America Ferrera Set to Lead Premiere of BETHANY at Women's Project Theater, 1/11-2/17

Emmy® Award winning actress America Ferrera, best known for her fearless portrayal of Betty on ABC's hit comedy Ugly Betty, will star as a financially-strapped woman who discovers just how far she'll go to regain what she has lost in Women's Project Theater's first play of the 2012 – 2013 season, the world premiere dark comedy Bethany by Laura Marks, directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch, Julie Crosby, Women's Project Theater Producing Artistic Director, announced.

Bethany is set in an American exurb wiped out by foreclosures and explores the limits of morality. Bethany will run January 11 through February 17 in Women's Project Theater's new home, New York City Center Stage II, 131 West 55th Street.

Ms. Ferrera's Ugly Betty performance garnered her Emmy® Award, as well as a Golden Globe® and Screen Actors Guild Award®. Ms. Ferrera was recently seen on stage in London where she starred as 'Roxie Hart' in an eight week run in the West End production of the hit musical, Chicago. Ms. Ferrera recently wrapped production on Diego Luna's biopic, Chavez, which centers on the civil-rights activist and labor organizer, Cesar Chavez. Portraying his wife, Helen Chavez, Ms. Ferrera stars opposite Michael Peña and alongside an impressive cast including Rosario Dawson and Gabriel Mann. Ms. Ferrera was last seen on the New York stage in the 2005 off-Broadway production of Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead, directed by Trip Cullman.

Playwright Laura Marks is an alumna of The Public Theater's Emerging Writers Group and is a playwriting fellow at the Juilliard School. Bethany won the Leah Ryan Prize for Emerging Women Writers as well as Synchronicity Theatre's SheWrites Award, and was chosen by John Guare as runner-up for Yale's David C. Horn Prize. Ms. Marks holds a new play commission from South Coast Repertory and is a member of the BMI Lehman Engel Composer/Lyricist Workshop.

Director Gaye Taylor Upchurch is an alumna of Women's Project's Director's Lab. Ms. Upchurch served as Sam Mendes associate director on The Bridge Project with BAM and the Old Vic and directed the U.S. premiere of Simon Stephen's Bluebird starring Simon Russell Beale and the currently running Harper Regan, both for Atlantic Theatre.

Women's Project Theater memberships for the entire season, which includes all three main stage shows and some special events, start at $60 and may be purchased at www.womensproject.org or by calling 212 765-1706.

Single tickets ($60+) can be purchased online at www.NYCityCenter.org, by calling CityTix® at 212 581-1212, or at the New York City Center Box Office at 131 West 55th Street (between Sixth and Seventh Avenues).

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / Retna Ltd.