Westport Country Playhouse Hosts A Symposiium on Playwright Samuel Beckett 7/11

Westport Country Playhouse will present a Sunday Symposium on playwright Samuel Beckett with Deirdre Bair, recipient of the National Book Award for "Samuel Beckett: A Biography," and Mark Lamos, Playhouse artistic director, following the Sunday, July 11, 3 p.m. matinee performance of Beckett's "Happy Days," directed by Lamos.

The Playhouse Sunday Symposium program, free and open to the public, provides the audience with guest speakers' in-depth insights and observations about the production, followed by an interactive dialogue. David Kennedy, Westport Country Playhouse associate artistic director, will moderate the Sunday Symposium. It is open to all, including those who attend a performance of "Happy Days" at another time. The Sunday Symposium is supported, in part, by the White Barn Program of the Lucille Lortel Foundation. Prior to the performance, patrons are invited to enjoy "Prosecco on the Patio" - complimentary glasses of Mionetto Prosecco, a sparkling wine that is the official Playhouse Prosecco.

Deirdre Bair is the critically acclaimed author of four previous works of nonfiction. She received the National Book Award for "Samuel Beckett: A Biography." Her biographies of Simone de Beauvoir and C. G. Jung were finalists for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Her biographies of Anais Nin and Simone de Beauvoir were chosen by The New York Times as "Best Books of the Year," and her biography of Jung won the Gradiva Award from the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis.

Bair's latest book, "Calling It Quits," examines late-life divorce and starting over. She is currently working on a biography of New Yorker cartoonist and artist, Saul Steinberg. Bair has been awarded fellowships from (among others) the Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundations and the Bunting Institute of Radcliffe College. She is a literary journalist who writes frequently about travel, feminist issues and cultural life. A former professor of comparative literature, she writes and lectures internationally.
Director Mark Lamos is a director of plays, musicals and opera. Named Westport Country Playhouse artistic director in early 2009, his first official season of artistic programming is for this year's 80th anniversary. Lamos spent 17 seasons as artistic director of Connecticut's Hartford Stage, for which he accepted the Tony Award in 1989. He made his Broadway directing debut with a transfer from Hartford Stage of "Our Country's Good," for which he received a Tony Award nomination as Best Director.

Currently, Lamos' production of A. R. Gurney's "The Grand Manner" is playing at Lincoln Center Theater, where he directed Gurney's "Big Bill" as well as Shakespeare's "Cymbeline" and "Measure for Measure," Sheridan's "The Rivals" and Edward Albee's "Seascape." He was awarded the Connecticut Medal for the Arts as well as honorary doctorates from Connecticut College, University of Hartford and Trinity College.

"Happy Days," starring Tony Award nominee Dana Ivey and Jack Wetherall, will run from July 6 through July 24.

About The Playhouse

Westport Country Playhouse, a not-for-profit theater, serves as a treasured home for the performing arts and is a cultural landmark for Connecticut. Under the artistic direction of Mark Lamos and management direction of Michael Ross, The Playhouse creates quality productions of new and classic plays that enlighten, enrich and engage a diverse community of theater lovers, artists and students. The Playhouse's rich history dates back to 1931, when New York theater producer Lawrence Langner created a Broadway-quality stage within an 1830s tannery. The Playhouse quickly became an established stop on the New England "straw hat circuit" of summer stock theatres. Now celebrating its 80th season, Westport Country Playhouse has produced more than 700 plays, 36 of which later transferred to Broadway, most recently the world premiere of "Thurgood" and a revival of Thornton Wilder's "Our Town" with Paul Newman, and in earlier years "Come Back, Little Sheba" with Shirley Booth, "The Trip to Bountiful" with Lillian Gish, and "Butterflies Are Free" with Keir Dullea and Blythe Danner. For its artistic excellence, The Playhouse received a 2005 Governor's Arts Award and a 2000 "Connecticut Treasure" recognition. It was also designated as an Official Project of Save America's Treasures by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and is entered on the Connecticut State Register of Historic Places. Following a multi-million dollar renovation completed in 2005, The Playhouse transformed into a year-round, state-of-the-art producing theater, which has preserved its original charm and character. In addition to a full season of theatrical productions, The Playhouse serves as a community resource, presenting educational programming and workshops; a children's theater series; symposiums; music; films; and readings.

The five-play 2010 season will continue with "Dinner with Friends," a comic drama by Donald Margulies, directed by David Kennedy, Playhouse associate artistic director, June 1 through 19; "Happy Days" by Samuel Beckett, a play of luminous beauty and rare power, directed by Mark Lamos, July 6 through July 24; "I Do! I Do!," the joyful and touching musical, written by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt, August 10 through August 28; and "The Diary of Anne Frank," a timeless and powerful classic, by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, adapted by Wendy Kesselman, directed by Gerald Freedman, September 28 through October 16.

For more information or ticket purchases, call the box office (M-F, 12 to 6 p.m.) at (203) 227-4177, or toll-free at 1-888-927-7529, or visit 25 Powers Court, off Route 1, Westport. Tickets may be purchased online at www.westportplayhouse.org.

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