Mamet's RACE to Run at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, Previews Begin Nov. 17

RACE, the new play written and directed by David Mamet will make its world premiere at the Ethel Barrymore THEATRE (located at 243 West 47th St.) beginning on Tuesday, November 17, 2009 with the official opening night on Thursday, December 6, 2009. Rehearsals are set to begin on Monday, October 19, 2009.

RACE will reunite Mamet with Tony Award winning scenic designer Santo Loquasto who designed the set for the revival of Glengarry GLen Ross as well as the original American Buffalo. It will also be a reunion for Mamet and Tony Award winning lighting designer Brian MacDevitt, who recently worked on Speed-The-Plow and American Buffalo. Costumes will be designed by Tony Award nominee Paul Tazewell, whose recent credits include Guys and Dolls, In The Heights and A Raisin the Sun.

RACE will be the fourth Mamet play to play at the Barrymore Theatre (Speed-The-Plow, November, American Buffalo) and it this will be the third consecutive season for the Barrymore to be home to a Mamet play (November in the 2007/2008 season, followed by Speed-The-Plow in the 2008/2009 season).

David Mamet, the acclaimed and award-winning playwright of American Buffalo, Glengarry GLen Ross, Speed-the-Plow, November and The Cryptogram, among others, will direct the world premiere of RACE. Mamet's staging credits include the world premieres of his plays Oleanna, The Cryptogram, Boston Marriage, and Faustus, as well as Ricky Jay and his 52 Assistants and Ricky Jay: On the Stem, and varioUs Productions for the Atlantic Theater Company and Circle Rep. For motion pictures, he has previously written and directed Redbelt, Spartan, Heist, State and Main, Catastrophe, The Winslow Boy, The Spanish Prisoner, Oleanna, Homicide, Things Change, and House of Games. For television, he has directed numerous episodes of his CBS hit series "The Unit," for which he also is creator and executive producer.

RACE will be produced by Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel & Steve Traxler, the award-winning producers of Speed-The-Plow, Glengarry GLen Ross as well as August: Osage County, Blithe Spirit and Desire Under the Elms.

David Mamet, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Glengarry GLen Ross, has also written Sexual Perversity in Chicago, Lakeboat, The Water Engine, The Duck Variations, Reunion, The Blue Hour, The Shawl, Bobby Gould in Hell, Edmond, Romance, The Old Neighborhood and the recent adaptation of The Voysey Inheritance. A two-time Academy Award nominee for The Verdict and Wag the Dog, Mamet's additional film credits include The Postman Always Rings Twice, The Untouchables, Hoffa, Ronin, The Edge, and We're No Angels. His nonfiction work includes The Wicked Son, True and False, and Bambi vs. Godzilla. He is a member of New York's Atlantic Theater Company, which he founded in 1985 with William H. Macy.

Santo Loquasto (Scenic Designer) is widely known as a designer for theatre, film and dance. His work in the New York theatre won him both Tony and Drama Desk Awards for his set design of Café Crown in 1989 and for his costume designs for The Cherry Orchard in 1977 and Grand Hotel in 1990. Most recently he received a Drama Desk Award for his set design for Glengarry GLen Ross in 2005. Other awards include an Obie, a Joseph Maharam Award and Outer Critic's Circle Awards. He received Tony nominations for set designs for That Championship Season, What The Wine Cellars Buy, The Cherry Orchard, American Buffalo, The Suicide, Ragtime, and Fosse and more recently Long Day's Journey Into Night And Glengarry GLen Ross. He has also designed sets for Broadway for A Touch Of The Poet, Three Days Of Rain, Prelude To A Kiss, A Man For All Seasons and Waiting For Godot. He designed sets and costumes for Inherit The Wind and 110 In The Shade. He has worked with Woody Allen on over 22 films. His costume designs for Allen's Zelig and production designs for Radio Days and Bullets Over Broadway received Academy Award nominations. He has worked with most major international dance companies and has collaborated with Mark Morris, Jerome Robbins, Glen Tetley, Helgi Tomasson, Agnes De Mille, James Kudelka, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Dana Reitz, Twyla Tharp and Paul Taylor. For the Metropolitan Opera he designed sets and costumes for Salome, Faust and Luisa Miller.

Paul Tazewell (Costume Designer) Broadway: Guys and Dolls; In The Heights (Tony nom.); The Color Purple (Tony nom.); Hot Feet; Caroline, or Change; A Raisin in the Sun; Drowning Crow; Bring in 'da Noise... (Tony nom.); Elaine Stritch at Liberty; On the Town; Fascinating Rhythm; Def Poetry Jam. Off-Broadway: Ruined; In the Heights; McReele; Flesh and Blood; Fame; Boston Marriage; Harlem Song. Three Helen Hayes Awards, Lucille Lortel, Jefferson, Princess Grace and Irene Sharaff awards.

Brian MacDevitt (Lighting Designer) Recent NYC: Blithe Spirit, You're Welcome America..., Dr. Atomic at the Met, Speed-the-Plow, 13 a New Musical, American Buffalo, Puncture at the Chocolate Factory, A Catered Affair, The Coast of Utopia Part I, Inherit the Wind, The Pillowman, The Color Purple, et al. Future: Merce Cunningham at BAM. Dance: Nancy Bannon's The Pod Project, the Joffrey Ballet, ABT, 25 yrs. w/ Tere O'Connor Dance, Lar Lubovitch. Recipient: Tonys, Obie, Bessie, Outer Critics, Hewes Awards, Drama Desk, et al. Film: Cradle Will Rock. Faculty: Purchase College. Member: Naked Angels. Father: Jake and Georgie.