Veanne Cox, Adam LeFevre to Lead Catherine Trieschmann's THE MOST DESERVING at Women's Project Theater, Begin. 3/30

Catherine Trieschmann is back in New York at Women's Project Theater with a tart, satirical skewing of small town cultural wars entitled The Most Deserving. This New York premiere by the acclaimed playwright of crooked and How The World Began (also produced by Women's Project Theater) who is a resident of a small town in western Kansas is directed by Shelley Butler and begins previews Sunday, March 30, at 2:30pm for an opening Tuesday, April 8, at 7:30pm (runs through May 4) at New York City Center Stage II, 131 West 55th Street. Rehearsals begin today, Friday, March 7.

Veanne Cox, Adam LeFevre, Jennifer Lim, Daniel Pearce and Ray Anthony Thomas play the residents of a small Kansas town with an arts council charged with giving away the largest individual artist grant in its history. The choice seems easy until a professor from the local community college makes a case for an unconventional outsider, causing art to collide with sex, class, and politics.

Catherine Trieschmann's plays, in addition to crooked and How The World Began include The Bridegroom of Blowing Rock, Hot Georgia Sunday and The Most Deserving. Her work has been produced Off-Broadway at Women's Project Theater, Bush Theatre (London), Out of Joint at the Arcola Theatre (London), South Coast Repertory, Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, the Denver Theater Center, and Florida Stage, among others. She has received commissions from South Coast Repertory, Manhattan Theatre Club, and the Denver Theatre Center. She is the recipient of the Weissberger Award, the Otis Guernsey New Voices Playwriting Award from the Inge Theatre Festival, and the Edgerton New Play Award. The Most Deserving was originally developed and produced at the Denver Center Theatre Company, Kent Thompson, Artistic Director.

Ms. Trieschmann also wrote the screenplay for the film Angel's Crest released by Magnolia Pictures. Originally from Athens, Georgia, she now lives in a small town in western Kansas that may have an arts council.

The scenery for The Most Deserving is by David Barber, costumes by Donald Sanders, lighting by Traci Klainer Polimeni and sound by Leon Rothenberg.

Veanne Cox made her Broadway debut in Smile in 1986. She appeared in the Roundabout Theatre revival Company for which she was nominated for a Tony Award. She appeared in both The Public Theater and the Broadway productions of Caroline, or Change. Adam LeFevre appears again in a Catherine Trieschmann/Women's Project play having appeared two seasons ago in How The World Began. His film credits go back to 1980 and are too long and varied for this press release, as is his list of Off Broadway roles. His Broadway credits include The Devil's Disciple, Our Country's Good, Summer And Smoke, and the musicals Footloose, Mamma Mia, and Guys And Dolls. Jennifer Lim made her mark on Broadway three short years ago in David Henry Hwang's Chinglish, though she has performed all over the world in plays with directors such as Richard Schechner, Leigh Silverman, Liz LeCompte, Bill Rauch and Tracy Young. Daniel Pearce was seen on Broadway in this season's Machinal and in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and Off-Broadway in Sarah Ruhl's Passion Play, King Lear; Measure for Measure; Henry V; and Henry VI among many other shows.

Shelley Butler directed a production of The Most Deserving at Denver Center Theatre Company in October 2013. She also directed This is Fiction by Megan Hart, starring Richard Masur at Cherry Lane (InViolet Rep), The Borrowers, (South Coast Repertory), No Way to Treat a Lady (The Colony Theater), world premieres of Christina Gorman's Sacred Ground (Stella Adler), Ruth McKee's The Nightshade Family (SPF), John Glore's adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time (South Coast Repertory) and Eric Coble's Straight On 'Til Morning (Great Lakes Theater Festival). Most recently she directed Blue Roses at Lyric Stage in Irving, Texas.

Women's Project Theater's The Architecture of Becoming is on stage now and runs through March 23.

Tickets can be purchased online at www.NYCityCenter.org, by calling CityTix at 212-581-1212, or at the New York City Center Box Office at 131 West 55th Street (between Sixth and Seventh Avenues).

Photo by Carol Rosegg