Rattlestick's ODE TO JOY Extends Through April 19

By: Mar. 10, 2014
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Rattlestick Playwrights Theater's Artistic Director David Van Asselt and Managing Director Brian Long have announced that following strong reviews, the world premiere of Ode to Joy, written and directed by Craig Lucas, will extend three weeks through Saturday, April 19 at the Cherry Lane Theatre, 38 Commerce Street.

Ode to Joy, which features Kathryn Erbe ("Law & Order: Criminal Intent"), Roxanna Hope (Frost/Nixon) and Arliss Howard (Moneyball, Natural Born Killers), opened February 27, and was originally scheduled to run through March 30.

Ode to Joy tells the story of love, heartbreak, addiction, and illness through the eyes of Adele, an audacious painter, and her destructive relations with her two lovers--Mala and Bill.

Craig Lucas is the author of the plays Missing Persons, Reckless, Blue Window, Prelude to a Kiss, God's Heart, The Dying Gaul, Stranger, Small Tragedy, Prayer for My Enemy, and The Singing Forest. His screenplays include Blue Window, Longtime Companion, Prelude to a Kiss, Reckless, The Secret Lives of Dentists and The Dying Gaul (which he also directed). Lucas has written the scripts for the musicals Marry Me a Little, Songs by Stephen Sondheim, Three Postcards (music and lyrics by Craig Carnelia) and The Light in the Piazza (music and lyrics by Adam Guettel). His opera libretti include Orpheus in Love (composer Gerald Busby) and Two Boys (composer Nico Muhly), which premiered at the English National Opera. Lucas directed the world premiere of The Light in the Piazza at the Intiman Theater in Seattle, the film Birds of America, the play This Thing of Darkness (by Lucas and David Schulner) and Harry Kondoleon's plays Saved or Destroyed and Play Yourself. He has created a new scenario for Christopher Wheeldon's version of Prokofiev's ballet Cinderella for the Dutch National Ballet.

Kathryn Erbe (Adele) is best known for playing Detective Alexandra Eames in "Law & Oder: Criminal Intent." Born in Newton, Massachusetts, Erbe is a veteran of both film and television and has been a working actress since she graduated from New York University in 1989. Erbe's television credits include playing the infamous death row inmate Shirley Bellinger on the acclaimed HBO series "Oz." She also appeared on NBC's "Homicide: Life on the Street," the miniseries "George Wallace," Showtime's original production of "Naked City: Justice with a Bullet," NBC's "Another World" and the television movie "Breathing Lessons." Erbe also gained notice in the 1999 box office hit Stir of Echoes opposite Kevin Bacon and Dream with the Fishes with David Arquette. Her additional film credits include Entropy, Kiss of Death, D2: The Mighty Ducks, Rich in Love, and What About Bob? Erbe also filmed Three Backyards, starring opposite Embeth Davidtz and Edie Falco, Mother's House, Worst Friend's, and The Love Guide with Parker Posey.

Before appearing in feature films, Erbe began her career on the stage. She is a member of the Steppenwolf Theater Company and has starred in many of their productions, including Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire as Stella, Curse of the Starving Class and My Thing of Love. She earned a Tony Award nomination in 1991 for her portrayal of Mary in Speed of Darkness. Erbe is also an active member of the Atlantic Theatre Company. For the last year, Erbe has recently focused her attention to the theater appearing as Pat Nixon in The Vineyard's Checkers, Natasha in Lincoln Center's Nikolai and The Others as well as Sue in TACT's Natural Affection. Erbe currently resides in New York with her two children.

Roxanna Hope (Mala) Rattlestick: Horsedreams, Broadway: Frost/Nixon (B'way and Nat'l Tour,) Boeing Boeing (u/s), After the Fall, The Women; NY Theater: Mahida's Extra Key To Heaven, 1001, Arabian Night, Princess Turandot, little Willy; Regional: Hartford Stage- Hedda Gabler; Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey- Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Richard III, Julius Caesar, Pericles; American Conservatory Theater- Tartuffe, Indian Ink, Hecuba; Williamstown Theater Festival- Hecuba; Huntington Theater- The Blue Demon; Westport Country Playhouse; Colorado Shakespeare Festival, and others. Film/TV: Puncture, No Reservations, "Elementary", "Blue Bloods", "Unforgettable", "The Good Wife", "Law and Order SVU", "Law and Order", "Law and Order CI", "All My Children" and others. MFA/The American Conservatory Theater.

