Photo Flash: Essential Self-Defense in Previews

Playwrights Horizons and Edge Theater are producing the world premiere of Essential Self-Defense, a new play by Pulitzer Prize finalist and Obie Award winner Adam Rapp (Red Light Winter, Blackbird). Directed by Carolyn Cantor (Orange Flower Water, Rapp's Stone Cold Dead Serious), the production began previews on Thursday, March 15 with an official opening on Wednesday, March 28 at 7 PM. Performances will continue through Sunday, April 15 at Playwrights Horizons' Peter Jay Sharp Theater (416 West 42nd Street).

The cast features Heather Goldenhersh ("The Class," Tony-nominee for Doubt) as Sadie and Paul Sparks (Landscape of the Body) as Yul, with Cheryl Lynn Bowers, Guy Boyd, Michael Chernus, Joel Marsh Garland, and Lucas Papaelias.

"When a disgruntled misfit (Paul Sparks) takes a job as an attack dummy in a women's self-defense class, he finds himself mysteriously drawn to the repressed bookworm (Heather Goldenhersh) who's beating on him. But all's not well on the mean Midwestern streets of Bloggs: with local children vanishing at an alarming rate, our hero, his lady friend and a motley assortment of poets, butchers and punk librarians prepare to battle the darkness on the edge of town. Essential Self-Defense is a grimfairy tale with generous helpings of rock n' roll karaoke by the Pulitzer Prize-nominated author of Red Light Winter," state press notes.

Visit www.playwrightshorizons.org or call Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200 for tickets and more information.

Photos by Joan Marcus

Paul Sparks and Heather Goldenhersh

 
Heather Goldenhersh and Paul Sparks

Paul Sparks

Heather Goldenhersh as Sadie and Paul Sparks (foreground) with (l to r) Guy Boyd, Joel Marsh Garland and Michael Chernus