Jan Maxwell Leads WINGS at Second Stage; Previews Begin Oct. 5, 2010

Second Stage Theatre (Carole Rothman, Artistic Director) has announced that Tony Award nominee Jan Maxwell will star in Arthur Kopit's acclaimed play WINGS this fall. Directed by Tony Award winner John Doyle (Sweeney Todd, Company), WINGS will begin previews at Second Stage Theatre (305 West 43rd street) on Tuesday, October 5. The production will officially open on Sunday, October 24.

Arthur Kopit's 1978 Tony-nominated play, WINGS, is a journey through the eye of Emily Stilson, a 1920's wingwalker who discovers her life's journey is a series of courageous adventures, proving that even when her mental self fails her, her daredevil spirit proves unflappable.

WINGS will also feature Teagle F. Bougere, Beth Dixon, January Lavoy, Anne L. Nathan, and Michael Warner.

Jan Maxwell was nominated for two Tony Awards last season - for Outstanding Leading Actress in a Play for The Royal Family and Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play for Lend Me A Tenor. She also received the Drama Desk Award for Best Actress for The Royal Family. Her other Broadway roles include Coram Boy (Tony, Drama Desk nominations), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Drama Desk Award, Tony and Outer Critics Circle nominations), Sixteen Wounded (Drama Desk nomination), A Doll's House (Outer Critics Circle nomination), The Sound of Music (Outer Critics Circle), The Dinner Party (Outer Critics Circle Award). Ms. Maxwell also starred in Brian Friel's Dancing at Lughnasa and City of Angels. Off-Broadway she starred in Howard Barker's Scenes From an Execution (Drama Desk nomination) and Camille (Potomac Theatre Project/NYC), Anton Dudley's Substitution, Entertaining Mr. Sloane (Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle nom.), Tina Howe's translation of Ionesco's The Bald Soprano (Atlantic Theater), Jules Feiffer's A Bad Friend (Lincoln Center), Israel Horovitz's My Old Lady (Lortel Award, Drama Desk nom.), Opening Doors (Carnegie Hall), Alan Ayckbourn's House and Garden (Manhattan Theatre Club), The Seagull (Kennedy Center). TV: PBS' "AIDS: Changing the Rules," "Law & Order," "Gossip Girl."

Teagle F. Bougere returns to Second Stage Theatre, where he appeared in A Soldier's Play. He appeared on Broadway in A Raisin in the Sun, and The Tempest as Caliban (Drama League Award). Off-Broadway: Ossie Davis' A Last Dance For Sybill with Ruby Dee; A Fair Country, Lincoln Center; Antony and Cleopatra with Vanessa Redgrave, Space, Henry V, all at the Public. Film: A Beautiful Mind, Two Weeks Notice. TV: "Cosby," "Third Watch," "The Job," "Law & Order."

Beth Dixon's Broadway credits include The Royal Family, Major Barbara, Wrong Mountain. Off-Broadway: Vieux Carre, The Cripple of Inishmaan, Mary Stuart, Endpapers, Therese Raquin, Booth Is Back, America Dreaming, Unbound, The Grille Room. Film/TV: "Storm of the Century," Kinsey, The Ballad of the Sad Cafe, Dark Tides, Hitch.

January Lavoy made her Broadway debut in Enron. Off-Broad­way: Coraline (MCC); Two Trains Running, Home (Signature); Joy. Regional: Denver Center, Shakespeare NJ, City Theatre, Pittsburgh Public, Wilma, CATF. TV/film: Noelle Ortiz on "One Life to Live," "Guiding Light," "All My Children," War of the Worlds.

Anne L. Nathan has appeared on Broadway in Sunday in the Park with George, Assassins, Chicago, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Ragtime. National tours: Aspects of Love, Les Misérables. Regional: George Street, Barrington Stage, the Huntington, La Jolla Playhouse, the Asolo, the Citadel.

Michael Warner's recent off-Broadway credits include The Language of Trees, Distracted, The Marriage of Bette and Boo, Missed Connections, The Piven Monologues, and Almost an Evening, among many others. He has made many guest appearances on "Law and Order," "Law and Order: Criminal Intent," and "All My Children," among others.

Playwright Arthur Kopit is the author of the plays Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad; Indians (finalist for Pulitzer Prize); End of the World with Symposium to Follow; a new translation of Ibsen's Ghosts; the books for the musical Phantom and Nine (both with scores by Maury Yeston); Road to Nirvana; the book for the musical High Society; Because He Can (originally entitled Y2K); Chad Curtiss, Lost Again; and numerous one-act plays. Other projects include Discovery of America, a new play based on the journals of Cabeza de Vaca; an original musical, Lewis & Clark (score by Donald Alan Siegal); an original musical, Tom Swift and the Secrets of the Universe (score by David Yazbek); and an original film, Miami. Besides teaching playwriting at NYU, Mr. Kopit heads the Lark Theatre's Playwrights' Workshop and is on the council of the Dramatists Guild.

Director John Doyle received Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards as Outstanding Director of a Musical for his Broadway debut, Sweeney Todd. He also directed the recent Broadway productions of Company (Tony for Best Musical Revival) and A Catered Affair. Opera credits include Peter Grimes (Metropolitan Opera), Mahagonny (L.A. Opera) and Lucia (Scottish Opera). He won UK Best Musical Awards for The Gondoliers (West End), Fiddler on the Roof and Moll Flanders with nominations for four other productions including Mack and Mabel (also West End). John has been artistic director of four prestigious UK regional theatres and has directed numerous new and classic plays, most recently Amadeus (Wilton's Music Hall).

