Victoria Clark is Clytemnestra in Mee's 'Iphigenia 2.0'

Signature Theatre Company announced today the casting for the first play in the Charles Mee Series, Iphigenia 2.0.  Directed by Tina Landau, Tony Award-winner Victoria Clark (The Light in the Piazza) will play Clytemnestra in this New York premiere running August 7 through September 30 at Signature Theatre Company's Peter Norton Space (555 W. 42nd St.).  Single tickets go on sale on Monday, July 16 at 1 PM. 

To make great theatre accessible to the broadest possible audience, Signature Theatre Company will offer a special $20 ticket (regularly $65) for all seats, for the next four years through their 20th Anniversary season, beginning with all performances of the originally scheduled run of Iphigenia 2.0 (August 7-September 30).  The Signature Ticket Initiative is made possible by the lead sponsorship of Time Warner, Inc.  Generous support for The Signature Ticket Initiative is provided by Margot Adams, in memory of Mason Adams.

Iphigenia 2.0 is "about a great imperial power that decides to go to war, taking an action so wrong that it sets the empire on the road to complete self-destruction.  Agamemnon, the leader of the Greek army, must prove to his uncertain troops that the dangerous battle they are about to undertake is righteous and worthy by making the ultimate sacrifice himself.  A radical reinvention of the classic play by Euripides that examines the costs of war and loss of innocence," state press notes.

The cast for Iphigenia 2.0 will feature Victoria Clark (Clytemnestra), Jimonn Cole (Soldier), Will Fowler (Soldier), J.D. Goldblatt (Soldier), Chasten Harmon (Bridesmaid), Jesse Hooker (Soldier), Emily Kinney (Bridesmaid), Louisa Krause (Iphigenia), Tom Nelis (Agamemnon), Angelo Niakas (Old Greek Man), Seth Numrich (Achilles), and Rocco Sisto (Menelaus).

The design team will feature sets by Blythe R.D. Quinlan; costumes by Anita Yavich; lights by Scott Zielinski; and sound by Jill BC DuBoff.

Mee (2007-2008 Playwright-in-Residence) has written Big Love, True Love, First Love, bobrauschenbergamerica, Hotel Cassiopeia, Orestes 2.0, Trojan Women 2.0, Summertime and Wintertime among other plays –all of them available on the internet at www.charlesmee.org. His plays have been performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, American Repertory Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, the Public Theatre, Lincoln Center, the Humana Festival, Steppenwolf, and many other places in the United States as well as in Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Vienna, Istanbul.  Among other awards, he is the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award in drama from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His work is made possible by the support of Jeanne Donovan Fisher and Richard B. Fisher.

Landau is a writer and director whose original work includes Theatrical Essays for Steppenwolf Theatre Company; the new music-theatre project Beauty, which received its world premiere at La Jolla Playhouse; the play Space, which premiered at Steppenwolf Theatre Company; the music-theatre piece Dream True (with composer Ricky Ian Gordon) which was produced by the Vineyard Theatre; and the musical Floyd Collins (with composer Adam Guettel) which ran at Playwright's Horizons, receiving the 1996 Lucille Lortel Award for Best Musical, an Obie and seven Drama Desk nominations.  Directing credits include her Broadway debut with the revival of Bells Are Ringing (Tony Award nomination as Best Musical Revival).  She also directed numerous productions at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, where she is an ensemble member, including Saroyan's The Time of Your Life (Joseph Jefferson Award nom.) and premieres of Charles L. Mee's Berlin Cycle and Time to Burn.  She also directed Miracle Brothers at the Vineyard Theatre; Mee's Trojan Women: A Love Story and Orestes, both with En Garde Arts; Adam Guettel's Saturn Returns at the Public Theater; and Cloud Tectonics at Playwrights Horizons.  Landau recently directed Mary Rose at the Vineyard and The Diary of Anne Frank at Steppenwolf.  She is also developing a musical adaptation of her play Beauty for Elephant Eye Productions with composer Jeanine Tesori. 

This season, Signature will also present the world premieres of Mee's musical Queens Boulevard and his play Paradise Park, as well as Edward Albee's Occupant.

Signature Theatre Company's Peter Norton Space is located at 555 W. 42nd Street (between 10th and 11th Avenues).  All tickets for Iphigenia 2.0 are $20 for performances August 7 to September 30.  The box office opens for single ticket sales on July 16.  Subscriptions are currently on sale for $80, plus a service fee.  For subscription and ticket information, please call 212-244-PLAY (7529) or visit Signature Theatre Company's website at www.signaturetheatre.org.

Photo of Victoria Clark by Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.