Jessica Hecht and Tony Shalhoub to Read ABOUT ALICE at The New Yorker Festival
By: BWW News Desk Sep. 09, 2016
The New Yorker Festival will present a Theatre for a New Audience production of a reading of the new two-character play About Alice that Calvin Trillin adapted from his memoir about his late wife, the educator Alice Stewart Trillin. About Alice, with Jessica Hecht as Alice and Tony Shalhoub as Calvin and directed by Leonard Foglia, will be heard one night only at the Directors Guild Theatre, 110 West 57th Street, Saturday, October 8, at 7:00pm.
About Alice by Calvin Trillin was commissioned by Theatre for a New Audience and was developed through the Theatre's Studio program, which offers residencies to a diverse range of theatre artists who support risk-taking, professional development, and experimentation. The Studio is led by TFANA Associate Artistic Director Arin Arbus.
Mr. Trillin has been writing for The New Yorker since 1963. His many books include the comic novels Floater and Tepper Isn't Going Out; the memoirs Messages from My Father and About Alice, which he has recently adapted into a play; The Tummy Trilogy, a collection of three books about food; and Jackson, 1964: And Other Dispatches from Fifty Years of Reporting on Race in America. He was awarded the Thurber Prize for American Humor for his book Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin: Forty Years of Funny Stuff.
Ms. Hecht is a stage, TV and film actress. She made her Broadway debut in The Last Night of Ballyhoo, and has since starred in numerous Broadway plays, including Julius Caesar, Brighton Beach Memoirs, A View from the Bridge, and Harvey. She has also appeared on the television shows Breaking Bad, Bored to Death, and Friends. She currently plays Golde in the Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof, and this winter she will perform in The Price at the American Airlines Theatre.
Mr. Shalhoub last appeared on stage in the Lincoln Center production of The Mystery Of Love And Sex. Previously, he appeared in the plays Act One, for which he received a Tony nomination for Best Lead Actor, and Golden Boy, for which he received a Tony nomination for Best Featured Actor. He stars in the upcoming Off Broadway musical The Band's Visit, which premieres on December 8, and will star in the Broadway revival of The Price at the American Airlines Theatre.
Mr. Foglia has directed Broadway productions of Master Class, Thurgood, The People In The Picture; the Broadway revivals of The Gin Game, On Golden Pond, and Wait Until Dark; and opera productions, including the world premieres of Moby Dick, Everest, Cold Mountain, The End of the Affair, and Three Decembers. As a librettist, he wrote and directed El Pasado Nunca Se Termina, Cruzar La Cara De La Luna with composer Jose Martinez, and A Coffin in Egypt with composer Ricky Ian Gordon.
General audience tickets to Mr. Trillin's About Alice are $60 and can be purchased at festival.newyorker.com beginning September 9.
Founded in 1979 by Jeffrey Horowitz, Theatre for a New Audience is a modern classic theatre. It produces Shakespeare alongside other major authors from the world repertoire, such as Harley Granville Barker, Edward Bond, Adrienne Kennedy, Wallace Shawn, and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. Theatre for a New Audience has played Off- and on Broadway and toured nationally and internationally.
In 2001, Theatre for a New Audience became the first American theatre invited to bring a production of Shakespeare to the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), Stratford-upon-Avon. Cymbeline, directed by Bartlett Sher, premiered at the RSC; in 2007, Theatre for a New Audience was invited to return to the RSC with The Merchant of Venice directed by Darko Tresnjak starring F. Murray Abraham. In 2011, Mr. Abraham reprised his role as Shylock for a national tour.
After 34 years of being itinerant and playing mostly in Manhattan, Theatre for a New Audience moved to Brooklyn and opened its first permanent home, Polonsky Shakespeare Center, in October 2013. Built by The City of New York in partnership with Theatre for a New Audience and located in the Brooklyn Cultural District, Polonsky Shakespeare Center was designed by Hugh Hardy and H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture with theatre consultants Akustiks, Milton Glaser, Jean-Guy Lecat, and Theatre Projects. Housed inside the building are the Samuel H. Scripps Mainstage (299 seats) -- the first stage built for Shakespeare and classical drama in New York City since Lincoln Center's 1965 Vivian Beaumont -- and the Theodore C. Rogers Studio (50 seats).
The Theatre's productions have been honored with Tony, Obie, Drama Desk, Drama League, Callaway, Lortel and Audelco awards and nominations and reach an audience diverse in age, economics and cultural background.
The Theatre created and runs the largest in-depth program in the New York City Public Schools to introduce students to Shakespeare, and has served more than 128,000 students since the program began in 1984. The Theatre's economically accessible New Deal ticket program includes one of the lowest reserved ticket prices for youth in the city: $20 for any show, any time for those 30 years old and under or for full-time students of any age.
The New Yorker Festival is a three-day celebration of ideas and the arts that brings the breadth and spirit of the magazine to the stage. This year's Festival the seventeenth takes place October 7 through 9 and features the world's most prominent writers, artists, film makers, actors, comedians, activists, architects, and politicians. In addition to talks and panel discussions, the foremost cultural event of the season will feature live performances, film and theatre previews, and excursions throughout New York City.
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