THE SINGING FOREST Begins Previews At The Public Theater 4/10

The Public Theater (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis; Executive Director Andrew D. Hamingson) will begin previews for Craig Lucas' THE SINGING FOREST on Friday, April 10. Directed by MarK Wing-Davey, THE SINGING FOREST will run through Sunday, May 17 with an official press opening on Tuesday, April 28 at 7 PM.

The cast of nine features Mark Blum, Rob Campbell, Louis Cancelmi, Olympia Dukakis, Pierre Epstein, Jonathan Groff, Randy Harrison, Deborah Offner and Susan Pourfar.

THE SINGING FOREST features scenic design by John McDermott, costume design by Gabriel Berry, lighting design by Japhy Weideman, and original music and sound design by John Gromada.

In THE SINGING FOREST, the writer who brought us The Light in the Piazza, Reckless and Prelude to a Kiss now investigates how history collides with the human heart in his funniest and most poignant work to date. The Riemans are your typical American family: they haven't spoken to each other in decades. Severed by deeply buried secrets from the Holocaust, these endearing individuals are desperate to stay out of contact with each other. Their story takes you on a passage from today's world of Starbucks, celebrity and therapy to Freud's inner circle in Vienna and to Paris at the end of WWII. This is a classic inter-generational story that both moves and transports, sweeping through one family's journey to reconcile their past.

Craig Lucas (Playwright). His plays include Missing Persons, Blue Window, Reckless, Prelude to a Kiss, God's Heart, The Dying Gaul, Stranger, Small Tragedy, and A PRAYER FOR MY Enemy. His screenplays include Longtime Companion, The Secret Lives of Dentists, Prelude to a Kiss, Reckless and The Dying Gaul, which he also directed. Lucas wrote the book for The Light in the Piazza, music and lyrics by Adam Guettel. Onstage he directed Harry Kondoleon's plays Saved or Destroyed at Rattlestick and Play Yourself as well as his own play This Thing of Darkness (co-authored with David Schulner) at the Atlantic. Twice nominated for a Tony (Prelude to a Kiss and The Light in the Piazza), three times for the Drama Desk (Prelude, Missing Persons and Reckless), he has received numerous awards including the Sundance Audience Award (Longtime Companion), L.A. Drama Critics (Blue Window), Obie Awards for Best Play (Small Tragedy and Prelude to a Kiss) and Best Director (Saved or Destroyed), the American Theater Critics Award for Best American Play (The Singing Forest), the New York Film Critics Award for Best Screenplay (The Secret Lives of Dentists), the Excellence in Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Laura Pels/PEN Mid-Career Achievement Award. Lucas serves as associate artistic director at Intiman Theater in Seattle.

MarK Wing-Davey (Director) is an Obie Award-winning director whose Public Theater credits include School of the Americas; Henry V; 36 Views; The Skriker (seven Drama Desk Award nominations, including Best Director); Troilus and Cressida; and Silence, Cunning, Exile. He directed the acclaimed, Obie-winning production of Craig Lucas's Small Tragedy for Playwrights Horizons as well as Lucas's musical The Listener at Juilliard. His Berkeley Rep credits include 36 Views; The Life of Galileo; The Beaux' Stratagem; and Mad Forest. Additional productions include the world premiere of The Lights at Lincoln Center (Drama Desk, Best Director nomination); Blood Wedding at the La Jolla Playhouse; and a production of West Side Story in South Africa. He has worked extensively with playwright Caryl Churchill and directed the revival of her play Light Shining in Buckinghamshire for the Royal National Theatre. From 1988-90 he was Artistic Director of the Central School of Speech and Drama in London where he originated the project about the Romanian Revolution, which was to become Caryl Churchill's award-winning play Mad Forest. This played in London, The National Theatre in Bucharest and finally transferred to The Royal Court Theatre. In 1991 he was invited by New York Theatre Workshop to direct the American premiere, an event which led directly to his subsequent U.S. directing career. He is the new Chair of the NYU Graduate Acting Program.

Mark Blum (Oliver, Martin). His Broadway credits include Twelve Angry Men, The Graduate, A Thousand Clowns, The Best Man, Lost in Yonkers, My Thing of Love, and The Merchant. Off-Broadway, he has appeared in The Long Christmas Ride Home, The Waverly Gallery, Mizlansky/Zilinsky, Little Footsteps, It's Only a Play, Gus and Al (Obie Award), Key Exchange, Table Settings, Say Goodnight Gracie and The Seagull.