WINGS will feature scenic design by Scott Pask, costume design by Ann Hould-Ward, lighting design by Jane Cox, and projection design by Peter Nigrini.

Second Stage Theatre is currently represented on Broadway by the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Next to Normal, which celebrated its one-year Anniversary at the Booth Theatre on April 15th. The company's two current off-Broadway productions are Paul Weitz's dark comedy Trust starring Zach Braff, Bobby Cannavale, Sutton Foster, and Ari Graynor, directed by Peter DuBois at the Tony Kaiser Theatre on West 43rd street, and Leslye Headland's critically acclaimed comedy, Bachelorette, directed by Trip Cullman, at the company's uptown home, the McGinn/Cazale Theatre.

Founded in 1979 under the leadership of Artistic Director Carole Rothman, Second Stage Theatre produces a diverse range of premieres and new interpretations of America's best Contemporary Theatre, including Tiny Alice and Peter and Jerry by Edward Albee; The Good Times Are Killing Me by Lynda Barry; The Little Dog Laughed by Douglas Carter Beane; Little Murders by Jules Feiffer; The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee by William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin; A Soldier's Play by Charles Fuller; Afterbirth: Kathy & Mo's Greatest Hits by Mo Gaffney and Kathy Najimy; Becky Shaw by Gina Gionfriddo; Painting Churches and Coastal Disturbances by Tina Howe; Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants and On the Stem by Ricky Jay; Next to Normal by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey; Living Out by Lisa Loomer; This Is Our Youth and The Waverly Gallery by Kenneth Lonergan; Some Men by Terrence McNally; eurydice by Sarah Ruhl; Everyday Rapture by Dick Scanlan and Sherie Rene Scott; Let Me Down Easy by Anna Deavere Smith; Saturday Night by Stephen Sondheim; Crowns by ReGina Taylor; Uncommon Women and Others by Wendy Wasserstein; Spoils of War by Michael Weller; Before It Hits Home, Jar the Floor and Birdie Blue by Cheryl L. West; Jitney by August Wilson; Lemon Sky, Serenading Louie and Sympathetic Magic by Lanford Wilson; and Metamorphoses and The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci by Mary Zimmerman.

The company's more than 130 citations include the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Next to Normal, the 2009 Tony Awards for Best Score, Best Orchestrations, and Best Actress in a Musical (Alice Ripley) for Next to Normal, the 2007 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play (Julie White, The Little Dog Laughed), 2005 Tony Awards for Best Book of a Musical (Rachel Sheinkin, ...Spelling Bee) and Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Dan Fogler, ...Spelling Bee), 2002 Tony Award for Best Director of a Play (Mary Zimmerman for Metamorphoses), the 2002 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Body of Work, 26 Obie Awards, six Outer Critics Circle Awards, two Clarence Derwent Awards, 12 Drama Desk Awards, nine Theatre World Awards, 11 Lucille Lortel Awards, the Drama Critics Circle Award and 15 AUDELCO Awards.

In 1999, Second Stage Theatre opened its state-of-the-art, 296-seat theatre, designed by renowned Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas. In 2002, Second Stage launched "Second Stage Theatre Uptown" series to showcase the work of up and coming artists at the McGinn/Cazale Theatre. The Theatre supports artists through several programs that include residencies, fellowships and commissions, and engages students and community members through education and outreach programs.

Second Stage Theatre has acquired the right to purchase the historic Helen Hayes Theatre, located at 240 W. 44th Street. With this new home, Second Stage will be the only theatre company on Broadway dedicated exclusively to the development and presentation of contemporary American theatrical productions. Second Stage will also become one of only four non-profit theatre companies that own and operate theatres on Broadway. The company will continue to lease and operate their original theatres on the city's Upper West Side and in Midtown Manhattan.

WINGS will be performed through November 21 on the following schedule: Tuesday at 7pm, Wednesday - Saturday at 8pm, Wednesday and Saturday at 2pm and Sunday at 3pm.

The following exceptions will be made to the regular performance schedule: Wednesday, October 6 - no 2pm performance; Sunday, October 10 - 2pm and 7pm performances; Sunday, October 24 - no 3pm performance; Wednesday, November 3 - 7pm performance; Thursday, November 4 - 7pm performance; and Friday, November 5 - 7pm performance.

Tickets are $75 and may be purchased by phoning 212-246-4422 or 800-766-6048 or online at www.2ST.com.

$30 UNDER 30 YOUTH ADVANCE TICKETS AVAILABLE - patrons age 30 and under may purchase a limited number of specially-priced $30 tickets in advance. Proof of age must be shown at the box office.

For groups of 15 or more, special preview pricing is available for performances October 5- October 23 for $45.00; and $60 for performances October 26 - November 21. $27.00 tickets for student groups are available for all performances.

A limited number of student rush tickets are $18 and are available one hour prior to curtain.

Group tickets are available by phoning 212-246-4422. Box-office hours are Monday, 10:00am - 6:00pm, Tuesday 10:00am - 7:00pm, Wednesday through Saturday, 10:00am to 8:00pm, and Sunday, 10:00am to 3:00pm.