Leigh Williams, Jenna Panther Lead THIRDS At The Lion Theatre Thru 3/18

Heiress Productions has completed casting for the World Premiere of THIRDS by Jacob M. Appel, adapted by Kevin Brewer. Directed by Zac Hoogendyk, previews begin March 2 at The Lion Theatre at Theatre Row. A portion of the proceeds from the production will benefit Hope & Heroes Children's Cancer Fund. Opening is slated for March 8.

About the show: "In THIRDS, three sisters inherit their mother's house. The problem is that the daughters cannot agree on how to divide the estate. When one of the sisters begins to build a brick wall to claim her third of the house, it's clear a decision must be made before the mortar dries."

The production will star Leigh Williams (The Life and Death of King John), Jenna Panther, Kelly Strandemo (Belles), and Laura Faith (Critical Mass) with set by Josh Zangen, lighting by Joel E. Silver, costumes by Ashley Rose Horton, and sound by Anthony Mattana.

Jacob M. Appel's plays include Helen of Sparta (named one of the 10 best regional plays of 2009 by the American Theatre Association), Arborphilia, The Mistress of Wholesome, The Replacement, Woodpecker, and Causa Mortis. They have been performed at venues including Adrienne Theatre (Philadelphia), Detroit Repertory Theatre, Heller Theater (Tulsa), Curtain Players (Columbus), Epilogue Players (Indianapolis), and Intentional Theatre (New London). He is a winner of the Lee Strasburg Institute's Annual Playwriting Competition and has been a finalist for the Reva Shiner Playwriting Award. Jacob has published short fiction in more than two hundred leading literary journals and his prose has won the Boston Review Short Fiction Competition, the William Faulkner-William Wisdom Award for the Short Story, the Dana Award, the Arts & Letters Prize for Fiction, the North American Review's Kurt Vonnegut Prize and a Sherwood Anderson Foundation Writers Grant. His fiction has been short-listed for the O. Henry Award, the Best American Short Stories and the Pushcart Prize on numerous occasions. He also publishes in the field of bioethics and contributes to such publications as the Journal of Clinical Ethics, the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, and the Bulletin of the History of Medicine. His essays and commentary have appeared in The New York Times, The New York Daily News, The New York Post, The Chicago Tribune, The Detroit Free Press, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Washington Times, The New Haven Register, The Albany Times-Union and many other regional newspapers. Jacob currently practices psychiatry in New York City.

Heiress Productions was founded in 2006 by Laura Faith & Mary Willis White. Its mission is to produce new plays while raising awareness and relief funds for cancer organizations. Since its inception, the company has produced five acclaimed plays at Theatre Row Theaters including Critical Mass by Joanne Sydney Lessner (in support of the Lustgarten Foundation for pancreatic cancer research), Belles by Mark Dunn (in partnership with Joe's House which provides housing near hospitals for families of cancer patients), Three Movements by Martin Zimmerman (benefiting Us Too, a prostate cancer charity), Affluenza by James Sherman (in support of Miracle House, a cancer patient and caregiver advocacy program), and Jean Kerr's Lunch Hour (to benefit Gilda's Club NYC). For more info visit www.heiressproductions.org.

THIRDS runs through March 18 on the following schedule: Wednesday - Friday at 8pm, Saturday at 2pm & 8pm and Sunday at 3pm. The Lion Theatre at Theatre Row is located at 410 West 42nd Street at 9th Avenue. Tickets are $18 at 212-239-6200 or www.TeleCharge.com.