Michael Laurence & Annette O'Toole to Lead HAMLET IN BED at Rattlestick

Rattlestick Playwrights Theater's Artistic Director David Van Asselt and Managing Director Brian Long have announced that Hamlet In Bed, written by Michael Laurence and directed by Lisa Peterson, will begin previews Friday, August 28, at 8pm at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, 224 Waverly Place. Joining Mr. Laurence in the cast is Annette O'Toole. The official opening night is set for Thursday, September 10; the production will run through Sunday, October 25.

Michael is a neurotic actor and adoptee obsessed with two things-finding his real mother, and playing the famous gloomy Dane. His twin fixations collide when he tracks down Anna, a reclusive former actress-turned-barfly; gripped by the notion that she might be his actual birth-mother, he first stalks her from a distance, then lures her into a noirish production of Hamlet playing the role of his mother the queen. Hamlet In Bed is a twisty and darkly comic story about mothers and sons--about what it means to live a life in the theatre, both a generation ago, and now-and about families-the ones we're born into, and the ones we find along the way.

The cast of Hamlet In Bed is Michael Laurence and Annette O'Toole.

Michael Laurence (Playwright/Michael) is the playwright/performer of Krapp, 39 (Drama Desk nomination), which played Off-Broadway (Soho Playhouse), in London (Tristan Bates Theatre),

and in Dublin (Axis Ballymun). He is also the author of the plays The Escape Artist and Virgil's Cauldron, and the writer/director of the independent feature film Escape Artists. As an actor, Michael's stage credits include Talk Radio (Broadway) and Desire Under the Elms (Broadway), the New York premieres of The Few (Rattlestick), Appropriate (Signature), Opus (Primary Stages), The Morini Strad (Primary Stages), Horsedreams (Rattlestick), Diary of a Teenage Girl (New Georges/3LD); the Off-Broadway revivals of Two Rooms (Platform Group), Tooth of Crime and Book of Days (Signature). Other credits include John Proctor in The Crucible (Hartford Stage), Good People (Huntington), Starbuck in The Rainmaker (Arena Stage), Eric Bogosian's Humpty Dumpty (McCarter), Edgar Oliver's Hands In Wartime (LaMama), and Jean Genet's Splendid's (CDN Orleans/ tour of France). TV credits include "The Blacklist," "Shades of Blue," "The Heart She Holler" (recurring), "Damages" (recurring), "The Good Wife," "Elementary," "Person Of Interest," and others. His film credits include One For the Money, Man On A Ledge, A Walk in the Park, The Operator, Follow Me Outside, Room314, Claire Dolan, Love God, Particles of Truth, and other indies. www.michaellaurence.net

Lisa Peterson (Director) Recent NY credits include An Iliad, written with Denis O'Hare

(NYTW- 2012 Obie Award, Lortel Award, Drama Desk nominations); To The Bone by Lisa Ramirez (Cherry Lane); Patron Saint of Seas Monsters by Marlane Meyer (Playwrights Horizons); Shipwrecked by Donald Margulies and (Primary Stages); The Trestle At Pope Lick Creek by Naomi Wallace, Slavs by Tony Kushner, Traps by Caryl Churchill, The Waves adapted from Virginia Woolf by Peterson and David Bucknam (Drama Desk nominations) and Light Shining In Buckinghamshire by Caryl Churchill (Obie Award for Directing), all at New York Theatre Workshop; The Fourth Sister by Janusz Glowacki (Vineyard Theatre); The Poor Itch by John Belluso, The Square by 16 writers, and Tongue Of A Bird (The Public); Collected Stories by Donald Margulies (MTC); The Chemistry Of Change by Marlane Meyer (Playwrights Horizons/WP); The Model Apartment by Donald Margulies (Primary Stages); and Sueno by Jose Rivera (MCC). Lisa has directed regionally at the Mark Taper Forum (where she was Resident Director for 10 years), La Jolla Playhouse (Associate Director for 3 years), Guthrie, Berkeley Rep, Seattle Rep, Arena Stage, McCarter, Actors' Theater of Louisville, Hartford Stage, Long Wharf, Yale Rep, Baltimore Center Stage, and many more.

