Playwrights Horizons Now Accepting LIVEforFIVE Lottery Entries

Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) is now accepting entries for its popular LIVEforFIVE online lottery for $5 tickets to its next production, the World Premiere of THIS, a new play by Obie Award winner Melissa James Gibson (Suitcase, [sic]).

A ticketing initiative created in 2007 as part of the theater company's Arts Access program, LIVEforFIVE makes $5 tickets available for the first preview performance of each Playwrights Horizons production through a lottery via the company's website (www.playwrightshorizons.org). The LIVEforFIVE lottery for THIS will be for tickets to the first preview on Friday, November 6 at 8PM at Playwrights Horizons' Mainstage Theater (416 West 42nd Street).

Directed by Obie Award winner Daniel Aukin ([sic], eight seasons as Artistic Director of Soho Rep), THIS will have its official opening on Wednesday, December 2 at 7PM and continue through Sunday, December 13. The cast features JuliAnne Nicholson (Detective Megan Wheeler on "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," Craig Lucas's Stranger at The Vineyard, the recently-opened film Brief Interviews with Hideous Men), Louis Cancelmi (The Singing Forest, Blasted), Obie Award winner Eisa Davis (Passing Strange, seen last in her own play Angela's Mix Tape produced by New Georges and the Hip-Hop Theater Festival), Glenn Fitzgerald (Lortel nomination for Lobby Hero at Playwrights Horizons, Brian Darling on ABC's "Dirty Sexy Money") and Darren Pettie (Spatter Pattern at Playwrights Horizons, Butley on Broadway, the film Taking Woodstock).

Details for the LIVEforFIVE lottery are as follows: beginning Wednesday, October 28 at 10 AM, theatergoers can enter the lottery by filling out an entry form at www.playwrightshorizons.org. Entries will be accepted until Monday, November 2 at 12 Noon. Winners of the lottery will be notified via email no later than 3PM on Monday, November 2 with instructions on how to book their $5 tickets. Unclaimed tickets will be offered via email starting at 12 Noon on Tuesday, November 3 on a first-come, first-served basis. One or two tickets may be purchased for $5 each. At least 50 tickets will be available for Mainstage shows via the lottery. 

In THIS, Jane (JuliAnne Nicholson) is not okay. She's a promising poet without a muse, a single mother without lessons to pass along. Her dating life's a shambles, and her helpful friends are only helping make things more complicated. This bright, witty, un-romantic comedy captures the uncertain steps of a circle of friends backing their way into middle age.

The Arts Access program at Playwrights Horizons allows the institution to reach out to those who may not be able to afford the cost of a full-prIce Theater ticket. This program is supported, in part, by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, McGraw-Hill Companies and the Elroy and Terry Krumholz Foundation.

Other Arts Access initiatives, both of which reflect Playwrights Horizons' ongoing commitment to making its productions more affordable to younger audiences, include HOTtix, $20 rush tickets, subject to availability, day of performance only, starting one hour before showtime to patrons aged 30 and under. Proof of age required. One ticket per person, per purchase. STUDENT RUSH, $15 rush tickets, subject to availability, day of performance only, starting one hour before curtain to full-time graduate and undergraduate students. One ticket per person, per purchase. Valid full-time student ID required.

Playwrights Horizons' season productions are generously supported by The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust. THIS is the recipient of an Edgerton Foundation New American Plays award.

Playwrights Horizons is supported in part by public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York State Assembly and the New York State Senate. In addition, Playwrights Horizons receives major support from Carnegie Corporation of New York, Charina Endowment Fund, Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Shubert Foundation and Time Warner Inc.

Playwrights Horizons, under the leadership of Artistic Director Tim Sanford and Managing Director Leslie Marcus, is a writer's theater dedicated to the support and development of contemporary American Playwrights, composers and lyricists, and to the production of their new work. In its 39 years, Playwrights Horizons has presented the work of more than 375 writers and has received numerous awards and honors, most recently being honored with a special 2008 Drama Desk Award for "ongoing support to generations of theater artists and undiminished commitment to producing new work." Notable productions include four Pulitzer Prize winners: Doug Wright's I Am My Own Wife (2004 Tony Award, Best Play), Wendy Wasserstein's The Heidi Chronicles (1989 Tony Award, Best Play), Alfred Uhry's Driving Miss Daisy and Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Sunday in the Park with George, as well as Annie Baker's current Circle Mirror Transformation, Doug Wright, Scott Frankel and Michael Korie's Grey Gardens (three 2007 Tony Awards), Craig Lucas's Prayer For My Enemy and Small Tragedy (2004 Obie Award, Best American Play), Adam Rapp's Kindness, Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's Assassins, Sarah Ruhl's Dead Man's Cell Phone, Bruce Norris's The Pain and the Itch, Lynn Nottage's Fabulation (2005 Obie Award), Kenneth Lonergan's Lobby Hero, David Greenspan's She Stoops to Comedy (2003 Obie Award), Kirsten Childs's The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin (2000 Obie Award), Richard Nelson and Shaun Davey's James Joyce's The Dead, William Finn's March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland, Christopher Durang's Betty's Summer Vacation and Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You, Richard Nelson's Goodnight Children Everywhere and Franny's Way, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty's Once on This Island, Jon Robin Baitz's The Substance of Fire, Scott McPherson's Marvin's Room, A.R. Gurney's Later Life, Adam Guettel and Tina Landau's Floyd Collins and Jeanine Tesori and Brian Crawley's Violet.
For subscription and ticket information to all Playwrights Horizons productions, call TICKET CENTRAL at (212) 279-4200, Noon to 8 pm daily, or purchase online at the Playwrights Horizons website at
www.playwrightshorizons.org