworthy, the upcoming Fade to White and Nancy, Please, "The Good Wife," and upcoming "Nurse Jackie." He received his B.F.A. from the Guthrie Theatre/University of Minnesota Actor Training Program.
 
Joanna Gleason (Gloria) has appeared on Broadway in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations), I Love My Wife (Theatre World Award), The Real Thing, Joe Egg (Tony Award nomination), Into the Woods (Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards), Social Security (Drama Desk Award), and Nick and Nora. Off Broadway credits include The Normal Heart, It's Only a Play (Drama Desk Award), Eleemosynary, A Hell of a Town, and Joe Egg. Film and television credits include Hannah and Her Sisters, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Heartburn, FX2, Life Under Water, Boogie Nights, Fathers and Sons, Edie and Pen, Road Ends, Mr. Holland's Opus, The Wedding Planner, "Love and War," "Oh, Baby," "The West Wing," "ER," "The Practice," "Tracey Ullman," and "Bette." She has directed "Love and War" and "Louie" for CBS, "Oh, Baby" for Lifetime, A Letter From Ethel Kennedy for Manhattan Class Company, and Call Waiting for Tiffany Theater.
 
Playwright Stephen Karam is the author of Speech & Debate, which was produced Off Broadway by Roundabout Theatre Company as the inaugural production of Roundabout Underground. Following an extended run in New York, Speech & Debate has received over 60 productions across the United States and Canada (including Boston's Lyric Stage Company, where it won the Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Production). He is the co-author of columbinus, which ran Off Broadway at New York Theatre Workshop following a co-production by Round House and Perseverance Theatres. His play Girl on Girl debuted as part of the inaugural season oF Brown/Trinity Playwrights Repertory Theatre. He is currently completing the screenplay for the film version of Speech & Debate for Overture Films and the libretto for an original chamber opera with composer Nico Muhly. A MacDowell Colony Fellow, he received his B.A. with honors from Brown University, where he was the recipient of a Weston Fine Arts Award.
 
Director Peter DuBois is the Artistic Director of the Huntington Theatre Company, where he has directed the world premiere of Bob Glaudini's Vengeance is the Lord's, Craig Lucas' Prelude to a Kiss, Gina Gionfriddo's Becky Shaw (which he is currently directing at London's Almeida Theatre and previously directed Off Broadway at Second Stage Theatre and the world premiere at the Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville), and David Grimm's The Miracle at Naples. He recently directed the Off Broadway production of Paul Weitz's Trust starring Sutton Foster and Zach Braff at Second Stage Theatre. Prior to arriving at the Huntington, he served for five years as associate producer and resident director at The Public Theater, preceded by five years as artistic director of the Perseverance Theatre in Juneau, Alaska. Public Theater directing credits include Bob Glaudini's Jack Goes Boating with Philip Seymour Hoffman and A View from 151st Street, both with LAByrinth Theater Company; Measure for Pleasure (SSDF Callaway Award for Excellence in Direction, Drama League Award nomination for Distinguished Production of a New Play); Richard III with Peter Dinklage; Adrienne Kennedy's Mom, How Did You Meet the Beatles?; and Biro. Selected directing credits for Perseverance include The Seagull, The Winter's Tale, Romeo and Juliet, and The Glass Menagerie, as well as the West Coast premiere of Suzan-Lori Parks' In the Blood and the world premiere Long Season by Chey Yew and Fabian Obispo. Regional credits include a revival of Sam Shepard's The Curse of the Starving Class at American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco and productions at Trinity Repertory Company and California Shakespeare Theater. Prior to his work at Perseverance, Mr. DuBois lived and worked in the Czech Republic where he co-founded Asylum, a multi-national squat theatre in Prague.
 
Additional casting for Sons of the Prophet will be announced in February.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/WM Photos