Arliss Howard (Bill) has appeared in films by many renowned directors, including Steven Spielberg, in Amistad and Jurassic Park: The Lost World; Stanley Kubrick, in Full Metal Jacket; and Oliver Stone, in Natural Born Killers. Among Howard's other film credits are Moneyball with Brad Pitt; The Time Traveler's Wife with Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams; Birth with Nicole Kidman, Lauren Bacall and Danny Huston; Tequila Sunrise with Mel Gibson; Men Don't Leave, with Jessica Lange; Wilder Napalm, with Dennis Quaid; and To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar, with Wesley Snipes and Stockard Channing. Howard co-starred in A Map of the World with Sigourney Weaver and Julianne Moore; Johns with David Arquette and Lukas Haas, The Lesser Evil with David Paymer and Tony Goldwyn, and will be seen in the upcoming Dandelion with Mare Winningham. He adapted, directed and starred with Debra Winger in Big Bad Love. Howard first became known to American audiences with a role in the high-profile ABC-TV movie The Day After, about the aftermath of a nuclear disaster. Also for the small screen, Howard has appeared in NBC's Hands of a Stranger and the network's miniseries I Know My First Name Is Steven. He won a CableACE Award for his supporting turn in the HBO film Somebody Has to Shoot the Picture. Howard co-starred with Allison Elliott and Maximilian Schell in Willa Cather's the Song of the Lark for PBS, co-starred with Sissy Spacek in Showtime's Beyond the Call, and portrayed an Israeli Mossad agent who became The Man Who Captured Eichmann on TNT. Howard earned widespread critical praise for his role as a convict who befriends a pregnant woman played by Jeanne Tripplehorn in William Faulkner's Old Man for TBS. He was most recently seen in NBC's Medium with Patricia Arquette.

He appeared on Broadway in the Tony Award winning play Joe Turner's Come And Gone. Among Howard's extensive theater credits are roles in the Signature Theatre Company's productions of The Late Henry Moss and Killer's Head, as well as In the Jungle of Cities, How I Learned To Drive and Ivanov, for the American Repertory Theater. He also starred in The Monogamist at Playwrights Horizons, The Geography of Luck at the LA Theater Center, Lie of the Mind at the Mark Taper Forum, Caryl Churchill's A Number at New York Theatre Workshop and Fool For Love at the Alley Theater.

The set design for Ode to Joy is by Andrew Boyce; costume design is by Catherine Zuber; lighting design is by Paul Whitaker; sound design is by Daniel Kluger. The production manager is Eugenia Furneaux; the production stage manager is Michael Denis.

Rattlestick Playwrights Theater is a multi-award-winning company which has produced over sixty world premieres in the past eighteen seasons and was the recipient of the 2007 Ross Wetzsteon Memorial OBIE Award for developing new and innovative work. Previous plays include Two Boys in a Bed, Message to Michael, Carpool, Volunteer Man, A Trip to the Beach, Ascendancy, Stuck, Vick's Boy, The Messenger, Saved or Destroyed, Neil's Garden, My Special Friend, Faster, Bliss, St. Crispin's Day, Where We're Born, Five Flights, Boise, Finer Noble Gases, That Pretty Pretty; or, The Rape Play, God Hates The Irish: The Ballad of Armless Johnny, Miss Julie, Acts of Mercy: passion-play, Cagelove, It Goes Without Saying, Dark Matters, Stay, American Sligo, Rag and Bone, War, Geometry of Fire, The Amish Project, Killers and Other Family, Post No Bills, Blind, Little Doc, underneathmybed, There Are No More Big Secrets, The Hallway Trilogy, Carson McCullers Talks About Love, The Wood, Asuncion, Horsedreams, Yosemite, Massacre (Sing to Your Children), 3C, Through the Yellow Hour, A Summer Day, The Revisionist starring Vanessa Redgrave and Jesse Eisenberg, Buyer & Cellar (2013 Drama Desk and Outer Critic Circle Awards for Outstanding Solo Performance), Basilica, Charles Ives Take Me Home, The Hilltown Plays, the Off-Broadway GLAAD Award-nominated hit The Last Sunday in June, Craig Wright's The Pavilion (Drama Desk nominee-Outstanding Play of 2005) and Lady (Drama Desk nominee-Outstanding Play of 2008), as well as The Aliens by Annie Baker (2010 Obie Award winner for Best New American Play).

Ode to Joy plays Tuesday through Fridays at 8pm, Saturday at 2pm and 8pm, and Sunday at 3pm. There will be no performance on Thursday, April 3 and Sunday, April 13. The Cherry Lane Theatre is located at 38 Commerce Street, west of Seventh Avenue South. For more information, visit www.rattlestick.org.



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