SoHo Rep And The Play Company Presents THE UGLY ONE

After nearly 100 productions of the play around the world, including two by The Royal Court Theatre in London, Soho Rep and The Play Company, in association with John Adrian Selzer, will present the New York premiere February 1-26, 2012. Former Soho Rep Artistic Director Daniel Aukin (4000 Miles) will return to direct The Ugly One as part of Soho Rep's 35th Anniversary season. Aukin directed Alexandra Cunningham's No.11 (Blue and White) for The Play Company in 2002, so The Ugly One marks his return to both companies.

About the show: Early in Marius von Mayenburg's darkly comic play The Ugly One, the protagonist, Lette, learns for the first time that he is unspeakably ugly. He is a talented engineer, but his boss refuses to send him to an upcoming convention to present his work. When Lette demands to know why, he finds out: "You are ugly. It's a fact. I can't believe you didn't know." What unfolds over the remainder of Mayenburg's one-hour satire is a sharp, uniquely theatrical perspective on identity as Lette is thrown into a world where nothing is as it seemed.

The New York premiere production features Alfredo Narciso (The Motherf**ker with the Hat on Broadway, After with Partial Comfort, The Misanthrope at NYTW, Edgewise with The Play Company) as Lette. Lisa Joyce (La Bete on Broadway, That Pretty Pretty at Rattlestick), Steven Boyer (Hand to God at EST, The Coward at LCT3, Enjoy with The Play Company) and Andrew Garman (Burning at The New Group, A Bright New Boise at Partial Comfort) play eight roles between them. The creative team includes Eugene Lee (set design), Theresa Squire (costume design), Matt Frey (lighting design) and Matt Tierney (sound design). Maja Zade translated the play to English.

Performances will take place Tuesday-Sunday at 7:30 P.M., and Saturdays at 3:00 P.M. at Soho Rep (46 Walker Street). Tickets are $30-$40 ($15 student rush) and are available at www.sohorep.org, www.playco.org and 212.352.3101.

This production marks the return of Soho Rep's 99¢ Sundays: Tickets for all Sunday performances are just 99¢ at the box office on the day of the show. Critics are welcome as of the 3:00 P.M. performance on Saturday, February 4 for an official opening on Tuesday, February 7.

The New York premiere of The Ugly One follows much acclaim for its two producers' recent work: Soho Rep just concluded its celebrated co-production of Elective Affinities (with piece by piece productions and Rising Phoenix Repertory), and The Play Company garnered an OBIE and rave reviews for Jonas Hassen Khemiri's Invasion!

Through Soho Rep's FEED program and The Play Company's IDEA LAB, there will be several post-performance discussions and a variety of online multi-media content aimed at enriching the audience's experience for The Ugly One. Details will be announced soon.

About Marius von Mayenburg (Playwright)

Marius von Mayenburg was born in Munich in 1972. He is a playwright, translator, dramaturg, director and one of the most widely produced German playwrights. He attended The Royal Court Theatre International Residency for Young Playwrights in 1998, the same year in which he became a member of the artistic direction team at the Baracke, the Studio Theatre of the Deutsches Theatre in Berlin. In 1999 he went with Tomas Ostermeier to work as Playwright-in- Residence and Artistic Director respectively at the Berliner Schaubuhne am Lehniner Platz. His plays receive regularly productions at the Schaubühne/Berlin, the Royal Court Theater/ London, and other major theaters around the world. In 1992, Mayenburg began his studies in dramatic writing at the Academy of the Arts in Berlin. His first play Fireface (Feuergesicht), written in 1997, was an enormous success. It premiered at the Kammerspiele in Munich and was subsequently produced at the Kleist Theater in Frankfurt (Oder) and at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg. Since then the play has been successfully produced worldwide and translated into many languages. For Fireface, Mayenburg received the Award for Emerging Playwrights (Kleistförderpreis für junge Dramatiker) and the prize of the Frankfurt Writer's Foundation (Preis der Frankfurter Autorenstiftung). Mayenburg's oeuvre includes more than ten plays; all of them have been produced in Germany as well as worldwide. He is currently dramaturg and playwright in residence at the Schaubühne/Berlin. The Ugly One had its English language premiere in 2008 at The Royal Court in London.

