Cast Announced for Hilary Bettis's ALLIGATOR at A.R.T./New York Theatres

New Georges will kick off their 25th anniversary season in collaboration with The Sol Project to present the World Premiere of ALLIGATOR, written by Hilary Bettis (The Americans on FX) and directed by Elena Araoz (Dipika Guha's Mechanics of Love with To-By-For Productions; Hook & Eye's She-She in the Ice Factory Festival).

The production is being staged at the Jeffrey and Paula Gural Theatre at the A.R.T./New York Theatres (502 West 53rd Street and 10th Avenue), November 27-December 18 with performances on Sun 11/27, Mon 11/28, Wed 11/30, Thu 12/1, Fri 12/2, Sat 12/3, Tue 12/6, Wed 12/7, Thu 12/8, Fri 12/9, Sat 12/10, Tue 12/13, Wed 12/14, Thu 12/15, Fri 12/16 & Sat 12/17 at 7:30pm, Sun 12/4, Sun 12/11 & Sun 12/18 at 5pm, Fri 12/2, Sat 12/10 & Fri 12/16 at 2pm, Tickets ($35) are available online at www.newgeorges.org or by calling 1-800-838-3006.

The cast will feature Dakota Granados (Madhura Berman's At a Crossroad), Lexi Lapp (STET with Abingdon Theatre Company), Samuel H. Levine (Kill Floor with Lincoln Center/LCT3), Julian Elijah Martinez (Helen Hayes Outstanding Lead Actor in a Resident Play nomination for 9 Circles at Forum Theatre), Talene Monahon (Robert Askins' Permission at MCC), Bobby Moreno (World Premiere of Hand to God at EST; Year of the Rooster with EST), Lindsay Rico (The Bonapartes at Ars Nova).

The design team will include lights by Amith Chandrashaker (Twelfth Night with The Public Theater; Ike at Night with Bushwick Starr), costumes by Ari Fulton (Widow of Tom's Hill at 59E59), sound by Pornchanok Kanchanabanca (Canada Geese in FringeNYC 2016; Cymbeline with Yale Rep), sets by Arnulfo Maldonado (Caught with The Play Company; Men on Boats with Playwrights Horizons/Clubbed Thumb), puppetry by Jessica Scott (The Rite of Spring with Basil Twist at Lincoln Center; Mabou Mines Peter & Wendy at New Victory Theater), Fight Direction by UnkleDave's Fight-House (An American in Paris at the Palace Theater; The Jamb at The Kraine Theater), and original music created by Daniel Ocanto (the band Big Harp) and Graham Ulicny (the band Reptar), performed live during every performance by Ocanto, Ulicny and Sean Smith (Klavenauts).

Emerald and Ty are twin orphaned teenagers who live in the backwoods of the Florida Everglades and wrestle 'gators in a roadside attraction. Careening through encounters in their small tourist town, they meet self-destructive young locals looking for a future and desperate young wanderers looking for a home; all carry secrets under ever-present layers of desire. Alternately realistic and surreal, scored with gritty rock music performed by a live band, Alligator is a muscular, satisfying play about learning to tame our darkest impulses.

Alligator was developed during a residency at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Playwrights Conference in 2012.

Hilary Bettis (Playwright) writes plays, TV and movies. She is a two-time recipient of the Lecomte du Nouy Prize from Lincoln Center and is a 2015 graduate of the Lila Acheson Wallace Playwright Fellowship at The Juilliard School. Bettis has received fellowships and residencies at the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, New York Theatre Workshop, Sewanee Writers' Conference, SPACE at Ryder Farm, Cape Cod Theatre Project, La Jolla Playhouse, New York Foundation for the Arts, Playwrights' Week at The Lark, NNPN's National Showcase of New Plays, Audrey Residency at New Georges, Two River Theater, Great Plains Theatre Conference, The Kennedy Center/NNPN MFA Workshop and a Sloan/EST Commission. She has had plays on The Kilroys List and Honorable Mention List every year since its inception. She is currently working on a commissioned adaptation of Miss Julie with Michel Hausmann/Miami New Drama. Her play The Ghosts of Lote Bravo received a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere in 2016. Hilary is currently a writer on FX's Emmy-nominated show The Americans. She is developing a project at The Weinstein Company with Alyssa Milano producing, as well as another project at Fox 21 TVS with producer Bob Levy. www.hilarybettiswriter.com

