Murray Abraham News

American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) announces the final show of its 2008-09 season: Edward Albee's At Home at the Zoo, staged by acclaimed director Rebecca Bayla Taichman (world premieres of Theresa Rebeck's The Scene and Mauritius and Sarah Ruhl's Dead Man's Cell Phone). This new spellbinder by the master playwright who also penned Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and A.C.T.'s The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?, is a meticulously calibrated and dangerously brutal look at relationships intimate and unexpected. The story opens with Peter, a tweedy book editor, and his wife, Ann, whose everyday conversation takes an unexpected turn into dangerously personal territory. It's the kind of conversation that can drive a husband out for a walk-to Central Park, where Jerry, a desperate outcast, awaits. An unforgettable pairing of Albee's original The Zoo Story with a freshly penned prequel, At Home at the Zoo (formerly titled Peter and Jerry) bares its teeth to threaten the delicately balanced world its characters inhabit. Artistic Director Carey Perloff has put together an all-star artistic team on this production, featuring Tony Award-nominated actor Manoel Felciano (Ragtime at The Kennedy Center, A.C.T.'s Rock 'n' Roll, and Sweeney Todd on Broadway) as Jerry and scenic designer Robert Brill, who received a Tony Award nomination last week for his work on Guys and Dolls on Broadway. Hailed by critics as 'a thoroughly satisfying package of jagged-edged provocation' (Newsday) and 'an essential and heartening experience' (The New York Times), Edward Albee's At Home at the Zoo plays at A.C.T. June 5-July 5, 2009. Opening night is Wednesday, June 10, 2009, at 8 p.m. Tickets-starting at $14-are available by calling A.C.T. Ticket Services at 415.749.2228, or at www.act-sf.org.

The world premiere production of OFFICES, Academy Award® winner Ethan Coen's new triptych of one-acts directed by Neil Pepe, is being presented at the Atlantic Theater Company's Linda Gross Theater (336 West 20 Street). OFFICES officially opened Thursday, May 7 for a recently extended engagement through June 7th, 2009.

Tony Award-winner Mark Rylance will be presented with the Samuel H. Scripps Award at Theatre for a New Audience's Spring Gala Celebrating Shakespeare's 445th Birthday. The celebration, Monday, May 11, will be held at The Powerhouse at the American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street.

Theater for the New City presents THE 14th ANNUAL LOWER EAST SIDE (LES) FESTIVAL OF THE ARTS, Friday-Sunday, May 22, 23 & 24 (Memorial Day Weekend) with FREE-Theatre, Music, Dance, Puppetry, Poetry, Film, Cultural Fair and more FOR THE ENTIRE FAMILY!

Tony Award-winner Mark Rylance will be presented with the Samuel H. Scripps Award at Theatre for a New Audience's Spring Gala Celebrating Shakespeare's 445th Birthday. The celebration, Monday, May 11, will be held at The Powerhouse at the American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street.

The theater community kicked off The Fantasticks 50th anniversary year with an early curtain of the show (7PM) and a post-performance cocktail reception at The Snapple Center on Monday May 4th.

Atlantic Theater Company (Neil Pepe, Artistic Director; Jeffory Lawson, Managing Director) is proud to announce an extension of the world premiere production of Academy Award® winner Ethan Coen's OFFICES through Sunday, June 7th, 2009.

The world premiere production of OFFICES, Academy Award® winner Ethan Coen's new triptych of one-acts directed by Neil Pepe, begin previews tonight Off-Broadway at Atlantic Theater Company's Linda Gross Theater (336 West 20 Street).

Tonight the theater community will kick off The Fantasticks 50th anniversary year with an early curtain of the show (7PM) and a post-performance cocktail reception at The Snapple Center with performances by Daphne Rubin-Vega (Rent, Anna in the Tropics, Jack Goes Boating), Rita Gardner (original 1960 production of The Fantasticks, The Cradle Will Rock, The Wedding Singer), Orfeh (Legally Blonde, Footloose), Aaron Lazar (The Light in the Piazza, A Tale of Two Cities, Les Miserables), GrooveLily (Striking 12) and Jill Paice (Curtains, The Woman in White). In addition, The Office of New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg will offer a special proclamation declaring Fantasticks Day in New York City.

The Fantasticks, the world's longest-running musical, will kick off its 50th Anniversary Year with a two-day celebration featuring a reunion of 50 years' worth of cast members and performances by some of the theater industry's biggest names.

