Westport Country Playhouse Announces Script in Hand Reading of INTIMATE APPAREL, 2/11

Westport Country Playhouse's next Script in Hand playreading will be the award-winning play "Intimate Apparel" by Lynn Nottage, set for one-night-only on Monday, February 11, 7 p.m. All tickets are $15. The cast includes Geneva Carr, Lynda Gravátt, Donnetta Lavinia Grays, Billy EuGene Jones, Paul Anthony Stewart, and Susan Kelechi Watson. Director is Anne Keefe, Playhouse artistic advisor.

"I'm thrilled to be able to bring Lynn Nottage's work to The Playhouse stage," said Keefe. "This is a play that has intrigued me for almost a decade, and I'm happy to be able to share it with our audience. It's a beautiful love story!"

"Intimate Apparel" takes place in New York City, 1905. Esther, a black seamstress, sews intimate apparel for rich white women and well-paid black prostitutes. Lonely and longing for a husband and a future, she begins corresponding with George, a Caribbean man working on the Panama Canal, who persuades her to marry him, sight unseen. Meanwhile, Esther's heart lies with the Hasidic shopkeeper, Mr. Marks, from whom she buys cloth, but the impossibility of the match is obvious to them both. "Intimate Apparel" won the 2004 New York Drama Critics' Circle and Outer Critics Circle awards.

Geneva Carr, who will play Mrs. Van Buren, appeared at Westport Country Playhouse in "How the Other Half Loves," "Time of My Life," "Relatively Speaking," and several Script in Hand playreadings. Lynda Gravátt will portray Mrs. Dickson, a role she originated in the off-Broadway production. She was seen last fall at Westport Country Playhouse in "A Raisin in the Sun," and appeared on Broadway in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and "Doubt."

Donnetta Lavinia Grays (Esther) performed at Westport Country Playhouse in "Twelfth Night," and was in Broadway's "In the Next Room or the vibrator play," and "Well." Billy EuGene Jones (George) appeared at Westport Country Playhouse in "A Raisin in the Sun" last season, and on Broadway in "Passing Strange," "Radio Golf," "Gem of the Ocean, and "A Raisin in the Sun."

Paul Anthony Stewart (Mr. Marks) was at Westport Country Playhouse last season in the world premiere of "Harbor," and the previous season in "Twelfth Night." He earned an Emmy Award nomination for his role as Danny Santos on "Guiding Light." Susan Kelechi Watson (Mayme) was in Westport Country Playhouse productions of "A Raisin in the Sun" and "Twelfth Night," and appeared on Broadway in "A Naked Girl on the Appian Way."

Playwright Lynn Nottage's Pulitzer Prize-winning play "Ruined" received an Obie, the Lucille Lortel Award, New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, Drama Desk Award, and Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Play. Other plays include "Or The Re-Education Of Undine" (Obie Award), and "Crumbs from the Table of Joy." Nottage is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2007 MacArthur Foundation "Genius Grant," the National Black Theatre Festival's August Wilson Playwriting Award, the 2004 PEN/Laura Pels Award for Drama, and the 2005 Guggenheim Grant for Playwriting, as well as fellowships from the Lucille Lortel Foundation, Manhattan Theatre Club, New Dramatists, and New York Foundation for the Arts. She is a graduate oF Brown University and the Yale School of Drama.

Director Anne Keefe served as artistic director of Westport Country Playhouse, with JoAnne Woodward, in 2008 and as associate artistic director from 2000-2006, also with Ms. Woodward. She co-directed with Ms. Woodward the Westport Country Playhouse production of "David Copperfield," and directed many Script in Hand playreadings.

All artists are subject to change.

An upcoming Script in Hand playreading will take place on Monday, March 18, 7 p.m., title to be announced.

Script in Hand sponsors are Marc and Michele Flaster; Script in Hand partners are Ann Sheffer and Bill Scheffler. The series is supported, in part, by the White Barn Program of the Lucille Lortel Foundation.
For more information or tickets, call the box office at (203) 227-4177, or toll-free at 1-888-927-7529, or visit Westport Country Playhouse, 25 Powers Court, off Route 1, Westport. Tickets are available online 24/7 at www.westportplayhouse.org. Stay connected to The Playhouse on Facebook (Westport Country Playhouse), follow on Twitter (@WCPlayhouse), view Playhouse videos on YouTube (WestportPlayhouse) or get an insider's peek on The Playhouse Blog (www.theplayhouseblog.org).