Elena Araoz (Director) is a stage director for theater and opera. This season in NYC, she directed Octavio Solís's Prospect (Boundless Theatre Company), Dipika Guha's Mechanics of Love, and devised She-She-She with Virginia Grise and Hook & Eye for Ice Factory Festival, New Ohio Theatre. She also directed Naomi Wallace's The Retreating World (Great Plains Theatre Conference) and Two Arms and a Noise (Bucharest International Theatre Platform), which she wrote and directed as a NYTW fellow. She was named The Drama League's inaugural Beatrice Terry Resident, where she wrote Plastic Drastic, an eco-aware musical adaptation of The Odyssey, and directed for the Rose Theatre. Other productions: Architecture of Becoming (WP Theater), two Carl Djerassi plays (Off-Broadway), Li Tong's The Power (Beijing), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Prague Shakespeare), Mac Wellman's Wu and Horrocks (Sleeping Weazel, ArtsEmerson), Natalia Naman's Lawnpeople (Cherry Lane Mentor Project), La Traviata (NYCO, BAM), Lucia di Lammermoor (Opera North), Falstaff (Brooklyn Philharmonic, BAM), Latin Lovers (Glimmerglass Opera). Araoz is a New Georges affiliated artist, and a founding member and serves on the artistic collective of The Sol Project. www.elenaaraoz.com

New Georges, founded in 1992, is one of New York City's premiere downtown theaters, a strategically small company with a national reputation as a hub and a launchpad for the most adventurous theater artists (who are women) working today. Through productions of boundary-pushing new plays, several varieties of play development programs, and our indispensable workspace, The Room, we support the largest ongoing working community of women theater artists in New York City and have launched an unprecedented generation of women playwrights and directors. Honors for New Georges, its plays and its people include 3 Obie Awards, The Lilly Award, the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and the Kesselring Prize, and New York Magazine has called New Georges an "important, risk-taking organization." Notable productions include Kate Benson's 2015 Obie Award-winning A Beautiful Day in November on the Banks of the Greatest of the Great Lakes, directed by Lee Sunday Evans; MArielle Heller's The Diary of a Teenage Girl, directed by Sarah Cameron Sunde and Rachel Eckerling; Eisa Davis' Angela's Mixtape, directed by Liesl Tommy; Jenny Schwartz's God's Ear, directed by Anne Kauffman; Heidi Schreck's Creature, directed by Leigh Silverman; Sheila Callaghan's Dead City, directed by Daniella Topol; and Lisa D'Amour's Anna Bella Eema, directed by Katie Pearl; we have provided critical early-career opportunities to additional playwrights and directors who include Lucy Alibar, Rachel Bonds, Rachel Chavkin, Rachel Dickstein, Portia Krieger, Maria Mileaf, Lila Neugebauer, Jen Silverman, Diana Son, Kathryn Walat, Tracey Scott Wilson, Anna Ziegler and many more. www.newgeorges.org

The Sol Project is a New York City-based theater initiative dedicated to producing works by Latinx playwrights, bringing the stories and culture of their community to the fore of American theater. Founded by Artistic Director Jacob G. Padrón, and driven by a collective of actors, producers and directors, The Sol Project will elevate the visibility of Latinx writers in New York and nationally by activating a synergistic network of off-Broadway companies and regional theaters while prioritizing diversity within casts, crews and creative teams. Twelve playwrights, both emerging and established, are first partnered with off-Broadway theater companies to execute main stage productions. Regional partners will then commit to the continued life of each play with subsequent productions. By placing Latinx plays in conversation with works in the seasons of major companies, the project is slated to not only make a difference in the lives of gifted Latinx playwrights; it will contribute a bold, kaleidoscopic body of work to what will become the new American canon. The Sol Project's artistic collective is Claudia Acosta, Elena Araoz, Adriana Gaviria, David Mendizabal, Padrón, Kyoung Park, and Laurie Woolery. The initial six company partners are New Georges, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, The Public Theater, LAByrinth Theater Company, Atlantic Theater Company and WP Theater. www.solproject.org

The A.R.T./New York Theatres are a project of the Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York (A.R.T./New York), which provide state-of-the-art, accessible venues at subsidized rental rates, plus free access to top-line technical equipment, so that the city's small and emerging theatre companies can continue to experiment, grow, and produce new works. Founded in 1972, A.R.T./New York is the leading service and advocacy organization for New York City's 375+ nonprofit theatres, with a mission to assist member theatres in managing their companies effectively so that they may realize their rich artistic visions and serve their diverse audiences well. We accomplish this through a comprehensive roster of real estate, financial, educational, and community-building programs, as well as research, advocacy, and field-wide initiatives that seek to improve the long-term health and sustainability of the industry. Over the years, A.R.T./New York has received numerous honors, including an Obie Award, an Innovative Theatre Award, a New York City Mayor's Award for Arts & Culture, and a Tony Honor for Excellence in the Theatre. For more information, visit www.art-newyork.org.