Lottery Available For $5 Tix To 1st Preview of A COOL DIP

Playwrights Horizons (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director; Leslie Marcus, Managing Director) is now accepting entries for its popular LIVEforFIVE online lottery for $5 tickets to the World Premiere of A COOL DIP IN THE BARREN SAHARAN CRICK, a new play by Kia Corthron (Breath, Boom at Playwrights Horizons/PH, Force Continuum).

A ticketing initiative created in 2007 as part of the theater company's Arts Access program, LIVEforFIVE makes $5 tickets available for the first preview performance of each Playwrights Horizons production through a lottery via the company's website (www.playwrightshorizons.org). The LIVEforFIVE lottery for A COOL DIP IN THE BARREN SAHARAN CRICK will be for tickets to the first preview on Thursday, March 4 at 7:30 PM at Playwrights Horizons' Peter Jay Sharp Theater (416 West 42nd Street).

Directed by Chay Yew (Durango at The Public) and presented as a co-production with The Play Company (Kate Loewald, Founding Producer; Lauren Weigel, Managing Producer), A COOL DIP IN THE BARREN SAHARAN CRICK will have its official opening on Sunday, March 28 at 7PM and continue through Sunday, April 11. The cast features Keith Eric Chappelle (Cyrano de Bergerac on Broadway), William Jackson Harper (Ruined), Joshua King, Kianné Muschett (The Brother/Sister Plays) and Myra Lucretia Taylor (Crazy Mary and Fabulation at PH, Nine on Broadway).

Details for the LIVEforFIVE lottery are as follows: beginning today, Wednesday, February 24, theatergoers can enter the lottery by filling out an entry form at www.playwrightshorizons.org. Entries will be accepted until Monday, March 1 at 12 Noon. Winners of the lottery will be notified via email no later than 3PM on Monday, March 1 with instructions on how to book their $5 tickets. Unclaimed tickets will be offered via email starting at 12 Noon on Tuesday, March 2 on a first-come, first-served basis. One or two tickets may be purchased for $5 each. A total of 40 tickets will be available for Sharp shows via the lottery.

In A COOL DIP IN THE BARREN SAHARAN CRICK, an African preacher-in-training (William Jackson Harper) comes to a drought-stricken rural American community to further his studies in religion and water conservation. He stays with a mother (Myra Lucretia Taylor) and daughter (Kianné Muschett) haunted by personal tragedy and takes a special interest in a young orphan (Joshua King) starved for guidance. In the face of all obstacles he maintains an infectious, unstinting optimism determined to battle - by any means necessary - the personal and political forces that threaten the ecology of his new home.

The Arts Access program at Playwrights Horizons allows the institution to reach out to those who may not be able to afford the cost of a full-price theater ticket. This program is supported, in part, by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, McGraw-Hill Companies and the Elroy and Terry Krumholz Foundation.

Other Arts Access initiatives, both of which reflect Playwrights Horizons' ongoing commitment to making its productions more affordable to younger audiences, include HOTtix, $20 rush tickets, subject to availability, day of performance only, starting one hour before showtime to patrons aged 30 and under. Proof of age required. One ticket per person, per purchase. STUDENT RUSH, $15 rush tickets, subject to availability, day of performance only, starting one hour before curtain to full-time graduate and undergraduate students. One ticket per person, per purchase. Valid full-time student ID required.

In addition, special Post-Performance Discussions have been scheduled. Discussions with members of the cast and creative team will take place immediately after the following three performances: Friday evening, March 5 at 7:30 PM, Wednesday evening, March 10 at 7:30 PM and Sunday matinee, March 14 at 2PM.

On Sunday, April 11, author and journalist Alex Prud'homme (My Life in France with his aunt, Julia Child) will read from his new book Clean, Clear, and Cold following the 2PM matinee. The book concerns the challenges of fresh water today, from polluted tap water and the bottled water wars, to record floods and droughts. The event is free and open to the public. 

For more information regarding special events during the run, please check the A COOL DIP IN THE BARREN SAHARAN CRICK production blog at www.acooldip.typepad.com.

Playwrights Horizons' season productions are generously supported by The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust.

A COOL DIP IN THE BARREN SAHARAN CRICK is the result of a Playwrights Horizons' Time Warner commission and has received generous support from the Peter Jay Sharp Foundation, Tiger Baron Foundation, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and The Carter Fund.

Playwrights Horizons is supported in part by public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York State Assembly and the New York State Senate. In addition, Playwrights Horizons receives major support from Carnegie Corporation of New York, Charina Endowment Fund, Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Shubert Foundation and Time Warner Inc.

Playwrights Horizons, under the leadership of Artistic Director Tim Sanford and Managing Director Leslie Marcus, is a writer's theater dedicated to the support and development of contemporary American playwrights, composers and lyricists, and to the production of their new work. In its 39 years, Playwrights Horizons has presented the work of more than 375 writers and has received numerous awards and honors, most recently being honored with a special 2008 Drama Desk Award for "ongoing support to generations of theater artists and undiminished commitment to producing new work." Notable productions include four Pulitzer Prize winners: Doug Wright's I Am My Own Wife (2004 Tony Award, Best Play), Wendy Wasserstein's The Heidi Chronicles (1989 Tony Award, Best Play), Alfred Uhry's Driving Miss Daisy and Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Sunday in the Park with George, as well as Annie Baker's current hit Circle Mirror Transformation, Melissa James Gibson's recent This (2010 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize finalist), Doug Wright, Scott Frankel and Michael Korie's Grey Gardens (three 2007 Tony Awards), Craig Lucas's Prayer For My Enemy and Small Tragedy (2004 Obie Award, Best American Play), Adam Rapp's Kindness, Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman's Assassins, Sarah Ruhl's Dead Man's Cell Phone, Bruce Norris's The Pain and the Itch, Lynn Nottage's Fabulation (2005 Obie Award), Kenneth Lonergan's Lobby Hero, David Greenspan's She Stoops to Comedy (2003 Obie Award), Kirsten Childs's The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin (2000 Obie Award), Richard Nelson and Shaun Davey's James Joyce's The Dead, William Finn's March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland, Christopher Durang's Betty's Summer Vacation and Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You, Richard Nelson's Goodnight Children Everywhere and Franny's Way, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty's Once on This Island, Jon Robin Baitz's The Substance of Fire, Scott McPherson's Marvin's Room, A.R. Gurney's Later Life, Adam Guettel and Tina Landau's Floyd Collins and Jeanine Tesori and Brian Crawley's Violet.