CLYBOURNE PARK Opens The Rep’s 2012-2013 Studio Theatre Series Tonight, 10/24

The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis (The Rep) opens its 2012–2013 Studio Theatre series with the insightful comedy Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris. This engaging production will be performed in the Emerson Studio Theatre at the Loretto-Hilton Center for the Performing Arts, 130 Edgar Road (on the campus of Webster University), Webster Groves, tonight, October 24-November 11, 2012.

Curtain times are Tuesday at 7 pm; Wednesday–Friday at 8 pm; Saturday evenings at 5 pm; selected Saturday nights at 9 pm; Sunday matinees at 2 pm and Sunday evenings at 7 pm.

Tickets are now available for purchase. Ticket prices are $39 (previews), $47 (weeknights, Saturdays at 9 p.m. and Sundays) and $60 (Fridays at 8 p.m. and Saturdays at 5 p.m.). To purchase, visit The Rep Box Office, located inside the Loretto-Hilton Center, charge by phone by calling (314) 968-4925, or visit The Rep's Online Box Office at www.repstl.org.

In Clybourne Park, jokes fly and hidden agendas unfold as two vastly different generations of characters tiptoe the delicate dance of social politics, pitting race against real estate at the crux of two seminal events in the same north Chicago house. Inspired by Lorraine Hansberry's classic A Raisin in the Sun, playwright Bruce Norris has continued her story both in its original setting and 50 years later in 2009. In this multi award-winning play an unforgettable new story emerges in which the people are different but the debate is strikingly familiar.

Clybourne Park premiered in February 2010 at Playwrights Horizons in New York.

The cast of Clybourne Park is Mark Anderson Phillips as Russ/Dan; Nancy Bell (last seen in Macbeth) as Bev/Kathy; Tanesha Gary as Francine/Lena; Eric Gilde (last seen in The History Boys) as Jim/Tom/Kenneth; Chauncy Thomas (last seen in The Rep's Imaginary Theatre Company's Amelia Earhart) as Albert/Kevin; Michael James Reed (last seen in The Invisible Hand) as Karl/Steve; and Shanara Gabrielle (last seen in The Comedy of Errors) as Betsy/Lindsey.

Timothy Near, who directed last year's thought provoking and incendiary Mainstage production of Race by David Mamet, directs The Rep's production of Clybourne Park.

The creative staff also includes Scott C. Neale, set designer; Lou Bird, costume designer; Ann G. Wrightson, lighting designer; Tom Haverkamp, sound designer; and Champe Leary, stage manager.

For more information about The Rep's production of Clybourne Park, including a guide introducing the characters, plot and background on the play; photos related to the production; and more, visit The Rep's comprehensive public website at www.repstl.org.