The Acting Company Presents THE HOUSE THAT WILL NOT STAND - Tamara Tunie, Lynda Gravatt, Brenda Pressley and More; 5/16

The Acting Company's (Ian Belknap, Artistic Director; Elisa Spencer-Kaplan, Executive Director) 2016 John McDonald Salon Series will conclude with a reading of acclaimed writer Marcus Gardley's The House that Will Not Stand on Monday, May 16th at 7 PM at the Lynn Redgrave Theater at The Culture Project, 45 Bleecker Street (at Lafayette), New York, NY 10012. Single tickets are $35 and include a post-show reception with the cast. For tickets, visit www.theactingcompany.org or call (212) 258-3111.

Acting Company Artistic Director Ian Belknap will direct a cast including Joniece Abbott-Pratt (Eclipsed), Harriett D. Foy (Mamma Mia), Lynda Gravatt (Skeleton Crew), Nedra McClyde (Mr. Burns, "Jessica Jones"), Brenda Pressley (The American Plan), Tamara Tunie ("Law & Order: SVU") and Brittany N. Williams (Bob Marley's Three Little Birds). Casting is by Harriett D. Foy - Finesse Casting Ltd.

Marcus Gardley has secured his place as one of the most promising contemporary playwrights, most notably with this piece, which earned him the prestigious Will Glickman Award for the play's world premiere at Berkeley Rep.

The House That Will Not Stand is set in 1836 New Orleans, a time when black Creole women entered into common-law marriages with rich white men in a system of placage. When the mourning her common-law husband coincides with the eve of a ball her unwed daughters wish to attend, the house that Beartrice Albans built-on a foundation of wealth, secrets, and dearly bought freedom-threatens to collapse.

2016 marks the 20th anniversary of The Acting Company's John McDonald Salon Reading Series. The Salon Series offers New York audiences a range of works that are thematically linked to the company's repertory season and first opportunities to see works that are being considered for future production.

Founded by John Houseman and Margot Harley in 1972 from the first graduating class of the Juilliard Drama Division, The Acting Company has toured to 48 states and 10 foreign countries, presenting 143 classic and new works while garnering a Tony Award for Excellence in Theater, among other honors. Kevin Kline, Rainn Wilson, Patti LuPone, Frances Conroy, Jeffrey Wright, Harriet Harris, David Ogden Stiers, Keith David, Hamish Linklater and Jesse L. Martin are among the more than 400 performers who began their careers on tour with The Acting Company. The Acting Company serves a mission of providing opportunities for gifted early-career theatre artists; strengthening the ties between the academic and professional theatre; and fostering a discerning audience for theatre across the country, often in communities that would otherwise lack access to quality arts programming.