Rob Campbell (Shar, Max) received a Lucille Lortel nomination for his performance in Small Tragedy, written by Craig Lucas and directed by MarK Wing-Davey. His other New York theater appearances include the Broadway productions of Ivanov and Translations; The Public's King Lear, As You Like It, Him, and The Treatment; and Caryl Churchill's Mad Forest at New York Theater Workshop.

Louis Cancelmi (Jules, Simon) recently appeared in Blasted at Soho Rep, The Wooden Breeks at MCC and in the Lincoln Center production of Vincent in Brixton on Broadway. His theater credits include UntilWeFindEachOther (Steppenwolf), The Nest, Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen, The Vortex, and Sincerity Forever (Flea Theater).

Olympia Dukakis (Loe Rieman) won an Academy Award for her performance in John Patrick Shanley's film Moonstruck. Her New York stage credits include Social Security directed by Mike Nichols, Rose (Outer Critics Award and Drama Desk nom.), Christopher Durang's The Marriage of Bette and Boo (Obie Award), Sam Shepard's Curse of the Starving Class, Peer Gynt, Titus Andronicus, Electra, Vaclav Havel's Memorandum, Brecht's A Man's a Man (Obie Award), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and A View From the Bridge (Theatre World Award).

Pierre Epstein (Bill, Freud) has many Public Theater credits including the Shakespeare in the Park productions of The Comedy of Errors and Henry V, the Broadway production of David Hare's Plenty, and Michael Weller's The Ballad of Soapy Smith. His long career in theater includes roles in both the original New York production of Threepenny Opera and the Phoenix Theater production of Arthur Miller's A Memory of Two Mondays, opposite Meryl Streep.

Jonathan Groff (Gray, Walter) received a Tony nomination for playing Melchior in the hit Broadway musical Spring Awakening and starred as Claude in The Public's 2008 Shakespeare in the Park production of Hair. He recently appeared in Craig Lucas' A PRAYER FOR MY Enemy at Playwrights Horizons. His other credits include In My Life on Broadway and regional productions of The Sound of Music, Fame, Honk!, and Bat Boy.

Randy Harrison (Laszlo, Gerhart) is best known for his performance as Justin Taylor on the long-running Showtime series "Queer as Folk." He has appeared in Wicked on Broadway; A Letter From Ethel Kennedy at MCC; and in Deviant at the Fringe Festival. His other theater credits include productions of Violet, Shopping and F***ing, 1776 and Hello Again.

Deborah Offner (Bertha, Anna) understudied the role of Crissy during the original Broadway production of Hair. She previously appeared at The Public in Thomas Babe's Rebel Women and Richard Foreman's Don Juan at Shakespeare in the Park. She has also appeared in the original production of John Patrick Shanley's Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, a Classic Stage revival of The Maids, and the films Crossing Delancey and Cruel Intentions.

Susan Pourfar (Beth, Young Loe) recently appeared at The Public in the Public LAB production of John Belluso's The Poor Itch. Her other New York theater credits include The Dear Boy, The Last Sunday in June, Swimming in the Shallows, Iron, and Blur. Regionally, she has appeared in Frame 312 and Proof at ALLIANCE THEATRE, Lonesome West at Hartford TheatreWorks, and Skin of Our Teeth, Servant of Two Masters, and Turn of the Screw at Williamstown.

The Public Theater (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis; Executive Director Andrew D. Hamingson) was founded by Joseph Papp in 1954 as the Shakespeare Workshop and is now one of the nation's preeminent cultural institutions, producing new plays, musicals, productions of Shakespeare, and other classics at its headquarters on Lafayette Street and at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. The Public's mandate to create a theater for all New Yorkers continues to this day on stage and through its extensive outreach and education programs. Each year, over 250,000 people attend Public Theater-related productions and events at six downtown stages, including Joe's Pub, and Shakespeare in the Park. The Public has won 41 Tony Awards, 145 Obies, 39 Drama Desk Awards, 24 Lucille Lortel Awards and 4 Pulitzer Prizes.