Before Academy Award winner Ethan Coen's new triptych of one-act comedies even opens on May 7, Atlantic Theater Company has announced an extension of the limited engagement through Sunday, June 7 Off-Broadway at the Linda Gross Theater. Coen reunites with Academy Award winner F. Murray Abraham and director Neil Pepe following last season's sold out engagement of Almost an Evening.

THE 14th ANNUAL LOWER EAST SIDE (LES) FESTIVAL OF THE ARTS will bring together under one roof in just three days over 100 performing arts organizations, local and international celebrities, independent artists, poets, puppeteers, film makers and many others -- all of whom reside, work or have their roots in the culturally diverse, willfully anarchistic Lower East Side -- for New York City's most diverse FREE 3-day festival, from Friday, May 22 through Sunday, May 24, at Theater for the New City (155 1st Avenue, between E. 9th and 10th Sts.) in Manhattan.

Atlantic Theater Company (Neil Pepe, Artistic Director; Jeffory Lawson, Managing Director; Mary McCann, Atlantic School Executive Director) held its 2009 Annual Spring Gala, AN EVENING OF UNEXPECTED MUSICAL ADAPTATIONS, written and directed by Atlantic Ensemble member and two-time Tony Award® nominee David Pittu on Monday, April 27th, 2009 at Gotham Hall (1356 Broadway @ 36th Street).

Atlantic Theater Company (Neil Pepe, Artistic Director; Jeffory Lawson, Managing Director; Mary McCann, Atlantic School Executive Director) is proud to announce its 2009 Annual Spring Gala, AN EVENING OF UNEXPECTED MUSICAL ADAPTATIONS, written and directed by Atlantic Ensemble member and two-time Tony Award® nominee David Pittu on Monday, April 27th, 2009 at Gotham Hall (1356 Broadway @ 36th Street).

Atlantic Theater Company (Neil Pepe, Artistic Director; Jeffory Lawson, Managing Director; Mary McCann, Atlantic School Executive Director) is proud to announce its 2009 Annual Spring Gala, AN EVENING OF UNEXPECTED MUSICAL ADAPTATIONS, written and directed by Atlantic Ensemble member and two-time Tony Award nominee David Pittu on Monday, April 27th, 2009 at Gotham Hall (1356 Broadway @ 36th Street).

The Shakespeare Society (Michael Sexton, Artistic Director) has announced that the Shakespeare Birthday Marathon, a FREE five-hour celebration of the Bard's 445th birthday, will take place Sunday, April 26, 3:30 - 8:30pm at Peter Norton Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway at 95th Street. There will be free general admission and no reservations are taken.

Atlantic Theater Company (Neil Pepe, Artistic Director; Jeffory Lawson, Managing Director) is proud to announce an extension of the world premiere production of Academy Award® winner Ethan Coen's OFFICES through Sunday, June 7th, 2009.

Atlantic Theater Company announces complete casting for the world premiere of Leslie Ayvazian's new comedy MAKE ME, directed by Atlantic Associate Artistic Director Christian Parker. Broadway veterans Anthony Arkin (I'm Not Rappaport); Candy Buckley (After The Fall); Jessica Hecht (Julius Caesar); J.R. Horne (The Crucible); Richard Masur (Democracy) and Ellen Parker (The Heidi Chronicles) will star in Atlantic's final production of its 2008-2009 season, beginning previews at Atlantic Stage 2 on May 19 and opening May 31. Playwright and screenwriter Ayvazian's hit Off-Broadway play Nine Armenians won the Kennedy Center's Roger L. Stevens Award, the John Gassner Outer Critics Award and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.

Producer Allision Ferrier has announced the upcoming Off-Broadway production of BRANDT REITER's new drama END OF PLAY, which will begin performances on April 17th, 2009. END OF PLAY is a thirteen-character drama about Theatre, Hollywood and the cost of dreams. When industry outcast Jack Wells abandons his NYU teaching post for Los Angeles to support his young girlfriend's fledgling career, he finds himself caught between the depth of her ambition and his own tarnished soul.

The Wilma Theater will bring its 30th Anniversary Season to a spirited finish with the East Coast Premiere of Hysteria, written by Terry Johnson and directed by the Wilma's co-Artistic Director Jiri Zizka.