Kathleen Chalfant to Lead Cast of RED DOG HOWLS at New York Theatre Workshop in September

New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) Artistic Director James C. Nicola and Managing Director William Russo have announced that Kathleen Chalfant will lead the cast of NYTW's production of Red Dog Howls, written by Alexander Dinelaris. Ken Rus Schmoll will direct the production, which opens the 2012-13 season, beginning performances September 4, 2012. Full casting will be announced at a later date.

A box of old letters and a father's dying wish leads Michael Kiriakos to dig up the buried memories of his hidden family history. After meeting Rose, his father's now-elderly, Armenian pen pal, Michael slowly learns of a past he never knew existed, one of exile, sacrifice and, ultimately, redemption. Written by Alexander Dinelaris (Still Life), Red Dog Howls explores the horrors of human atrocities, the enduring strength of the human spirit, and how the choices we make as husbands, sons, wives, and daughters will-for better or worse-reverberate for generations.

New York Theatre Workshop, now celebrating its 29th season, is a leading voice in the world of Off-Broadway and within the theatre community in New York and around the world. NYTW has emerged as a premiere incubator of important new theatre, honoring its mission to explore perspectives on our collective history and respond to the events and institutions that shape our lives. In addition, NYTW is known for its innovative adaptations of classic repertory. Each season, from its home in New York's East Village neighborhood, NYTW presents three to five new productions, over 80 readings, and numerous workshop productions, for over 45,000 audience members.

Over the past 28 years, NYTW has developed and produced over 100 new, fully staged works, including Jonathan Larson's Rent, Tony Kushner's Slavs! and Homebody/Kabul, Doug Wright's Quills, Claudia Shear's Blown Sideways Through Life and Dirty Blonde, Paul Rudnick's The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told and Valhalla, Caryl Churchill's Mad Forest, Far Away, and A Number, Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen's Aftermath, and Rick Elice's Peter and the Starcatcher. The 2002 remounting of Martha Clarke's seminal work, Vienna: Lusthaus and subsequent American tour was one of the longest-running productions in NYTW's history.

NYTW's acclaimed productions of Once and Peter and the Starcatcher are currently enjoying Broadway runs, having garnered 20 Tony Award nominations, and Rent, which premiered at NYTW, is currently playing an off-Broadway revival. NYTW supports artists in all stages of their careers by maintaining a series of workshop programs including work-in-progress readings, summer residencies, and minority artist fellowships. In 1991, NYTW received an OBIE Award for Sustained Achievement and in 2000 was designated to be part of the Leading National Theatres Program by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

For more information, visit www.nytw.org.

Photo credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.