About Daniel Aukin (Director)

Daniel Aukin most recently directed 4000 Miles by Amy Herzog, which played a sold-out run at LCT3 and will be moving to the Mitzi Newhouse Theater in the spring of 2012. Aukin also recently directed the critically acclaimed world premiere of This by Melissa James Gibson at Playwrights Horizons, and subsequently at Center Theatre Group in LA. Other credits include: Back Back Back by Itamar Moses at Manhattan Theatre Club, Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge at Arena Stage, Melissa James Gibson's Current Nobody at Woolly Mammoth, amd Elmer Rice's The Adding Machine at La Jolla Playhouse.

Aukin was Artistic Director of Soho Rep 1998-2006, where he commissioned over fifty new plays though the Writer/Director Lab and produced many premieres garnering eight OBIE awards, four Drama Desk Nominations, two Kesselring Prizes, and one Oppenheimer Award.

As Artistic Director of Soho Rep., he directed Mark Schultz's critically acclaimed Everything Will Be Different (world premiere), Melissa James Gibson's [SIC] (OBIE award for direction), Quincy Long's The Year of the Baby (world premiere), Mac Wellman's Cat's-Paw (world premiere), Marie Irene Fornes' Molly's Dream (world premiere, OBIE Award), and Melissa James Gibson's Suitcase (also at La Jolla Playhouse). For other theatres: Melissa James Gibson's Brooklyn Bridge at the Children's Theatre of Minneapolis and Mat Smart's The Hopper Collection at the Huntington Theatre. Upcoming projects include the musical adaptation of the Jonathan Lethem novel The Fortress of Solitude with Michael Friedman and Itamar Moses for Center Theater Group.

About Maja Zade (Translator)

Maja Zade was born in Germany and grew up in Sweden. She studiEd English Literature at London University and at Queen's University, Canada, then theatre production at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London. From 1997-99 she was Senior Reader at The Royal Court Theatre, London. Since 1999 Zade serves as dramaturg at the Schaubuehne am Lehniner Platz, Berlin. Translations of plays from Swedish and German into English include works by playwrights Lars Norén, Roland Schimmelpfennig, Falk Richter and Marius von Mayenburg; and from English into German, works by Caryl Churchill, Lars von Trier and Arnold Wesker.

About the Designers

Eugene Lee (Set Designer) holds BFA degrees from the Art Institute of Chicago and Carnegie Mellon, an MFA from Yale Drama School, and three honorary doctorates. He has been the production designer for NBC's "Saturday Night Live" since 1974. He has received three Tony Awards, for Leonard Bernstein's Candide, Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd, and Stephen Schwartz's Wicked. Other honors include the American Theatre Wing's Design Award, the Outer Critics' Circle Award, the Drama Desk Award, the Lucille Lortel Award, the Pell Award, and the Elliot Norton Award for Sustained Excellence. He was recently inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame in New York. He is currently represented, not only on Broadway, but also internationally, by the musical Wicked, with six companies currently performing worldwide. Other New York work includes The Normal Heart; Agnes of God; Showboat; Ragtime; Ruby Sunrise; Grandchild of Kings; A Moon for the Misbegotten; The Designated Mourner; The Hairy Ape; A Number; Drunk Enough to Say I Love You; Beast; A Midsummer Night's Dream; The Homecoming; You're Welcome, America; Book of Grace; and Compulsion. Films include Coppola's Hammett, Huston's Mr. North, and Malle's Vanya on 42nd Street. He lives with his wife Brooke in Providence, where they raised their two sons.

Theresa Squire's (Costume Designer) most recent design for Soho Rep was Blasted, directed by Sarah Benson. Other credits include: The Atlantic Theatre Company (Adam Rapp's Dreams of Flying, Dreams of Falling directed by Neil Pepe, The Lieutenant of Inishmore directed by Wilson Milam, The Cherry Orchard, directed by Scott Zigler and The Ionesco's directed by Carl Forsman), Barrow Street Theatre (Orson's Shadow directed by David Cromer and Two Men Talking directed by Dan Milne), Drama Desk Award winning Keen Company (Carl Forsman), The New Group (Rafta Rafta, Directed by Scott Elliot, Sin, A Cardinal Deposed, Everything's Turning into Beautiful, both directed by Carl Forsman and Accomplices directed by Ian Morgan), The Flying Machine/Soho Rep (Frankenstein, Signals of Distress, Utopians all directed by Joshua Carlbach) The Hourglass Group (Trouble in Paradise directed by Elyse Singer, Beebo Brinker Chronicles directed by Leigh Silverman), Merrimack Repertory Theatre (The Fantastiks! Directed by Jonathan Silverstein, Dinah Was directed by Charles Towers and The Breadwinner), Chautauqua Theatre Company (Amadeus! directed by Vivienne Benesch and Ah Wilderness directed by Lisa Rothe), New World Stages (Elvis People directed by Henry Wishcamper), Long Wharf (The Good Theif directed by Carl Forsman), Dorset Theatre Festival, (Dulcy, Sleuth directed by Jess Berger) Virginia Opera Company (The Pirates of Penzance directed by Worth Gardner), 2nd Ave Theatre (Hydriotaphia directed by Michael Wilson), Writer's Theatre of Chicago (Crime and Punishment directed by Michael Halberstam), and 2nd Stage (Peter and Jerry directed by Pam MacKinnon). Her costumes were seen on Broadway in High Fidelity and The Lieutenant of Inishmore.