Annette O'Toole (Anna) Off-Broadway & Regional: Third (Two River Theatre); Southern Comfort (Barrington Stage Company & Cap21); Heresy (The Flea Theater); Kindness (Playwrights Horizons); The Seagull (CSC); The Quality of Life (Arena Stage); Magnolia (The Goodman Theatre); Yankee Wives, and Sun Bearing Down (Old Globe Theatre). Film & TV include: We Go On, 48 HRS, Smile, Superman III, Cat People, One on One, Halt and Catch Fire, 11.22.63, Battle Creek, Grey's Anatomy, Lie to Me, Smallville, Nash Bridges, The Kennedys of Massachusetts (Emmy, Golden Globe nominations). Academy Award nomination for Best Song with Michael McKean for "A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow," from the movie A Mighty Wind. As director: Kunstler by Jeffrey Sweet for Hudson Stage Company.

The set design for Hamlet in Bed is by Rachel Hauck; costume design is by Jessica Pabst; lighting design is by Scott Zielinski; sound design is by Bart Fasbender; projection design is by Dave Tennent; fight director is J. David Brimmer. The production manager is Jeremy Duncan Pape; the production stage manager is Michal Mendelson; the assistant stage manager is Emily Ballou.

Rattlestick Playwrights Theater is an award-winning company which has produced over sixty world premieres in the past twenty seasons and was the recipient of the 2007 Ross Wetzsteon Memorial OBIE Award for developing new and innovative work. Previous plays include Two Boys in a Bed, Message to Michael, Carpool, Volunteer Man, A Trip to the Beach, Ascendancy, Stuck, Vick's Boy, The Messenger, Saved or Destroyed, Neil's Garden, My Special Friend, Faster, Bliss, St. Crispin's Day, Where We're Born, Five Flights, Boise, Finer Noble Gases, That Pretty Pretty; or, The Rape Play, God Hates The Irish: The Ballad of Armless Johnny, Miss Julie, Acts of Mercy: passion-play, Cagelove, It Goes Without Saying, Dark Matters, Stay, American Sligo, Rag and Bone, War, Geometry of Fire, The Amish Project, Killers and Other Family, Post No Bills, Blind, Little Doc, underneathmybed, There Are No More Big Secrets, The Hallway Trilogy, Carson McCullers Talks About Love, The Wood, Asuncion, Horsedreams, Yosemite, Massacre (Sing to Your Children), 3C, Through the Yellow Hour, A Summer Day, The Revisionist starring Vanessa Redgrave and Jesse Eisenberg, Buyer & Cellar (2013 Drama Desk and Outer Critic Circle Awards for Outstanding Solo Performance), Basilica, Charles Ives Take Me Home, One Night..., How to Make Friends and then Kill Them, The Correspondent, Ode to Joy, The Few, A FABLE, Phoenix, The Long Shrift, Pitbulls, Shesh Yak, Everything You Touch, The Undeniable Sound of Right Now, 'Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, America, Kuwait', the Off-Broadway GLAAD Award-nominated hit The Last Sunday in June, Craig Wright's The Pavilion (Drama Desk nominee-Outstanding Play of 2005) and Lady (Drama Desk nominee-Outstanding Play of 2008), The Aliens by Annie Baker (2010 Obie Award winner for Best New American Play), as well as The Hilltown Plays (2014 OBIE Award).

Hamlet In Bed plays Monday, Wednesday, and Sunday at 7pm; Thursday through Saturday at 8pm at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, 224 Waverly Place, west of Seventh Avenue South, between Perry and West 11 Streets. Preview tickets are priced at $25; tickets for regular performances are $35. Theater artist and Under 30 tickets are $10; student tickets are $5. Tickets may be purchased by visiting www.rattlestick.org or by phoning OvationTix at 866.811.4111. Memberships for Rattlestick's 2015-2016 season, which are priced at $83, are also available. Prices and performance schedule are subject to change. Please refer to the Rattlestick website for the most up-to-date information.

Photo by Walter McBride