Mandy Patinkin Leads CSC's 'Monday Night Much Ado' Rehearsal Series, 12/7 & 12/14

Classic Stage Company, under the leadership of Artistic Director Brian Kulick and Executive Director Jessica R. Jenen, will present its popular annual open rehearsal series with MONDAY NIGHT MUCH ADO, featuring Tony Award winner Mandy Patinkin as Benedict in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing on Monday, December 7 and Monday, December 14, directed by Brian Kulick. Patinkin appeared last season at CSC in Shakespeare's The Tempest, directed by Kulick.

CSC's Open Rehearsal Series offers audiences the opportunity to watch a company of seasoned actors and directors as they explore one act of a classic each Monday evening for four weeks. MONDAY MUCH ADO will continue January 18 and January 25. Casting and directors will be announced shortly. MONDAY NIGHT MUCH ADO is presented in association with The Shakespeare Society.

Tickets to MONDAY NIGHT MUCH ADO are $30 and are extremely limited. To order, visit classicstage.org, or call (212) 352-3101 or (866) 811-4111.

CSC is currently presenting THE AGE OF IRON, an epic retelling of the Trojan War, drawn from Shakespeare's Troilus & Cressida and Thomas Heywood's Iron Age, adapted and directed by Brian Kulick. THE AGE OF IRON plays a limited engagement through December 13 only at Classic Stage Company.

At the center of THE AGE OF IRON is Shakespeare's majestic Troilus & Cressida, a play that, in the wake of our own turbulent 20th century, has emerged as Shakespeare's most modern masterpiece. This remarkable work is bookended by Thomas Heywood's Iron Age, expanding the play's reach to encompass the full breadth of the Trojan War. Taken together, these two authors create a grand Elizabethan Iliad that brings Homer's long lost world vividly to life.

Now in its 42nd year as one of New York's most exciting theatres, Classic Stage Company is the award-winning Off-Broadway theatre committed to re-imagining the classical repertory for a contemporary American audience. Led by Artistic Director Brian Kulick and Executive Director Jessica R. Jenen, last season the company presented three sold-out acclaimed productions: Shakespeare's The Tempest, starring Mandy Patinkin; Chekhov's Uncle Vanya starring Maggie Gyllenhaal, Denis O'Hare and Peter Sarsgaard; and Anne Carson's An Oresteia. Recent productions: critically acclaimed sold out runs of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull, starring Dianne Wiest and Alan Cumming, the world premiere of David Ives' New Jerusalem, directed by Walter Bobbie, Richard III starring Michael Cumpsty, and Zoe Caldwell in Yasmina Reza's A Spanish Play, directed by John Turturro.

CSC presents plays from the past that speak directly to the issues of today. As we return to works of the past, we endeavor to keep a clear eye on the future, particularly in terms of the next generation of artists and audiences. Classic Stage's artists are the best established and emerging theater practitioners working in this country. Highly respected and widely regarded as a major force in New York and American theatre, Classic Stage has been cited repeatedly by all the major Off-Broadway theater awards: Obies, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Drama League and 1999 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Body of Work. Memberships to Classic Stage Company productions are available at various price levels, including the flexible Masterpass membership, which in addition to prime seats, entitles members to participate in CSC special series, including their sold out Open Rehearsal events. For more information on Classic Stage Company visit the theatre's website at www.classicstage.org.