Matt Frey (Lighting Designer) has, with Soho Rep, collaborated on Orange, Hat, and Grace, [sic], Suitcase and Peninsula. Recent work includes Close Up Space (Manhattan Theatre Club); 7 Homeless Mammoths Wander New England (Two River Theatre); This (Center Theatre Group & Playwright's Horizons); Middletown (Steppenwolf); Go Back To Where You Are (Playwrights Horizons); Futura (Portland Center Stage); Woodysez (London's West End); and Freefall (Corn Exchange, Dublin). Other companies he has collaborated with include the Brooklyn Academy Of Music, Lincoln Center, Ridge Theater, Rattlestick, Naked Angels, The New Group, Manhattan Class Company, New York Theatre Workshop, and Paper Mill Playhouse, as well as many other theaters, regional and abroad.

Matt Tierney (Sound Designer) is a current member of Elevator Repair Service. His ERS credits include The Select (The Sun Also Rises) (New York Theatre Workshop); The Sound and the Fury (April Seventh, 1928) (NYTW). Recent off-Broadway credits include Kin, This (Playwrights Horizons); That Face (MTC); Blasted (Soho Rep). Tierney has also worked with A.R.T., Alley Theater, Woolly Mammoth, BAM, Center Theatre Group, Ridge Theater (Decasia; Jennie Richee, OBIE, 2001). An Associate Artist of The Wooster Group, he has worked on Hamlet (The Public Theater); There Is Still Time, Brother; Who's Your Dada? (MOMA); and The Emperor Jones. With Young Jean Lee's Theater Company, Tierney worked on Lear, The Shipment and Church.

About Soho Rep

Founded in 1975, and in its theater on Walker Street since 1991, Soho Rep has built an outstanding reputation for being at the forefront of new and innovative theatre, serving as a vital center for Contemporary Theatre artists.

Soho Rep is now in its 35th Anniversary year. Soho Rep is dedicated to cultivating and producing visionary, uncompromising, and exuberant new plays. They perform to one of the youngest adult audiences in New York City, with over three-quarters aged 18-40.

Over the last decade, Soho Rep productions have garnered thirteen OBIE Awards; six Drama Desk nominations, Two Kesselring Awards for Melissa James Gibson and Mark Schultz and The New York Times Outstanding Playwriting Award for Dan LeFranc's Sixty Miles To Silverlake. In recent years, Soho Rep has presented plays by established and emerging theatre artists such as Richard Maxwell, Sarah Kane, Daniel Alexander Jones, Debbie Tucker Green, Mac Wellman, Young Jean Lee and Nature Theater of Oklahoma.

About The Play Company

The Play Company (Kate Loewald, Founding Producer & Lauren Weigel, Executive Producer), now in its twelfth season, is an award-winning theatre advancing a dynamic global experience of contemporary writing for the stage. PlayCo produces adventurous new work from the U.S. and abroad to reflect and respond to today's world, and to expand the American theatre repertoire. Recent productions include the OBIE Award-winning American premiere of Invasion!, by Swedish writer Jonas Hassen Khemiri directed by Erica Schmidt; the American premiere of Enjoy, by Japanese playwright Toshiki Okada, directed by Dan Rothenberg; and the New York premiere of American Hwangap, by American writer Lloyd Suh, directed by Trip Cullman. The Idea Lab, a program of public events that complements the production work, recently featured a collaboration with The Public Theater and NYU's Skirball Center on a series of panels, exhibits and screenings surrounding the New York presentation of The Great Game: Afghanistan. Literary events have included such notable authors as Pulitzer Prize winners Robert Caro and John Updike, Prix Goncourt winner Marie Ndiaye, and Nobel Laureate Gao Xingjian. For more information: www.playco.org.